Christian Dior, Haute Couture, AW14, Paris.

Here are a couple of examples of how princess panel lines were used in the Christian Dior haute couture collection for Autumn-Winter 2014. The example images show how the seam line can begin from the armhole or from the shoulder line, continuing down through or close to the bust point, and down through the waist.

Princess seam lines are a way of shaping bodice patterns to take into account the shaping around the bust and waist without the need for darts. In order for the seam line to do this effectively it has to pass over the bust point, or pass very close to the bust point. The further away from the bust point that you place your panel line, the harder it will be to shape the pattern pieces effectively without the need for additional darts or seam lines.

You can see a tutorial on how to turn a darted bodice pattern into a bodice pattern with princess seam lines in the post Fundamentals of Pattern Making: Princess Panel Lines»

Note how in the examples below from the Dior show, the white dress uses princess panel lines in combination with additional short panel lines. In this situation you would toile and perfect the fit of the basic princess panel shape first, before you divide the pattern up into additional pieces.

Images from Vogue.co.uk»

Work in progress on a dress for the label Hervé L. Leroux from the Spring-Summer 2013 couture collection.

While many designers design garments that can be created using flat pattern making techniques, other garments are created by working directly on a mannequin using techniques often referred to as “draping” or “moulage”. There are a couple of things to keep in mind when working in this way if you are using draping techniques to develop your own designs.

If you are unfamiliar with how draping is different to pattern cutting there is a basic outline of the differences between flat pattern making and draping in the post Drape at Lanvin» This also covers a basic overview of how draping can be used as part of a process that will eventually arrive at a finished garment pattern.

Note that draping can be carried out in calico or muslin, or you can drape directly with the final fabric. This will depend entirely on whether you are creating a one off creation, such as a custom or couture garment, or if you need to end up with a pattern so that the drape details can be duplicated for production. 

There are an increasing number of images circulating online of designers and students who are using draping techniques, and this allows us to have an insight into different ways that garments are created. Some examples of draped experiments are shown below.

Please note that the images above have been collected through Pinterest and have been credited where possible. Experiments with bands of fabric via Un Peu Du Sucre», draped single piece of fabric via La Petite Salope», draped chiffon bodice via Burda Style», angular folded drape via Design de Moda Uniritter»

Record Experiments

One of the advantages of using draping as a technique is that you can very quickly mock up different ideas “on the stand” (on a mannequin) to experiment with different silhouettes before committing to the construction of a single idea. In the process of working quickly you may find yourself moving and repositioning the fabric without keeping track of the changes.

It is important to take photographs, draw sketches and take notes as you work through these experimental stages just in case you want to return to an idea later on. This includes taking notes of details and helpful construction elements that aren’t clear from photos. For example, it may be helpful to take note of the position of grain lines on rough sketches as this may affect the way that the fabric moulds or stretches.

Be Aware of Gravity

The process of draping also gives you a chance to see the effect that gravity will have on the fabric, and to see how the fabric will shape and mould when the grain of the fabric is placed in different directions. This is an advantage of using draping over flat pattern making techniques where it can be harder to picture how a fabric will fall or hang on a section of the garment.

However, be aware of the way that you treat gravity at this stage since it is very tempting to constantly pin the fabric directly onto the mannequin in an attempt to foil gravity entirely. This is completely fine to a point, and is essential when you are first positioning the fabric onto the mannequin, but ultimately if you are going to create the garment then you will need to work out how you can get the fabric to hold the shape that you need.

A good solution to this problem can be to drape the fabric as desired, and then as one of your final steps, readjust the position of the pins to see if the fabric can hang on the body as a garment, and without additional pins as support. For example, this would be a good final test of a dress to check that the straps will not simply fall off the shoulders of the mannequin. This obviously will not work if you are only draping a garment on half of the body and still need to mirror the design for the other half of the body.

In the event that the garment cannot hold itself on the body, then you may need to consider whether you will need a specially shaped internal structure to hold the garment in place, discussed in more detail below. 

Limitations of Draping on a Mannequin

One point to be aware of when draping on the mannequin is that designing “on the stand” will tend to encourage you to create very bodycon garments. In terms of design this may lead you down a path where your end design looks a bit generic, or a bit “done”.

