Eloise Cotton Dress, Rosewater Bloom

A romantic block-printed cotton dress in soft rosewater tones, the kind of dress that does the talking before you've said a word. The Eloise is printed by hand with a delicate floral pattern that catches the light beautifully, and every petal sits slightly differently, so no two dresses are exactly alike.

This is a dress that earns its keep: wedding guest, garden lunch, holiday dinner, or a Tuesday when you're feeling romantic. Wear it with sandals and bare legs through summer, or layer it over a long-sleeved top with boots when the weather turns.

The heritage behind it: Maison de Belle is a female-founded, female-owned brand that describes itself as “London Soul, Indian Craft”, and its story is a lovely one. It was born from a dream that refused to fade. Its founder grew up in Assam, captivated by the artistry of Indian textiles: the patience of the craftsman's hand, the rhythm of wooden blocks meeting cloth, and the quiet magic of patterns passed down through generations. Fashion called to her early, but it wasn't a path she was allowed to follow. So she tucked the dream away, carried it with her when she moved to the UK in her twenties, and years later finally answered it.

The craft: every piece is made using traditional hand block printing, with hand-carved wooden blocks, natural dyes and methods refined over generations. Maison de Belle works with small, family-run workshops whose artisans inherited the craft from their parents and grandparents. These aren't factories. They're homes, courtyards and small studios where printing is both livelihood and legacy. Many of these families are struggling to keep their art alive, because fast fashion doesn't need them. Maison de Belle does, and by working with them it's helping to preserve a craft at risk of disappearing, with fair wages for the makers and ethically sourced fabrics.

Small by design: the fabrics are deadstock, high-quality cloth that would otherwise end up in landfill, so only a few pieces of each design are ever made. When it sells out, it's gone. And because every block is pressed by hand, no two prints are ever perfectly identical. That's not a flaw. It's the signature of something made by people, not machines.