PIPED MANDARIN COLLAR MAXI DRESS

Once sold, the edition is closed.

A small floral posy printed at regular interval across an ivory cotton twill, each motif drawn loosely enough to show the hand that made it, spaced so the ground reads as white before it reads as pattern. The sprig repeat is the oldest register of printed cotton — the cloth of the day dress, the school dress, the dress worn to be photographed in a garden. It is a pattern that was never intended to be noticed, which is precisely why it is worth using at this scale.

A cotton dress with a mandarin collar, piped at the collar and along the hem in chartreuse. Piping is the seam made visible — the line of assembly turned into the design, worked by someone who wanted the construction seen rather than hidden. The mandarin collar stands without a fold, which holds the neckline upright and keeps the shoulder square. Here the shift is taken to full length and given a waist: the bodice is cut close to a seam from which the skirt is released in deep pleats, so the piping at collar and hem draws the two ends of a single vertical line. Side seam pockets are set into the pleating and disappear when the hands are out of them.

Edition of 16.