Yeung Chin Embroidered Dress

Sleeveless is the hardest shape to make interesting, because there is almost nothing left to make interesting: no cuff, no collar, no sleeve head. What is left is the cloth and the edges, and this dress puts everything into both. The weave is open, which on a dress does something a photograph will not show you, since an open cloth carries light through it rather than bouncing it off, and a black and white cloth woven loosely reads as neither black nor white at any particular distance. The hem is raw. That is a finish rather than an omission, and it is the same decision made on the loosely woven trousers in the same cotton, so it is a position the house holds rather than a shortcut it took once.

An open-weave dress is a rarer thing than it should be, because it is difficult to make and easy to make badly. We wanted one that was doing it deliberately rather than as a texture effect.

Yeung Chin has spent time learning technique directly from the Miao, an ethnic minority in southern China with long traditions of batik, hand embroidery, and folded cloth, and the discipline that comes back into the collection is a discipline about surface.

One hundred percent cotton, loosely woven. Sleeveless. Raw hem. Made in Hong Kong. Color: Black and White.

Sleeveless, so the fit is decided at the shoulder and the armhole and nowhere else. An open weave has more give than a close one, which makes a simple dress more forgiving than its shape suggests. The raw hem will fray a little and settle, and how far it goes is a function of washing rather than wearing.

Over the Embroidered Vest T when the weave wants something behind it. Under the Crop Vest Jacket. With the Belt, which is the piece in the house built to sit on a loose cloth.

Wash cotton gently and cool and let it air dry, and the raw hem stops where it is; put it through heat and agitation and the hem keeps going. Nothing else about this dress needs special handling. Our care guidance covers the rest.

The Embroidered Pant is the same open weave and the same raw edge cut as a trouser. Everything we carry from Yeung Chin is listed together.