Production & Creative Manager

Hand & Lock

In January 2021, I joined the world renowned embroidery atelier Hand & Lock London Ltd as their new ‘Digital Embroidery Production Coordinator’. I have since gone on to be promoted to ‘Senior Digital Embroidery Designer & Production Coordinator’ and latterly ‘Production & Creative Manager’.

In my current role, I manage the fast paced and multi-faceted studio environment at Hand & Lock. I manage and inspire a team of designers, trainees and department heads to reach their departmental goals.

My primary focus is on the creation of bespoke embroidery for client projects. I design, develop and manage the production of embroidery work for fashion brands, interiors firms, TV & film projects, advertising & much more. This can include projects at every scale from 1-off bespoke projects managed in house, to full scale production out of house.

My role also focuses on the overall creative direction of the company and the development and growth of Hand & Lock as a whole. I look at ways that we can expand, collaborate with interesting brands or individuals and diversify our revenue streams.

Alongside our client based work, I am also heavily involved in the development and production of our own embroidered product lines.

If you would like to work with me to bring an embroidery design to life, please contact my Hand & Lock email - liss@handembroidery.com

Featured Project -

Elton John - ‘Who Believes in Angels’ Jacket.

In Early 2024, we had the pleasure of working with Elton John's stylist, Jo Hambro, and Tailors Mirpuri Bespoke to create this truly one of a kind embroidered jacket for the legend Sir Elton John!

Sir Elton can be seen wearing the jacket in the music video for his newest song ' Who believes in Angels' in collaboration with Brandi Carlile, released in February 2025. He is also wearing the Jacket for their album cover which is to be released later this year.

Musing over themes of Marie Antoinette, The Palace of Versailles, winged statues and baroque embroidery, we worked alongside Jo to come up with the design, taking initial sketches and turning them into detailed collaged designs.

We then began to translate the design into complex 3D embroidery, worked entirely onto tulle. We incorporated techniques including goldwork, 3d sequin work, beading, metal elements and wired components.

COMING SOON! In the coming months, Look forward to being able to share a behind the scenes videos on the making of the jacket!

British clothing label O’pioneers specialise in simple, feminine and flattering designs, hand-crafted in the most beautiful, end of stock, heritage fabrics.

Working alongside founders Clara & Tania, we created this beautiful fabric appliquéd and machine embroidered design for the chest panel of their SS24 ‘Florence’ dresses.

The embroidery design and sampling was managed by Hand & Lock, as well as the production of multiple unique panels at our workshop. Each one was appliquéd using a mix of otherwise unusable scrap fabrics.

Featured Project -

O’Pioneers Fashion Production.

Featured Project -

Berghaus Jacket with Bespoke Goldwork Badges.

2024 marked an extraordinary milestone in the life of Sir Chris Bonington, one of the world’s most iconic adventurers. To commemorate his 90th birthday, Hand & Lock collaborated with Berghaus to create a truly unique tribute. The project centers around an iconic Trango jacket, adorned with hand-embroidered badges, each representing significant moments and legendary expeditions.

For this unique and special project, we started by researching heavily into Sir Chris’ life and illustrious career, sketching initial badge concepts by hand before translating into detailed illustrator CADs. We were inspired by vintage travel stickers and ‘scout’ style badges for the aesthetic. If you watch the video carefully, you will see some of my drawings at the end of the video!

We throughly enjoyed the production process of these badges as we were able to incorporate a huge variety of fabrics, materials and complex embroidery techniques to make the badges rich in dimension, texture and detail.

Featured Project -

L’Heritage Product Development.

In 2024, I worked with US based high jewellery brand L'Heritage to create embroidered travel jewellery boxes.

The boxes were made with a soft suedette lining and plush velvet exterior, machine embroidered with beautiful designs created by me at H&L. The intricately detailed designs are embroidered in sulky viscose rayon and polyneon threads, highlighted with shimmering metallic detailing. Through this project at H&L, I handled:

Design: Created bespoke artworks for L'heritage using inspiration and references from the client.
Design Review: Produced comprehensive technical design packs for the client to review and approve.
Digitising: Expertly translated the designs into digital embroidery files, selecting each and every stitch.
Sampling: The designs were sampled a few times to achieve the highest quality finish possible, exploring the best options for colour and stitch. In this case we sampled the fully factored product.
Sample Review: The final samples were presented to the client for approval. At this stage we discussed any possible additions or alterations to make the final product just perfect.
Production: Once the samples were approved, H&L handled the bulk production process, expertly managing lots of moving parts including the material sourcing, embroidery production, box production and shipping.
Quality Control: Finally, the boxes go through a rigorous quality control review to ensure each and every piece is up to standard.

Featured Project -

Jacket for Brian May, QUEEN - Platinum Jubilee Concert.

In 2022, We worked with Brian May, and his stylist Sarah Ann Murray, to create the embroidery for this spectacular jacket. Inspired by Brian’s love of British wildlife, floral and fauna, we created a series of intricately embroidered creatures, flowers and foliage to adorn the black taffeta base.

Each motif was expertly digitised. Taking detailed paintings created by a friend of Brian’s into Wilcom embroidery studios, we carefully translated them into digital embroidery files, trying to capture everything from the animals texture to their expressions. The creatures were embroidered on a Tajima TMEZ machine in a monochromatic palette with metallic detailing. The whole jacket took around 15 framings to complete.

It was a honour to create the embroidery for such a special event!

Featured Project -

Bernadette Banner Collaboration & Content Creation.

In 2024 H&L collaborated with fashion historian & YouTuber Bernadette Banner, on the recreation of an 18th century regency waistcoat.

To meet both the timeline & budget, as well as the desired aesthetic, we combined digital machine embroidery for the base of the design, with traditional hand embroidery work on top. This showcased to Bernadette’s audience a mix of both historically accurate techniques alongside modern day processes which are regularly used in costume design today.

This was a really interesting and unique project to manage & certainly one that will be memorable. The project included the making of a documentary featuring the work produced at H&L which has now received more than 1 Million views!

After the launch of the video, we came up with the idea to produce an embroidery kit.. The kit featured a piece of fabric, pre machine embroidered with elements from the waistcoat design, alongside hand embroidery materials.

The success of the kits was unprecedented and we have now produced numbers in the thousands! We have gone on to produce new kit designs and products in collaboration with Bernadette.

1-1 Digital Embroidery Masterclass

In addition to my responsibilities managing production and creative direction at H&L, I’ve been instrumental in the creation of our 1-1 Digital Embroidery Masterclasses.

Writing the course itinerary and tutoring the classes myself has enabled me to create a unique, dynamic course for students that can be tailored to their specific needs.

It has also given me the tools in understanding how to teach complete beginners, right the way through to creative industry professionals and how I can adjust my delivery to make it manageable for the individual.