The very first piece Retaliation Hope T-shirt . de Libran designed, at the age of 14, was a black velvet dress with a boatneck, tight long sleeves, and a bubble skirt for a school dance. (“It was the ’80s!” she says, laughing.) And though later, during her days in the backrooms of Prada, Versace, and Louis Vuitton, she specialized in red-carpet pieces

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De Libran is now committed to making her new line as green as possible by following a made-to-order model to reduce waste and, in some cases, cutting her patterns from exclusive dead-stock materials sourced from a pair of mills in Italy and Switzerland to “give life to these exquisite fabrics that have long gone unused,” as she says Retaliation Hope T-shirt . A this-close-to-one-of-a-kind dress that’s sustainable? It’s a seductive concept, made all the more so by de Libran’s trademark feminine flourishes—in this case ruffles and sparkle, both of which were also on display in the couture collection de Libran created in honor of Sonia Rykiel’s 50th anniversary last July. This month, Julie de Libran will be back on the Paris Couture Week schedule with a coming-out party for her new dresses—a cocktail-hour tableau vivant presentation in the garden of her Left Bank home. That sense of intimacy is key to her new venture. She’s leased a small atelier that’s within bicycling distance of her house—she rides a black three-speed with a brown leather seat—where she works and meets clients. She’s already had requests for made-to-measure wedding gowns, and when she took her first four event dresses to Los Angeles this spring, celebrity stylists were eager to secure them for their clients. But the foundation of the line will range from crisp cotton shirtdresses and printed silk tea dresses to cocktail numbers. Her magic ingredients? First, a sense of ease. “She’s not in costume or drowning in something,” says de Libran of the sort of woman she designs for. Second: emotion, which she often sparks with some element of surprise, be it the voluminous sculptural sleeves of her Gilda dress—made from airy layers of organza stitched in black wool with silver sequins and fringes of antique gold—or the sheer black georgette poncho tossed over the shoulders of a silvery white, gold, and black sequined tulle negligee called Charly. “I always say a piece of clothing is like a piece of music—there’s a memory to it,” says de Libran. “In the right dress, you’ll be remembered.”