Macao began as a piece of coloured paper: the shawl Isabelle de Borchgrave draped over a bust one day, the gesture from which her whole Frida Kahlo costume story grew, itself part of a series built around a dozen colourless dresses. Translated into cloth, it is now a thick, supple ciselé velvet — the scarf that brings a plain dress to life, rendered in pile. It has the ease of something worn rather than merely designed, and the depth that only a carved velvet surface can give.
