In her Summer 1951 Haute Couture collection, Elsa Schiaparelli used pleating to create luxurious graphic effects with surprising combinations of colours and contrasts of materials.
On the airy strapless evening dress, photographed by Horst P. Horst for Vogue, a length of pleated purple organdy wound about itself, creating effects of transparency that evoked the magic of a Venetian lantern, playing over a skirt of plum organdy.