Skin deep

Cymbeline- 2011

Good things come to those who wait. But what's glamorous about waiting? What self-respecting starlet would stand for being scribbled on the waiting list; drum their manicured fingers while humming to "please hold" music; peer over superior shoulders, hovering at the wrong end of the queue?

The waiting game? They just won't stand for it. But there'd be a standing ovation for these... Because these looks don't leave a girl hanging; taking 'brand' eerily literally, for these designers fabric is just the beginning, scrawling their signatures straight onto your bones. Flesh and fashion meld until each complexion sweats with pattern, and colour-steeped pores glow to show a style so strong, it'll creep right under your skin...

Picked from a few recent seasons, it's some of the best ways to be at one with your garment...but be careful what you wish for. Take care to check now and then that it's you wearing the dress, not (quite) the other way around. Flaunt these show-stoppers a little too long, and under the heat of paparrazi flash you might not feel the cold glitter start to steel through your veins, or the lace gracefully unfurling across your throat...

Maybe beauty is better left safe in its seams, resting tame and muted inside carefully defined sartorial lines. How close is too close? Perhaps these models found out...

Wandering motifs at Marchesa

Marchesa- Fall 2010

 Marchesa- Fall 2010

Marchesa- Fall 2010

Gilded limbs at Michael Van Der Ham

Michael Van Der Ham, Spring 2010

Michael Van Der Ham, Spring 2010

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(All photos are from the respective designers websites.)