Lacewing Collaged Lace Ensemble

The story is: a client for whom I was building a custom dress brought me a box one day, and told me she bought it at a thrift store for $2. Inside was a tangled jumble of lace pieces, mostly white with an occasional piece of black or a pastel color. I carefully disentangled the pieces, gently washed them, and those that made it through the process intact began whispering to me to keep them close, to not separate them but to treat them as parts of one body, and so I did, slowly assembling them on my mannequin. Along the way, what emerged was greater than the sum of its parts, but relied on each and every one of them. Entirely hand-stitched, delicate in appearance, but sturdy as a whole, this vintage lace ensemble is ready to debut on a beach or forest bride, or perhaps layered into an outfit with a structured blazer, denim or super-cozy cashmere. It is unique, feminine, and irreplicable.