Consider if you would achieve a more interesting result if you created a base structure first and draped over that. Or position objects and shapes on the mannequin, only to remove them later to leave the excess fabric volume hanging off the body. Or you could pin, manipulate or alter the shape of the fabric first before you even begin to start shaping it on the mannequin. Basically, it is much easier to come across “happy accidents” when draping if you just mix up your process.

Body Movement and Ease

You also need to think about how the wearer’s body will move in the finished garment, remembering that a garment that is absolutely skin tight to the body allows no space for “wearing ease”, and the wearer may not be able to move their arms or sit down.

One way to avoid this problem is to create a fitted corset first, including the necessary ease for movement, and then drape your more complex fabric details on top of the corset. In effect this will essentially be a process of building the garment from the inside out, whereas with flat pattern making you will often design the shell first and then develop the lining pattern later. This process also makes it easier to take the garment on and off the mannequin if needed.

Consider Openings and Fastenings

When draping, it can also be very tempting to get caught up in the sculptural elements of what you are creating, leading you to forget about more practical concerns such as the fact that you’ve draped part of your garment completely across the armhole, or left the wearer no way of getting into the garment.

While the garment is still on the stand it is a great chance to consider how one piece of the pattern blends into another, or to develop innovative ways to hide or position fastenings and closures so that they become more fully integrated into the design.

Herve L. Leroux, SS13, see more images and an interview at  The Kinsky»

Internal Structure

The images above show some examples of work from Hervé Léger as designed under the new label name of Herve L. Leroux for the Spring-Summer 13 couture collection. These appear to be created using jersey, which has been carefully draped over the curves of the body. You can see in one of the images how the fabric is being draped over the top of a supportive lining. The lining appears to have been left larger so that it can be shaped to match the finished draping.

There are a number of different construction devices that you can use to help to support the shape of your draped garment. Depending on the shape of your garment you may simply need a lining which mimics the shape of the silhouette on the body. The lining pattern may be similar to the shape of the garment, but without any of the pleating, fullness or draped volume that is on the outer layer of the garment.

Otherwise you may need a more structured under layer such as a corset or corselette, which you may need to fit and construct first before draping, or you may need to develop it at the same time as any draped fabric embellishment. You could also research less structured details to control the fabric such as hidden fastenings, tapes or body harnesses that can anchor the garment at strategic points on the body, without the need for a corset.

For more inspiration, here are a few examples from Madame Gres, or you can view more examples of draping with pleats on Pinterest»

Chanel, Haute Couture, AW14, Paris.

The sheer size of the Chanel couture collections, combined with the technical abilities of the crafts people who work on the collections, always creates a need to view the collection both from afar and from very close. In this way you can appreciate the silhouettes and proportions of the garments, and then look closer to see the insane level of detail in the fabrics and materials.

Aside from the continued exploration of the boxy Chanel jacket, this season brought added experiments with slightly more historical silhouettes with the appearance of bell shaped skirts that ended around knee level. It is also interesting to see that in this couture season where the Dior show also included 18th century silhouettes», there were a number of dresses in the Chanel show that explored a wider hip shape that curved out softly from below waist level. In the Chanel show this was a slightly more cocooned shape that widened out by the top of the thigh level and then fell straight, or softly tapered back in towards the ankles.

The bell shaped skirt silhouettes and boxy coats were often combined in outfits with shorts, which were worn slim around the leg and fell a couple of inches above the knee. These shorts, usually shown in self fabrics to match the rest of the look, added slightly more length to the line of the garments and, despite the fact that it was a couture show, made the models look slightly more industrious. 

The more historical silhouettes, which were shown mainly at the end of the collection in white, were often combined with densely packed beading and embroidery in gold tones which further emphasised the regal feeling of these pieces. As usual, these embellishments on closer inspection were not mere reproductions of historical techniques and instead seemed to reference the textures and colours of printed circuit boards and electrical components.

Perhaps one of the most interesting materials used in the collection was actually the tiny concrete tiles that appeared to be created across a grid of threads, which meant that the tiles could be used as a fabric, or cut into strips and squares to create trims and button covers. In Tim Blanks’ review of the show» he mentions how Karl Lagerfeld used these concrete tiles as a reference to Corbusier and even demonstrated the lightness of the material to journalists at the show using a string of concrete beads.

Images from Vogue.co.uk» Click through to see the full collection.

Chanel, Haute Couture, AW14, Paris.

