The Folded Sea

WHAT IF I HAD NEVER SEEN THIS BEFORE? WHAT IF I KNEW I WOULD NEVER SEE IT AGAIN?

With their unique pentaradial geometry, the sea urchin has been a mystery throughout the ages. Often discovered hundreds of metres above the shore as remnants of ancient seas, their shells have been revered as objects charged with superstitious power, used as talismans of protection to guard the entrances to homes across Scandinavia and the Mediterranean.

In some sense, our ancestors were right: “It is not half so important to know as to feel”, as the pioneering marine biologist Rachel Carson wrote. For the sea urchin, with its hundreds of spikes, is a talisman of protection. Living among coral reefs and kelp forests, where they feed on algae and regulate their growth in these oxygen- rich ecosystems, sea urchins are a keystone species that help our planet breathe.

The Folded Sea adopts these magical echinodermsas talismans for exploring the inner beauty of the ocean. It’s a deeply personal collection for me, in how it distils the soul of the house and the ways in which we find inspiration in the patterns of nature.

Like the oursin that wash up on Brittany’s shores, it’s a collection that communicates beauty and fragility through a palette of soft pinks, lavender, and creamy pastels. It expresses the art of the handmade through the macramé sea urchins that embellish the surface of dresses, and the smocking which inverts the geometry of the ArdAzAei emblem to form the symmetry of their shells, while thousands of embroidered sequins and spinel stones create a pentaradial pattern emanating across the body of evening gowns.

It’s a collection I’ve named The Folded Sea for the many waves which undulate across its pieces. One that revels in draping, and the joy of working with fabric by hand—a feeling of being in the moment, as it’s a process that can only be done in one take. That conveys our sense of wonder at what lies beneath through a number of silk textiles, which naturally waver to create the illusion of the sun rippling across the surface of the sea in the early morning.

‘WITH THESE SURFACE WATERS,THROUGH A SERIES OF DELICATELY ADJUSTED,INTERLOCKING RELATIONSHIPS THE LIFE OF ALL PARTS OF THE SEA IS LINKED’

It’s a kind of light that feels sublime. The beauty of these shimmers on the water’s surface can be compared to the refractions of light emanating from a gemstone. Like a jewel, the secret of this spectacle’s radiance lies inside, in the mysteries of the sea below. It’s an understanding of beauty that guides ArdAzAei, as it is through the attention paid to a garment’s inner world that its outer radiance is revealed.

In The Folded Sea, a lot of this attention was devotedto pleating, using the technique to evoke the intricate interplay of life in the coral reef. At the hands of the atelier, tailored, watery jacquards create the illusion of a wet surface, capturing a sense of light through embroidered, iridescent fish scales, and metallic fabrics embroidered with crystals that echo their texture. Accordion pleating evokes the ribbed surface of fragile seashells. The folds of pleated georgette, layered with extremely light silk, create a minidress that pulses like soft coral. Pleated volants at the hems of gowns sway like fleurs de mer.

Often, I ‘open’ the body, leaving the boning of corsets,which provide structure to the folds of fabric that sweep across the silhouette, visible like the exoskeleton of the
sea urchin’s shell. Other times, I have left some elements a little but raw, but still perfect—a feeling of harmony we can find in the sea around us.

Founder and Creative Director

The first quotation is excerpted from The Sense of Wonder (Harper & Row, 1965 ) by Rachel Carson, whilst the second is from her earlier work, The Sea Around Us (Oxford University Press, 1951).

25/26 COUTURE COLLECTION 

<p class="p1">With their unique pentaradial geometry, the sea urchin has been a mystery throughout the ages. Often discovered hundreds of metres above the shore as remnants of ancient seas, their shells have been revered as objects charged with superstitious power, used as talismans of protection to guard the entrances to homes across Scandinavia and the Mediterranean. The Folded Sea adopts these magical echinoderms as talismans for exploring the inner beauty of the ocean.</p>

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