The Atelier

The Atelier

Experts in tailoring & capes — the tailoring-cape is our signature

CELIA CORDA is a women's tailoring house specialised in two disciplines: tailoring and the cape. The expertise is in construction: proportion, dimension and the precision of a garment built to sit correctly on a real body.

The vocabulary is French tailoring — pattern drafting, toile fittings, hand-set structure — and the inspiration is Mediterranean: architecture, light, ornament, and the idea that decoration can record something rather than simply decorate.

Every design is drawn, developed and fitted before a single length of cloth is cut, then made to order to the measurements of the person who will wear it.

A black and white tweed jacket and skirt pinned on an atelier mannequin — Atelier — work in progress

Savoir-faire

The making of a piece

Two specialities govern the house: tailoring — drafting, toile, structure — and the cape, its fall, its pivot on the shoulder and its balance in movement. Together they produce the tailoring-cape, the signature of CELIA CORDA.

Gold brocade cloth on the cutting table with a tailor's tape measure and shears — Cutting table — shears, tape, and cloth

The tools of the house are those of classical tailoring: shears, tape, canvas, needle boards, silk thread and the hand. Precision comes from measurement and repetition, not from speed.

Each order is made from that discipline, which is why every piece is produced to order and in a limited number.

From the first drawing to the final hand stitch, a piece passes through five stages.

I
Drawing a singular design
Each silhouette begins on paper: proportion, line, and the balance between structure and movement. Nothing is adapted from an existing block — the design is drawn for the piece it will become.
II
The toile and the fit
A muslin is developed and corrected on the stand until the shoulder, the waist and the sweep fall exactly as drawn. Dimensions are the discipline of the house: every centimetre is measured, tested and confirmed before a luxury cloth is touched.
III
Techniques reserved for luxury cloth
Velvets, tweeds, satins and lace each demand their own handling — directional cutting, hand basting, silk thread, pressing on a needle board. The method follows the fabric, never the other way round.
IV
Structure and reinforcement
Interfacings, stays and hand-set canvas give the jacket its architecture. Points of tension are reinforced from the inside so the line holds season after season.
V
Chain, brooch, hand finishing
The chain is linked and the brooch anchored by hand, the lining set by hand, the seams bound. The final hours are entirely manual — this is where a garment becomes a piece.

Made-to-measure

Every piece is made-to-measure: the pattern is corrected to the client's own dimensions before a single length of luxury cloth is cut.

Hand-painted fashion illustration of the signature tailoring-cape with gold buttons and belt — I — The drawing

Toile of the tailoring-cape pinned on a tailor's stand in the atelier — II — The toile on the stand

Close detail of black lace embroidered with gold thread and sequins on a shoulder — III — Hand finishing

The Archives

Pieces from the archive

Past work from the atelier — capes, ceremony pieces and tailored bodices. None are held in stock; each can be reinterpreted for you as a custom commission.