Фотохудожница Рэйчел Уоллес создала коллекцию платьев для бренда Karen Millen

06:00PM, Thursday 03 September 2026 Rachel Wallace wearing one of the dresses PHOTOGRAPHS taken by an artist from Frieth are being featured on a new line of dresses by Karen Millen. Rachel Wallace was approached by the women’s clothing brand last year after her work was spotted at the Royal Horticultural Society’s annual show. She had entered six prints to the botanical art and photography exhibition where she won a silver gilt medal. Mrs Wallace said: “Someone from Karen Millen came and saw the work and they contacted me. They asked if they could make a capsule collection using my print of flowers as the basis for the fabric. Of course, I said yes.” She contacted the company ahead of this year’s exhibition to ask when the dresses would be ready and she was sent two in her size a week before the show in June. Mrs Wallace said: “They said that I could have the two from the mannequins and they’d make them up to fit me. “They arrived literally the day before the private view on June 19 and I wore one of them the next day. “It’s funny because I’m not really a dressy person but I kept going up to people saying ‘It has got pockets! “I don’t know when I’ll wear it again but it looked absolutely amazing. I’ve got the other one, a pink one, which I’m wearing at my daughter’s wedding.” Mrs Wallace has taken photographs from a young age and used to work in audio-visual departments at conferences. About 30 years ago, she headed to The Henley College for some formal training and from there began doing portraits and commercial photography. She then enrolled at Central Saint Martins for a postgraduate degree in photography, followed by a masters at the University of Westminster in 2018 where she came spotted a gap in the market. Ms Wallace said: “I was the first funeral photographer in the UK. The purpose of it was to give people something tangible after the funeral service was over but also to show them the beauty of the service and help give them closure. “The photographs also helped them talk to others about it because you could say, ‘Would you like to see the book’ and it gets people chatting. It really helps. It’s a healing process.” Mrs Wallace, who works out of Turville Studios, then pivoted to photographing nature, mostly around Frieth, where she has lived for 32 years. She now experiments with her techniques, with some of her pieces torn and stitched together and others flipped with an optical illusion-like effect. Mrs Wallace said: “I used to have a darkroom which my husband built for me, it was fantastic. But because eventually I just wasn’t using it – I was mainly focusing on digital – we got rid of it. “But I am really lucky that we have a downstairs toilet that has no windows. So, I put the enlarger on the toilet, I put the trays on the floor and I wash the prints in the sink. “My husband, Mark, asks, ‘When are you going to stop doing that? The place sinks’ because of the fixer. I haven’t answered that yet.” Top Articles A couple who built their own rowing boat to travel along the River Thames stopped off in Henley. THE managers of a community-owned pub in Crazies Hill are moving on after nine months. A TEENAGER has taken over the café at Toad Hall garden centre in Henley.