Vera came to modelling through classical ballet — twelve years of it — and it shows in everything from her posture to her patience in four-hour fittings. The agency built her book around construction: seams, pleats, and hand-finishing.

The Atelier AW25 cover was photographed inside a working couture salon, between real fittings, with the house's permission and the house's nerves. Vera was, by every account, the calmest person in the room.

She divides her seasons between Paris couture, look-book work for Scandinavian minimalists, and a quiet sideline in art-silk campaigns.