I did not tell anyone it was coming.

No email list. No social post. No announcement in the window.

The pieces were already finished by the time I decided to release them, but I wanted to see what would happen if I simply let them appear. Each was made in the same slow way the Kyoto silk had been, the kind of work that leaves your hands remembering the fabric even after it is gone.

Claudia had helped me place them quietly in the racks the night before. Ten dresses, six jackets, eight ...