Ralph And Russo: Couture Preview

Only at the Ralph & Russo atelier, where you'd expect chaos and confusion as millions of stitches are placed just so ahead of the brand's couture show, would you find perfect quiet and polite tranquility. Creative director Tamara Ralph, "dressed down" in a neat shift dress and flats, eyes every garment with a calm smile, noting changes and additions without melodrama as the brand prepares to present its wares to its eager client list - as well as the world's press.

With a perfect view of Buckingham Palace's sprawling gardens - "We haven't seen the Queen walking the corgis yet, but there's always something going on," Ralph confides - the company's own enormous headquarters are bustling with life. There's just a weekend to go until the collection's catwalk debut in Paris, and the skilled hands of the 120-strong team of artisans are working faster than ever. Eight young embroiderers, unarguably talented beyond their years, work diligently on the veil alone and although the team size already outstrips any found in Paris, Ralph isn't intimidated by the task at hand.

"Every piece I design, I know in my mind exactly who will buy it, and I'm rarely wrong," she smiles. "Last season we sold every piece at least once. I design each look with a client in mind, and while I create every collection freely, guided by whatever is inspiring me, I also think in a very specific way about what our girl needs right now; what she wants to wear this season."

With more than 300,000 feathers, coiled and shaped individually in the London atelier, the new collection has a very organic feel. Much like the spring offering - whose flora and fauna sprang from sleeves and necklines as if sprouted in the April sun - the autumn edit would feel not out of place on a sprite or woodnymph; mischievous and beautiful, albeit with a more grown-up sensibility.

Australian Ralph, though easy and modern in her manner, is also meticulous. A model trying a piece is asked, ever so politely, to "please keep it on" so Ralph can discuss something with a senior artisan. Although friendly and fun loving, one senses she doesn't sleep - if at all - until perfection is achieved.

Thousands of metres of gold and silver bullion, sixty-year-old reworked vintage fabrics, metallic guipure lace, and three-dimensional embroidery come together in a collection that is one part fresh Sixties ingénue, the other part Fabergé gift for the Tsarina - and yet with Ralph at the helm they dovetail perfectly.

"She's very clever," her partner in life and couture, Michael Russo, deadpans with a smirk - and with seven Harrods-style couture "boutiques" opening worldwide this year, it seems he is too. No brand has successfully transitioned from couture house to household name since Chanel and Dior did - but if anyone can, these two can.

Monday's couture show will provide clients with their next wardrobe hits, outshining all other guests at every party they attend, while Russo works on providing the fashion industry with its next mega brand. Always elegant, pieces glimpsed also have a newfound confidence and sensuality that celebrity fans will no doubt love. And the bride? "You'll have to wait and see," Ralph grins.