The L.A. designer has been using flowy silk and rich leather since the beginning.

Society for Rational Dress has a distinct point-of-view: Once you get to know the line, you can spot designer Corinne Grassini’s creations—and its masculine-feminine, tough-delicate balance—anywhere. And the really cool thing is that the traits that make her work so stand-out have been in place since the very beginning—2004. As proof, four styles from the early days, back when she had time to make all of the patterns herself and do custom pieces.


“I patterned it, I cut it, I pleated it, I sewed it—I did everything to it. It was a total labor of love because it took days, months to perfect the pattern. I was always recreating it for different women’s bodies. It was a tailored piece—it was never mass-produced—which is something I really love about it as well. When I pull it out of a garment bag, I know there’s only one of them just like this.”


“I did the leather component on this with a guy that I used to work with in the Valley. We would talk forever—just shoot the shit about how much we loved leather. It was amazing what he could do with leather—he was totally magical—and he probably thought I was crazy doing this little silk undergarment with the harness on it.”


“That’s an actual army-surplus harness. You can see it’s much more industrial and raw than the other one. Every season, I like to go back to the one-shoulder pieceto re-inspire me—to see where I want to go next and also to bring me back to what I love about fashion and design.”


“This is one of my favorite pieces—just for the simplicity of it. Anybody in the world could make it. You just cut a circle on the bias and two circles for your arms. I used that shape a lot when I was getting technical with all of the other patterns and wanted something that was super, super simple. Depending on the fabric that you choose and how you decide to close it, it can be a really beautiful piece.”

Don’t miss out on Corinne’s newest creation: the versatile silk dress she made exclusively for us.