A cape of gold, drawn and crafted entirely by hand by Boucheron is ‘made mostly of fine, twisted chains to resemble grosgrain’, reveals creative director Claire Choisne.

With no engineering software to aid the process, it took Choisne and her coterie of master craftsmen and women 70 hours to sketch out the pattern on a Stockman dummy.

"The design is easy," she says. "It was the technique that was tricky."

The graphic effect, of peacock feathers – a Boucheron house motif – was key because Choisne was keen to avoid an overly romantic result, preferring instead the notion of Joan of Arc in a coat of fine armour.

"I liked the idea of chain mail, so I wanted the chains to be straight and supple but with just the right tension so that they shimmer as the body moves. Getting the right balance in that was a feat."

The gold carapace took over 1,000 hours to complete.