Examples of back fastening details that were used in the Chanel Autumn-Winter 2014 couture collection that appeared to be based on the same hardware that would normally be used as a closure on the busks of corsets. The busk section is usually used in the front of corsets, while the corset lacing is used at the back.

To make it easier to recognise what the busk hardware looks like, the images above show examples of different types of corset busks from MacCulloch and Wallis»

Busks would normally be used on the front of a corset where they would be fairly hard and straight on the body, whereas in this case the fastenings have been used along the back of the Chanel garments where the centre of the body has more pronounced curves. This may mean that the fastening hardware has been mounted onto more flexible “bones” or attached to the garment in a different way. 

There are many tutorials online for inserting busks into a corset that will give you an idea of how this detail would need to be inserted, but essentially you need to insert the row with the tabs through holes along a seam lines, while the “nipple” sections will need to pierce through holes in the fabric created with an awl.

Some tutorials also mention that you could use a line of buttonholes to create the slits that you need in the fabric to insert the tabs through a single piece of fabric.

Chanel images from Vogue.co.uk»

Viktor and Rolf, Haute Couture, AW14, Paris.

Some designers like to present a collection as though it’s a new wardrobe; a collection of different clothes for different occasions that are either centred around a theme, or simply styled together. Other designers like to take a single idea and push it to the limit by creating many different permutations of the same concept. It was the latter approach that was at play for the recent Viktor and Rolf couture collection where it was all about the red carpet.

It is interesting to see what the duo have done with using red carpet as a fabrication since whether they used actual red carpet, or simply used something to mimic the same thickness and texture, this must surely be a very difficult fabric to work with.

It seems that as a designer this would have been a case of seeing what the fabric will actually allow you to do. For example, while fine chiffon will compress easily and let you gather it into tiny pleats, a thick bouncy fabric such as neoprene, thick velvet, or in this case, red carpet, will force you to create larger details, bigger silhouettes and more oversized garments.

If you experiment with thick fabrics such as these for your own designs you may actually find yourself avoiding seam lines (since they’ll be difficult to sew) and inventing new cutting and sewing methods just so that you can create the garments, since many traditional techniques will no longer work with the fabric.

Essentially, when using any fabric, but especially when using something unusual, you will need to pick your battles and allow the fabric to suggest certain techniques and finishes rather than trying to fight the natural qualities of a fabric. This will essentially just be a process of trial and error, which we discussed in more detail in the posts on Working With Difficult Materials Part 1» and Part 2»

In the case of this collection, this experimentation has resulted in a range of garments where the choice of fabric has supported the creation of silhouettes formed around large exaggerated bows, fold and knots. To balance the over blown nature of the collection the styling has also been kept pared back with matching shoes, and natural hair and make up.

Images from Vogue.co.uk»

Maison Martin Margiela, Couture, AW14, Paris.

Usually a garment with a “sweetheart” neckline uses two curves across the top of the bust in a design line that mimics the arcs found at the top of a heart shape. This garment from the Autumn-Winter 2014 collection from Maison Martin Margiela is less subtle and even more straight up in it’s amorous intentions, since the neckline is used as part of a bodice that is actually shaped as a bejewelled heart.

Image from Style.com»

Maison Martin Margiela, Couture, AW14, Paris.

With surreal embellished prawns and dresses covered in cut up cans and old coins, the Maison Martin Margiela couture collection was filled with bright and shiny details. Aside from these more superficial elements, there were also carefully considered construction details to provide cleaner lines in amongst the more outlandish garments.

A couple of the looks featured long streamlined trousers that appeared to be cut from plain white cotton and on closer inspection these appeared to be shaped using long centre front seams, rather than side seams, with a separate sole panel used to shape the cotton around the heels of the models. These white cotton “tights” were also seen in a knee high version throughout the rest of the collection. The use of white cotton is an unusual choice for this type of garment, which could have been more easily achieved in a knit fabric. The use of plain white cotton is possibly used as a reference to the white coats worn by couture “petite mains” and also worn by the Margiela workers».

Another interesting detail, which has also been seen in many collections over the past few seasons, was the armhole position used in several of the garments which brings the shoulder line further into the bodice. This creates the need for a fuller sleeve head pattern, which is sometimes achieved by using gathers along the top of the shoulder. Bringing the armhole in in this way creates the illusion of a narrower and straighter upper body section.

