Crushed velvet blazer with leather lapels and mesh skirt

The blazer is burgundy crushed velvet, fitted and cut to the hip, with peak lapels and pocket flaps in smooth black leather and a single button at the waist. The contrast is the whole idea: crushed pile against flat hide, one colour against the other. It is worn closed with nothing showing under it and the sleeves pushed to the forearm.

The skirt is burgundy satin draped into an asymmetric wrap, short at the front and falling long at the back and sides, with panels of fine mesh set between the satin so the hem moves in two weights. It is a look for winter nights that start somewhere with a chandelier: an event, a late bar, a theatre lobby. A pointed heel, no tights, the smartwatch and the bead bracelet.

The chandelier was a hundred years old. The velvet was three weeks. Both held up.