Meet the Delicate, Arthurian Fantasia of Epona's The Chalice Collection

Featuring an exclusive essay by Bella Blue Bloss.

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You and your companions take a trip to the well and, like Alice, you tumble in and emerge into an alternate world. It feels both aged yet familiar, uncanny yet beautiful; the landscape hums with something mythical.  

Epona’s Spring/Summer Ready-to-Wear collection is exactly that: seven garments that transport you into the world of Epona. Founder Rhiannon Davies is a London-based designer who centres her work around her folksy roots from Somerset and Wales. With influences of equestrian heritage, Celtic folklore and the human form, Davies bestows a strong visual language that is uniquely personal, with a distinct contemporary edge.  

Titled The Chalice Collection, after the Chalice Well in Glastonbury, which appears to be straight out of a fantasy, with beautiful Victorian decorative ironwork and the healing qualities of the water. Davies' anecdote of the well being a “portal between temporalities”  enriches this collection with a spiritual and historical framework. Pulling from these  Victorian influences and the mystical qualities associated with the well reflects perfectly in the collection. With soft feminine silhouettes paired with coarse leather accessories, this collection is romantic yet structured and robust.  

Epona is created around an equestrian paradigm, inspired by her Celtic name Rhiannon and its mythological associations with horses, along with Epona, a counterpart to that name. Equestrianism is the theme that runs through this collection, marked by a horse's elegance, beauty, and embodiment of power, status, and freedom.  

In this collection, Davies upcycles materials, accessories, and trimmings from her previous collections, notably the repurposing of horse saddles in Look 3 and the gorgeous brown leather saddle bag, styled in Look 1. In Look 3, we witness a reimagining of the classic mini shift dress with an equestrian edge, Davies constructing the neckline and bodice with horse saddle leather to create a structured garment. The quality of the dress’ body material mimics the soft, leathery skin of a horse.  

The horse hoof shoe, a signature design in the Epona world, reappears in this collection.  Constructed without a heel, the wearer quite literally steps into the shoes of a horse. With the resurgence of the Tabi shoe in popular fashion culture and other hoof-inspired shoes by Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen, Epona takes this trend to another level.  

The Victorian era and Davies’ Goddess muse is visited in Look 6 with the “side saddle gown,” conjuring images of the wearer on horseback with the full skirt billowing in the wind. A contemporary twist on the Victorian gown, Davies reflects on the restraints of  Victorian women who were expected to remain modest and feminine whilst riding horses.  The full-length skirt is combined with a button-up, form-fitted cardigan, evoking a more modern look, accessorised with an oversized black leather clutch, which is embellished with an upcycled Victorian picture frame synthetic floral arrangement. The riding aesthetic is also mirrored in Look 4, reinterpreting contemporary riding uniforms by pairing black riding shorts with a nude pink, softly corseted bodysuit, and in Look 7, where the flared black trousers echo the shire horses' hooves. 

My personal favourite touch in the collection is the floral embellishments. Gorgeously constructed from synthetic hair, upcycled from Davies’ CSM graduate collection, and fixed with pearls, the flowers draw in both the feminine delicacy and strong allusions to a  horse's mane. This carefully considered artistic ornamentation is also a nod to the  Victorian era, the practice of making jewelry from loved ones' hair for lockets or chains to honor the dead or as a sentimental gift. The hair symbolised memory and emotional bonds; Emily Brontë famously owned a bracelet woven from her sister's hair.  

The hair flower motif unifies the collection across the first 3 looks. In Look 1, the soft nude fitted bodice of the dress continues down the body, and the draping from the hip cascades down where hair flowers catch the light with tiny encrusted beads and pearls. Followed through to Look 2, a white duchess satin dress echoes the Victorian riding attire. A leather belt sits on the hip following the line of the bodice above the fullness of the skirt. From the front, slung on the hip at the back, it reveals a large hair flower with an oversized central pearl. In Look 3, a hair flower with a long ribbon, mimicking the horse's tail, is embellished onto the saddle collar of the brown leather mini dress, a juxtaposition between the delicate and the robust.  

In curating this collection, Davies has defined the visual language of Epona. While the equestrian aesthetic has been consistent throughout her previous work, The Chalice  Collection utilises it more as a brand symbol as opposed to a collection focus, giving the collection a strong sense of identity. The Victorian flair combined with folkloric elements makes for a magical experience when viewing the collection as a whole; it makes you feel as though you are in the world of Epona, not simply observing it. The details and accessories are so considered and create really unique visual symbols that repeat throughout; I hope to see some of these elements become emblematic of the brand. 🌀

CREDITS

Designer/Brand — Epona

Fashion Photographer — Dani Nolan

Models — Carys Bonell, Josie Berr

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Bella Blue Bloss is a writer and editor from London. She runs the Substack blog Fragmentary Girl, where she publishes essays on feminism, art, culture, literature, and fashion, exploring female representation in the visual arts and media. Bella is currently working on her first book, an essay anthology edited and written by herself and other up-and-coming feminist writers. You can find more of her work on her website and follow her on Instagram @bellabluebloss.