Images from Vogue.co.uk» and Style.com»

Christian Dior, Haute Couture, AW14, Paris.

Pintucks are a versatile textile detail that can be used in different ways to add texture to garments. They are created by folding the fabric and sewing only 1-2mm from the folded edge. Once the fabric is opened flat, this creates a tiny ridge on the surface of the garment. They are often used in multiple rows and at different widths to create different directional effects.

This is one of those techniques that can easily be dismissed because it often appears in staid garments, but it can be used as part of more contemporary collections. The examples shown are from the Christian Dior Haute Couture collection for Autumn-Winter 2014, where they were mainly used in sheer fabrics to create delicate details.

Pintucks are often used to great effect when they are used to help guide the eye of the viewer around the garment, for example they can be used to create visual illusions to widen or narrow parts of the body, or in the case of one of the Dior dresses, the pintucks from the bodice flow down into the pleats in the top of the skirt. In this case the design lines effectively flow continuously from the shoulder to the hem of the garment, even though the line is created using two different techniques.

More details from this same collection were covered in the post Structural Waist Shaping at Dior Couture»

Images from Vogue.co.uk»

Comme des Garçons, AW14, Paris.

Comme des Garçons collections often include garments that envelope the body in a way that disregards the location of limbs, traditional erogenous zones and standard clothing proportions. In the Autumn-Winter 2014 collection, the models were often wrapped in padded tubes, which were weaved, wrapped and knotted around their bodies.

In terms of design and concept, many of the shapes used in this collection flowed on from the linked and padded sections that were seen in the Spring-Summer 2014 collection», however in this most recent collection the mood appeared to be far more sombre with a darker colour palette.

In terms of construction, the padded sections were often sewn with the seam allowance left visible on the outside of the garment, rather than sewing seams in a traditional way to “bag out” the fabric where the seams would be hidden inside the garment. This approach of having very visible construction techniques such as visible seams, or edges finished with overlocking or fabric left raw, plays into the Comme des Garçons aesthetic. It’s also just very practical. If you are trying to create tubes and panels that link and loop and knot, then it’s much simpler just to leave the seam allowances on the outside, particularly so that the fabric can be moulded around the padding as needed.

Images from Vogue.co.uk»

Chanel, Haute Couture, AW14, Paris.

There were a couple of interesting techniques that were used in the Chanel couture collection around the sleeve head area which could easily be applied to other garments. These techniques may also prove helpful when working with fabrics that are hard to ease around the sleeve head area.

Sleeve Seam

In the example on the Chanel sleeve below, a seam has been created that runs down the centre of the sleeve and has been aligned in such a way that the shoulder seam continues straight down the sleeve. A detail like this could be purely decorative and have no affect on the fit of the sleeve. For example this could just be a simple panel line added to the sleeve pattern to add an extra design line to the garment.

This additional seam line also gives the pattern maker a chance to manipulate the shape and fullness of the sleeve head area as needed, allowing changes to be made to the amount of ease in the sleeve head area without changing the amount of space around the bicep of the sleeve.

In the diagrams below, there are a couple of examples that show how the sleeve head shape could be affected by adding a shaped seam or darts to the top of the sleeve while leaving the rest of the sleeve intact.

This sort of technique could be useful in fabrics that are hard to ease such as some woven fabrics, or even leather and neoprene, as the shaped seam or darts would allow you to reduce the total armhole stitching line on the sleeve so that it matches the total armhole of the bodice patterns.

Gathered Sleeve

Another interesting sleeve detail was in one garment where the sleeve was gathered through the centre. It appears that the sleeve pattern was probably widened through the centre section to allow for the extra fabric volume that would be needed for the gathering. Then, once the sleeve fabric was gathered, the bicep width would be practically the same as the original sleeve shape, with the gathered detail flowing up into the sleeve head area and creating a small amount of gathering at the top of the shoulder.

In situations like this, you only need to widen the pattern in the section that you intend to gather, so in this case you would leave the shape of the underarm curve intact. You may also need to check in case any gathering or tuck details that you want to introduce have an effect on the finished length of the sleeve, in which case you may wish to alter the pattern, or leave additional length so that you check and hem the garment once it is on the body. 

Catwalk images from Vogue.co.uk»

Sleeve diagrams by TheCuttingClass»

Louis Vuitton, AW14, Paris.

