In her inaugural collection for Fforme, Frances Howie reimagines the essence of femininity, presenting a mix of structure and fluidity. Drawing inspiration from the female form, Howie emphasizes draping and tailoring, utilizing luxurious Italian fabrics to craft garments that celebrate the body’s natural curves. Her personal passion for print, texture, and color is evident throughout the collection, infusing each piece with a sense of joy and femininity.
The Fforme collection showcases razor-sharp tailoring, handcrafted in Italy, with sculptural designs that frame the shoulders and mold to the body’s contours. Dual-function outerwear subverts traditional menswear with feminine touches, such as flared pleating that fans out from behind. Liquid bias-cut dresses in hammered shine contour the body to form a second skin, featuring hand screen-printed designs by British artist Blue Farrier.
Masterful fabric development plays a key role, with rich hand-manipulated textures achieved by deconstructing traditional dressmaking codes. Seam allowances are extended and layered to shadow the silhouette, while seam lines are frayed back to create movement and softness. A black dress is adorned with 60 meters of hand-frayed ribbon, feather-like in its weightlessness, and body-conscious dresses are stitched from crushed double-processed pleating, distorting and breaking down regular perfection with fringed frayed edges.
