Marchesa’s elegant bridal designs are inspired by vintage and Asian influences, and the 2011 bridal collection features ruffles, feathers and loads of textured fabrics.

Lots of designers are talking escapism this week, but for Marchesa, dreamy flights of fancy are actually their stock-in-trade. And it was business as usual at the Chelsea Art Museum, where a dense crowd that included Natalia Vodianova, Diane Kruger, and Helena Christensen flowed, oohing and aahing, around tulle-swathed models perched on white cubes. “I wanted the whole thing to be like a fairy tale,” explained Marchesa’s designer, Georgina Chapman

For Spring, Marchesa’s reference was Madame Butterfly, which led in a straight line to the formal kimono wrapping of stiff satin gowns and flat, obi-esque folds. More obliquely, there was something of a set-design element to the very matte black and white dresses that almost looked as if they’d been cut out of paper. [via style.com]