It was fitting for a house such as Louis Vuitton, that is so renowned for it’s leather goods, that the clothes in the Autumn-Winter 2014 collection reflected the craftsmanship and techniques required to handle leather with sensitivity. It was also interesting to see that the use of leather was balanced with experiments in comfortable and easy-to-wear knit garments. This combination of fabrics gave Nicolas Ghesquière a range of textures to pair and contrast in his first collection for Louis Vuitton.

The sheer wealth of leather craftsmanship that must be available to Ghesquière at Louis Vuitton means that he can work with leather without as many of the construction limitations that would usually mean that leather is relegated to certain garments and silhouettes as a “difficult” fabric. This freedom was expressed through the way that leather was shown in a variety of colours, textures and weights, easily combined with other fabrics and knit collars or layered up upon itself for tonal and contrasting pocket details.

No doubt the crafts people of Louis Vuitton have many skills for reducing the amount of bulk that can sometimes be seen lingering around the thick seam allowances or bulky edges of less resolved leather garments. On bulky fabrics, even the usual construction method for a dart goes out the window. On one garment in this collection the dart shaping appears to have been replaced with a slit in the leather which is then appliquéd onto a contrasting base colour. On another, the leather appears to be lapped and topstitched to take into account the dart shaping without needing the bulk of the full triangle of dart value.

As with many of Ghesquière’s collections at Balenciaga, there were also details worked into the fabric of some garments. In one case a retro floral was punctuated with organically shaped grommets in gold and silver. In a handful of dresses it appeared as though individual feathers had been layered in a gradient of greys, which may also have been created by stitching on rows of lasercut pieces of fabric.

Images from Vogue.co.uk»

Marc Jacobs, AW14, New York.

After a spectacular final show at Louis Vuitton, the next collection by Marc Jacobs at Marc Jacobs was pared back and focused. The Autumn-Winter 2014 collection was filled with chalky pastels and smooth matt fabrics. There were also many curved elements, with gently arcing necklines and curved edges on panel lines, godets and underarm gussets.

The use of curves often seemed to mimic the edges of clouds, with scalloped details on hem lines and embroidered fabric. Gradients of colour were also used extensively throughout the collection, with soft waves of colour across dresses or down the sleeves of fur jackets. Sheer fabrics were also used to add to the layering effects of the gradients with many of the final garments featuring flounces of georgette sewn into curved panel lines.

Images from Vogue.co.uk»

Alexander Wang, SS15, New York.

Some of the best designers can get amazing mileage out of even the simplest of references. For the Spring-Summer 2015 collection at Alexander Wang all of the innovation pivoted around sneakers. Aside from the more literal sneaker references, which included trainers morphed into handbags or shoe lace plackets, the collection included well cut tailoring, layered panelling and perforated fabric with pleating that would make Madame Grès proud.

Much of the collection had clear links to the fabrics and materials that are used to make sneakers, with a moulded dress resembling the soles of shoes, or a top with a crackled print picking up on the crackled leather effect sometimes used on sneakers. In the same way that sneakers tend to combine an array of different materials into the one design, many of the clothes in the collection also used organically shaped panels to layer and contrast materials for different effects. A notable example was the use of different leathers, or possibly vinyls, that were topstitched together to create bodices like armour. In one case this also included strips of patent leather that appeared to be topstitched onto a matt backing leather to create a ribbed effect.

Fabrics that we associate with sportswear in general were also used, with garments panelled with mesh and perforated fabrics in varying size scales. The perforated look of these fabrics was also carried through into carefully panelled knitwear that followed the lines of the body. The use of different size scales was perhaps most apparent in the section of white garments that played on the white and green used for tennis shoes where there was an interplay between air holes and eyelets, and fully-fashioned knitwear was layered with aerated leather.

The way that the collection avoided looking too casual was in the silhouettes. Many of the garments were pared with high waisted, tailored trousers with the occasional appearance of cropped tuxedo jacket or an evening dress silhouette. The use of bright colours was also often pared back with black and impeccably finished; there was none of the overlocking or contrast coverstitching that you may see used in everyday sportswear.

One last fabric detail to note was the use of perforated fabric, which was pleated and draped in a very couture fashion to create sculpted dresses. Even raglan sleeve sportswear jackets that appeared to be panelled with a gradient print that looked like an 80s tracksuit throwback were actually also panelled with intricately pleated fabric.

