Behind the Couture Door is the signature series of Atelier Quarterly.
This is not a review. It is not a trend report. It is an invitation — extended personally by Stacy Stewart Smith — to step inside the atelier and witness what couture actually requires. Not the mythology. The work.
Each installment follows a single garment through its complete creation: from the first sketch and the draping of the toile, through the weeks of fitting, adjustment, and construction, to the final pressing and the moment the garment leaves the atelier. Nothing is edited for comfort. The delays are documented. The corrections are shown. The decisions — and the reasons behind them — are explained in full.
It is a record of a world that rarely opens its doors. Atelier Quarterly is privileged to walk through them.
From Vol. II — The Grand Soir Expedition
The feature in Volume II follows the making of The Grand Soir Expedition — a mid-length day or evening coat in black faux Persian lamb with a detachable hood trimmed in Finnish Raccoon. A couture silhouette that draws equally from the captain’s greatcoat and the La Belle Époque.
Over five weeks, the series documents eighteen stages of construction — from the first toile and its fitting problems at the armseye, to the placement of ornate Edwardian German glass buttons, the hand-sewn buttonholes framed in lamb leather, the grosgrain ribbon fasteners, the neoprene insulation, the duchess satin lining, and the dicky extension that protects the neck from the cold.
Along the way, the series addresses the questions that couture always raises: When do you allow a garment to become what it wants to be? How do you balance a dramatic hood against a strong shoulder? What does patience actually look like in a workroom? And what separates a couturier from a designer who simply does not know how to give proper garment construction instructions to their workers?
“Couture is like fine-art sculpture — you must wait to see it take shape.”
— Behind the Couture Door, Vol. II
The Grand Soir Expedition weighs 20–25 pounds with the hood. It is water-resistant, insulated, and finished on the inside as intricately as it is on the out — including dye-to-match bullion fringe on the hem lining. It is couture construction at its finest, and the full story of its making is told only in Atelier Quarterly Vol. II.
Read the Full Story in Vol. II →
Behind the Couture Door continues in every volume of Atelier Quarterly.
Also in Atelier Quarterly
The Ventures of Couture & Couture
Before the garment is made, there is the designer. And the designer, it turns out, is two people.
The Ventures of Couture & Couture is an ongoing comic series that runs alongside Behind the Couture Door beginning with Vol. II. It is a parody — affectionate and pointed — of the designing ego in two of its most recognizable forms: the seasoned couturier who has seen everything, and the younger self who was certain he already had. Together, they are Couture & Couture.
Where Behind the Couture Door documents the discipline of making, The Ventures of Couture & Couture documents the personality behind it — the arguments, the certainties, the corrections, and the occasional absurdity that couture, taken seriously enough, inevitably produces. It is the lighter door into the same room.
The series begins in Atelier Quarterly Vol. II: Couture Reformation and will appear in every subsequent volume.
Catch up and explore the inaugural issue. Atelier Quarterly Vol. I is now 30% OFF.