How to Wear Macgraw Prints: Porcelain, Crest, Rose and Cat

Almost every print Macgraw sells was drawn by hand in the label’s Sydney studio by Tessa MacGraw, then developed into a jacquard, an embroidery, a sequin ground. That is unusual at this price, and it changes how the clothes should be styled. These are not background florals. Each one is the loudest thing in the outfit, and the job of everything else is to get out of the way.

Here is how the four recurring Macgraw prints behave, and what to put with them.

The Porcelain print

Blue on white, drawn from the willow pattern of antique china. It is the most recognisable thing the label makes and the print people search for by name. Because the ground is pale and the motif is fine, Porcelain reads almost as a neutral from across a room, then resolves into detail up close.

Style it against navy, black and denim, never against a competing blue print. The Florence Dress in Porcelain print wants flat leather sandals in summer and a black boot later. The Non Chalant Trouser in Porcelain Jacquard is the harder buy and the better one: a high rise, skinny leg trouser in a print, which asks for a plain silk shirt and nothing else. There is also an Abbey Bra and a matching Abbey Short if you want the print as a set.

The crest jacquard

Tessa drew the macgraw crest from scratch, and it behaves like a school badge scaled up and repeated. This is the print that made the label’s tailoring recognisable. It is tonal, usually black on black, maroon on maroon, so it carries far less visual weight than a floral and can genuinely be worn to work.

The full suit is the point. Take the Circa 72 Blazer in Black Crest with the Circa 72 Trouser in Black Crest jacquard, add a plain white shirt, and the crest does all the talking. Split the pieces and each one works harder: the blazer over jeans, the trouser with a fine knit. In maroon the same suit reads warmer and slightly more formal, through the Circa 72 Blazer in Maroon Crest.

For a softer version of the same motif, the Faculty Skirt in Black Crest Jacquard is a high waisted A line with box pleats, and the Misconduct Mini Dress puts the whole thing in one piece.

The rose

The macgraw rose is the label’s oldest motif and the one most likely to appear as a full jacquard rather than a print. It is romantic without being sweet, largely because the drawing is quite graphic. Wine, black and ivory grounds all appear.

The Delphine Dress in wine jacquard is the one to know: a mini with long balloon sleeves and a V neck, cut in a rose jacquard developed from Tessa’s sketches. Keep the shoe plain and let the sleeve do the work. The Celestial Dress in Rose Print takes the same motif to full length. If you want the rose at home rather than out, the He loves me PJ set in Black Rose is silk satin and the print is all over.

The animal motifs

Birds and cats, drawn with a light hand. These are the most obviously playful prints Macgraw makes and the hardest to style badly, because the scale is small and the palette is usually restrained. The Circa 72 Blazer in black cat is a straight double breasted blazer that only reveals itself close up, which is exactly the joke.

Three rules that hold across all of them

• One print at a time. Macgraw prints are drawn at different scales and none of them were designed to sit beside another. Pair a print with a solid, always.
• Match the shoe to the ground, not the motif. A black shoe under the crest jacquard disappears. A shoe picked to match the rose will fight it.
• Buy the set if the set exists. The Circa 72 blazer and trouser, the Abbey bra and short, the Post Grad top and skirt are all designed as pairs, and the print lines up across the seam when worn together.

Sizing

Australian sizing matches UK sizing on this label, so an AU 10 is a UK 10. The published conversion runs AU 6 equals UK 6, EU 34 and US 2, up to AU 14 equals UK 14, EU 42 and US 10. Most Macgraw styles are cut true to size. The exception worth knowing is the Non Chalant Trouser, where the label says the style runs small and customers tend to take the next size up.

Browse the full range at Macgraw on Luxury Shoes , see more designer dresses, and read who is Macgraw for the background on the sisters behind the label. For evening, our Macgraw sequin edit covers the heavier pieces.