Photographed in Lisbon
São Vicente de Fora
Fitted lace in the cloisters of a seventeenth-century monastery, among the largest collection of azulejo tilework in the city.
A long corridor and one dress
The cloister at São Vicente is a hundred metres of repeated arch, blue tile at waist height and nothing else. It is unforgiving: any gown that relies on a busy background to look interesting will die in there.
A fitted lace column is the right answer to it. The architecture repeats; the dress does not.
The photographs
18 frames
- Against the sky on the upper terrace
- Bouquet raised, stonework behind
- Portrait in the arcade
- The back of the lace bodice
- Turning in the corridor of arches
- Bouquet of cream roses and daisies
- Full length between the columns
- Profile against blue and white tile
- The train across the flagstones
- Looking back along the cloister
- Seated by the cloister bench
- A doorway of light at the corridor's end
- Dramatic: the gown against darkness
- Portrait lit from one side
- On the azulejo staircase
- The tiled stair, full length
- Bouquet held low, tile behind
- Last frame in the corridor
Made to order
Begin your own
Every gown here was cut once, to one person's measurements. Yours would be too — the first fitting is on us, in the atelier or by video.
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