Throughout the decades many fashion designers took traditional Russian costumes, fabrics and embroideries as the main inspirations for their collections. The latest was Karl Lagerfeld who re-launched the Russian theme in Chanel’s Pre-Fall 2009 collection. Yet Bebaroque’s Mhairi McNicol and Chloe Patience focused not only on Russian textiles, but also on fairy tale imagery. Their new collection, entitled “Russian Dolls”, features Bebaroque’s exquisite hosiery and also four body suits. Russian folktales are often characterised by dark and mysterious atmospheres and the duo used them as the main inspirations for their elaborate prints and ornate motifs, the latter created by applying ruches, studs and gems to both their hosiery and body pieces. Gold and silver studs form swirling patterns on black hosiery, bright red bows decorate the ankles of the very aptly named “Babooshka” tights, while Russian architecture appears in the onion dome-like motifs embroidered on one of the body suits that call to mind Moscow’s Saint Basil’s Cathedral. “We wanted to tell a story of the transformation from sweet and fresh to dark and gothic enchantment,” Chloe explains, “so for our body wear we used sheer mesh in skin colour and black and thick black jersey with satin edging, and featured quirky tattoo-inspired prints and thickly elaborate and luxurious embroidered motifs.”

The duo had body wear in mind for a long time, and after concentrating on their hosiery for a while, they felt this was the right time to move onto something else. “We loved designing the body wear,” Chloe says, “it was so nice to add our textiles on to a different shape than the tights as hosiery can be very restricting at times.”

New body wear pieces will be added with every season, in the meantime McNicol and Patience are heading to Paris’ Premiere Classe tradeshow where they will present their latest hosiery and body wear collection. “Our first time in Paris was last September when we went to the international show ‘Who’s Next’, a fashion forward show with lots of new designers,” Chloe remembers. “It was a lovely experience and we made some really amazing contacts, collecting new stockists in places such as Paris, Finland, Switzerland and Russia. Premiere Classe is in the same hall, but it focuses only on accessories.”

There are a few collaboration proposals underway for Bebaroque and the girls are planning to launch a collaboration with an up and coming shoe designer at London Fashion Week where they will also be showing their latest collection in the tents.

Premiere Classe is on at Paris’ Porte de Versailles, from 29th January to 1st February 2009.