Dress

Dress designed by Camilla Staerk, using a print designed by Cassie Robinson for Staerk's spring/summer 2004 collection. The dress is made from a sage green cotton and polyester fabric printed with stippled black swans, solid white organic shapes and scribbled white lines. It was bought at Koh Samui.

Koh Samui in Monmouth Street, owned by Paul Sexton and Talita Zoe Dalmeda, is one of London's leading boutiques, stocking up-and-coming designers alongside more established names.

Danish-born Camilla Staerk produced her first collection in September 2002, three months after graduating from Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication with first class honours. She was awarded Top Shop's New Generation Award three times, and moved her business to New York in 2006. Her work draws on a dark, stark, modern aesthetic, often using leather.

Cassie Robinson is also a Ravensbourne graduate who worked with Staerk as design consultant, business coach and project manager until 2007. She also runs her own bespoke design service Lorelei .

The skirt of the dress is made from two panels joined at the side seams; the front panel is shorter than the back panel which dips at the centre back. Both panels are gathered softly into a wide black leather waistband. The bodice is made from two pieces of fabric that meet at the front, go over the shoulders and cross at the back before being stitched to the waistband. At the back of each shoulder the fabric is threaded through a small leather covered buckle. The fabric at the back is held in place by a large rectangular leather covered buckle, 50 x 170mm. The cotton and polyester fabric is unlined. The dress has a deep shaped black leather waistband that extends from below the bustline to above the hips, lined with black fabric.