J’Aton Couture La Premiere 2024 Collection

The workroom is fragrant with wafts of espresso and almond biscotti. With a metal thimble on his middle finger, Jacob Luppino – half of Melbourne-based design duo J’Aton Couture, renowned for creating gowns resembling wearable art pieces – is perched over a small cutting table. He is hand-stitching fragments of Italian lace onto a sheer ivory bodice.

With its scroll detailing and clusters of glinting crystals, the gown is not simply a wedding dress; it is something between a baroque masterpiece and a hand-piped cake in the window of Milan’s Pasticceria Marchesi. The lucky bride is due for a fitting any moment.