Edward Achour Paris F/W 2015

The Edward Achour woman enters a soft world of fantasies for Fall - Winter 2015. The obsessional eye of the designer takes up the magnifying glass of the doll’s house maker to explore the elegant woman’s closet, in all its improbable details. Overstitching, trim, hemweights and linings are all emphasised and reinvented with fetishist enthusiasm for a modern vocabulary of form and ornament that pays homage to the grand couturiers of the 1950s and ‘60s.

If a clinical Belle –de - Jour elegance may emanate from the composed monochrome palette of blacks on whites on beige, the occasional flash of hot red or animal print, as the glint of delicate interior detailing amidst hazy layers of tulle, remind us that still waters run deep.

Through the looking lens, the delicacy of lace takes on unexpected proportions as neoprene and leather are woven into dentelles that envelop the body in seductive chinoiseries. And drape - assuring chain - weights, freed from the hems, drip in giant links like molten metal down lapels as fantastical trimmings.

The maison’s signature classic and bouclé tweeds are joined this season by an exclusive natté finish. This tighter, slicker weave comes in pompom - fringed midwinter white, or a black strew in pearls or white gardenias. Other innovations see the cool swish of taffeta updated in the sleek black of a parachute - grade technical weave, fit for the sky - falls of modern society.

And the boxy silhouette of a long jacket softens beneath rustling layers of pale muslin fringing. Sweet yet complex eccentricities undercut any suspicion of daytime - demure. A black chiffon tunic dress blends nonchalantly into the lining of a coat, as if it was never there, while a white pleated silk shirt breaks into a surreal smile with collar - points in the form of two red – nailed manicured hands, daintily fastening the final button (or perhaps undoing the first?). The Fall - Winter 2015 collection marries the decorum of continental couture to a ready – to – wear lightness of heart. The classic tailoring is accompanied by the lucky charms of girly femininity: a trompe l’oeil lipstick pendant, smatterings of pearls in strings or scattered across black silk; satin ribbon - bows, blooming silk gardenias and custom buttons, in gold braided, bejewelled, or tweed, all providing pretty punctuation at key moments, and continuity for matching.