The Dresses Under My Bed is an ongoing project initially spawned in 2017 as an exploration. With a suitcase of textiles, Mariel Manuel undertook a journey to give a second life to an archive of collected materials, initially destined to be thrown away but then hoarded by the designer for over a decade. While in India she worked with local resources, experimenting with natural dyes in a local kitchen, allowing colourful reactions and mistakes to take centre stage in her creative process. Transforming scraps of Swiss lace under her fingertips, she works alongside two skilled embroiderers to create intricate Earth landscapes, establishing over time her singular vision and craft language of repurposed textiles. Using the frame as her canvas, the textiles become alive before being draped onto the body and ultimately translated into a garment she likes to imagine belonging to a contemporary couture wardrobe. At the crossroads of sculpture and design, Mariel unveils a collection of unique and timeless hand-crafted pieces, like unearthing forgotten natural treasures a few centuries from now...