“We're women designing for women. We know how they feel in a beautiful dress. That's our focus right now.”

“Clients pay $3,000 to $10,000 for their dresses, engineered to flatter because they are built on a scaffolding of multiple bones and elasticized panels. Ms. Chapman laid out for inspection a hand-stitched crimson brocade dress with an elaborate internal construction rarely seen since the '60s.”

“It was glamour with a capital G at Marchesa—and it had nothing to do with Harvey, the line of town cars as far as the eye could see, or the paparazzi buzzing around.... No, this was all about the 24 exquisite dresses inside, presented in a modern manner with dewy-faced models perched atop glossy white cubes like living artwork, or perhaps young goddesses—particularly apt for a white Grecian gown traced with gold embroidery. Though it was a tight collection, it seemed to cover so many bases: short and spirited in a little ombré fringe number, darkly soigné in an asymmetrical black lace gown, and no-holds-barred belle of the ball in a frothy lilac tulle gown with a spray of orchids crafted, unbelievably, from feathers.”