E-Commerce · Web Design · 2022

My Sleeping Gypsy

How to sell heritage craftsmanship without looking like fast fashion.

Role

Web Designer

Company

UPROCK
My Sleeping Gypsy

Timeline

2022

Focus

E-commerce redesign
Design system
UX research

Full caseView on Behance

01 · Context

A premium product on a generic-looking site

My Sleeping Gypsy is a women’s clothing brand that makes handmade embroidered linen pieces — dresses, skirts, blouses, suits — priced at €300–800. Everything is locally produced, hand-embroidered, made to order.

The existing site worked functionally, but had zero stylistic integrity. It looked like a generic marketplace, not a premium brand. The visual gap between the product quality and the site quality was massive.

The goal

Redesign the e-commerce experience so the site feels as premium as the product — without losing existing usability.

02 · Research

Three parallel analyses before any pixels

I ran three streams in parallel — competitive, audience, and visual industry analysis — before touching the design tool. The goal was to understand what makes premium fashion sites read as premium, so the redesign wouldn’t default to standard e-commerce patterns.

Competitive analysis (8 direct competitors)

01Most competitors had no real brand positioning — their sites were just storefronts with a product grid.
02The ones that stood out used editorial photography and brand storytelling, not discounts or aggressive CTAs.
03High-quality photos and thoughtful product descriptions were the strongest purchase motivators — not designer fame or price drops.
04Navigation was messy across the board: collection names in the main nav that meant nothing to first-time visitors, important pages buried in footers.

Audience

01Women, 25–45, income $2 000+/month.
02They research before buying. Clothing is treated as an investment, not an impulse purchase.
03Lifestyle: cultural events, fashion-conscious, values craftsmanship and individuality.

Key insight

The audience doesn’t comparison-shop on price. They compare on perceived quality. The site needs to feel like a fashion editorial, not a product catalog.

Visual industry analysis (Awwwards-level fashion sites)

01Headings: serif fonts, large sizes referencing print magazine typography.
02Body: grotesque fonts, Regular weight, sometimes Light or uppercase.
03Colors: either pure black/white or soft pastels — any forced accent color looked cheap.
04Photography: emphasis on details and emotional model shoots, not plain product shots.
05Buttons: rectangular, outlined, minimal — filled buttons looked out of place.

Design decision

Based on the research: Baskerville for headings (editorial, timeless) + Suisse Intl for body (clean, modern). Light pastel palette. Photography-first layout. No accent colors that compete with the product.

03 · Design

Editorial pacing, end to end

The redesign treats the catalog like a magazine spread: large imagery, generous whitespace, and a story-first homepage that lets the brand breathe before any price tag appears.

mysleepinggypsy.com

Homepage.

mysleepinggypsy.com/shop

Catalog.

mysleepinggypsy.com/shop/linen-dress

Product page.

Typography specimen — Typography: Baskerville + Suisse Intl.

04 · Decisions

Four design calls that shaped the brief

Each decision pulled the design further from default e-commerce patterns. Together they signal: this product is for someone who reads the story.

Design decision

Large hero imagery over product gridThese dresses are hand-embroidered. You can’t see that in a 200px thumbnail. Large imagery lets the craft speak. Trade-off: fewer products per screen, but higher perceived quality.

Design decision

Story before shop‘Sustainability, Heritage, Culture’ — this needed to be the first thing visitors see, not the last. People who don’t care about this will bounce anyway. Better to filter early.

Design decision

Filter by type, not by pricePrice filtering turns browsing into comparison shopping. The audience doesn’t want the cheapest option — they want the right dress. Categories by type (long, midi, blouse) match how they actually think.

Design decision

No accent colorsThe research was clear: forced accent colors on fashion sites looked cheap. Black, white, and warm neutrals let the photography carry the visual weight.

05 · Lessons

What I learned

Strategic friction

Fast checkout and aggressive CTAs work for fast fashion but destroy premium positioning. Editorial pacing forces users to slow down and appreciate the craft. Sometimes good e-commerce design means adding friction, not removing it.

Research before pixels

Running competitive, audience, and visual analysis before designing saved me from copying patterns that don’t fit. Most competitors looked like generic marketplaces. The research made it clear: the site should feel like a brand, not a store.