Laura de Noves

Detachable sleeves. Two looks. A gown that unfolds like a poem — stanza by stanza. Giant petal ruffles cascade from the bodice to the hem. Not small ruffles — each one is 15 to 20 centimetres wide, edged in fine beading, layered over each other like the petals of a flower in the process of opening. The entire surface of the mermaid silhouette is covered in them. The fabric is sheer tulle over a nude lining. The body is visible beneath the petals — present but softened, like a figure seen through gauze. With the off-shoulder sleeves: a romantic, covered look. Without them: strapless, barer, a different mood entirely. The train is chapel-length, and the petals continue all the way down — a waterfall of fabric that refuses to lie flat. Petrarch wrote 366 poems for Laura de Noves. He saw her once, in a church in Avignon, and spent 21 years writing about that moment. He never knew her full name. This gown has that quality — something glimpsed, not fully revealed, endlessly described. Hand-crafted in Innocentia's European atelier. Each petal edged in hand-beading. Laura de Noves (INL2708). Innocentia Divina — Muse collection.