Images from Vogue.co.uk»

Jil Sander, SS15, Milan.

For the Jil Sander Spring-Summer 2015 collection, basic garment shapes such as shorts, shirts, skirts and trousers were layered to create clean, functional looks. As is often the case when designers reinvent the basics, the newness of the collection came in the form of design tweaks to the fabrics and details. In particular, the proportions of the garments were carefully balanced with horizontal lines consistently drawn across the body by rolled shirt cuffs and dropped waistbands.

By playing with the proportions in this way, the wearer often appeared longer in the torso, with no focus given to the natural waist line of the models. Design decisions were often layered to exaggerate this long, lean silhouette. For example, trousers, shorts and skirts were often cut with lower waistbands, which were then finished with long narrow belt loops, allowing the belt to sit very low down on the hips. Sleeve lengths were also carefully considered with the majority of sleeves finishing at elbow level, either by design, or through styling.

As this was Rodolfo Paglialunga’s first catwalk collection as creative director of Jil Sander, it was fitting that he chose Annemarie Schwarzenbach» as his reference point. As a Swiss photographer and writer from the 1930s, Schwarzenbach appears to have had the aesthetic of the quintessential Jil Sander woman, with a personal style which is simultaneously strong and delicate, nonchalant and considered.

In terms of construction, many of the details continued in the minimal style that we have come to expect from Jil Sander collections with the garments finished very cleanly, such as the oversized patch pockets with were attached “blind”, without any topstitching. The dropped waist silhouettes also gave space for different design details in the gap between the position of the natural waist and the lowered garment waistband. This space lead to experiments with drawstrings, twisted belts and occasionally elasticated waistbands that appeared like a reference to boxer shorts.

Images from Jil Sander»

Alexander Wang, SS15, New York.

An unusual twist on a placket from the Alexander Wang Spring-Summer 2015 collection was cut to resemble the lacing and eyelets of sneaker shoelaces. This tied into the other sneaker details used throughout the collection and showed how one unusual detail can create a focal point for a whole garment.

You can view more details from this collection in the post Sneaker References at Alexander Wang»

Images from Vogue.co.uk»

Chanel, SS15, Paris.

The Chanel Spring-Summer 2015 show set on “Chanel Boulevard” appeared to capture a very Chanel version of the mixture of people who are called onto the street during protest marches. Vibrant colours mingled with classic monochrome in the same way that office suits and tie-dye shirts can end up crossing paths on the streets of a city protest.

The common causes, and timely references, of the Chanel protesters appeared to be freedom and peace with slogans more specifically protesting against war, for feminism or for democracy with accessories emblazoned with “Votez Coco” badges, or bags covered in “Make Fashion Not War”.

References to the unofficial uniforms of alternative subcultures appeared in the form of khaki satchels covered with scrawled black handwriting and DIY-style crochet flowers. Though obviously seeming ironically out of place considering the retail prices of the items, Lagerfeld may be anticipating some more DIY versions of these accessories from those people with enough Chanel spirit to create their own interpretations. Tie-dye fabric washes also appeared throughout the collection as vibrant floral coats or as colourful tweeds, while pastel safari suits seemed a reference to the peace protests of past decades.

The most literal reference to the ‘street’ appeared in the form of couture style embellishment that resembled small paving stones. These small ‘stones’ even appeared to have colourful material sprouting from between the cracks, as though the rainbow colours were beginning to break through the grey. 

Images from Vogue.co.uk»

Alexander McQueen, SS15, Paris.

For the Spring-Summer 2015 collection at Alexander McQueen, creative director Sarah Burton drew inspiration from a personal collection of kimonos collected from Japan. This resulted in garments that combined organic motifs with geometric silhouettes using exquisite construction and fabric details.

The simple geometry of kimono patterns became evident in the square and rectangular details that appeared throughout the collection as collars, panels and shaped skirt yokes. There was a consistency in the widths of many of these details with straps and harnesses echoing the widths of panels and pocket welts.

The floral motifs and leaf shapes that often adorn kimonos appeared in various abstracted forms, with pale pink motifs flowing across the panels of jackets, or cut in sheer pink fabric and layered for long rustling skirts. These organic details formed a nice contrast against the more severe lines of the harnesses and square necklines that frame much of the collection.

Images from Vogue.co.uk»