NYFW: Marchesa Ready-to-wear Fall 2012

The Marchesa ready to wear collection was inspired by late-nineteenth-century French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau's A Soul Brought to Heaven, which depicts two angels spiriting a young woman through the clouds. This darker side could be seen in the dresses worn over skeleton-embroidered tulle bodysuits, the laser-cut black leather dress (with nary a sparkle or puff), and the engineered embroideries that traced the anatomy. Those elements lent the collection some invaluable bite.