Brick Red Corset Skirt Set 'Taisha'

The white bow blouse over a long brick-red skirt laced at the waist, lace below

Brick red gives the laced-skirt set some weight. The blouse is white, with a rounded collar, short puffed sleeves, pintucks and a dark red ribbon at the neck. The skirt is long, in a red with brown in it, gathered into a high waistband laced with two ribbons like a corset, with a scalloped hem and cream lace showing beneath. White, red and lace, which is the palette of a folk costume from anywhere in Europe and the palette of a Japanese street on a Sunday.

It is the version of the set for autumn, because the red is an autumn red, and the version that looks most grown-up, because it has the least sweetness in its colour.

The name, Taisha, is red ochre, the earth pigment of old Japanese paint, and the skirt is that colour.

The lace is a separate layer sewn into the skirt. The cloth is a polyester-cotton blend, light in the blouse and fuller in the skirt so the gathers hold. Both wash cold and hang.

Wear the blouse tucked into the laced waistband with the bow at the neck, and white trainers, or brown boots when the leaves come down. It is the set for a walk in October.

From across a street it is white over a long red skirt with cream at the hem. From close the lacing runs through eyelets, the pintucks are stitched, and the lace under the scallops has its own flowers.

It goes with a cream cardigan and a brown bag. It is the laced set that will be worn most, because the red goes with the most.

The waistband is wide and lightly boned at the front, so the lacing pulls it in without folding, and the two ribbons tie in a bow over the blouse. The blouse buttons behind the pintucks. The lace at the hem is cream and cut longer than the scallops, so it always shows against the red.

The red in this cloth is a matte, earthy one, not a bright one, and in shade it goes toward brown. It is the colour of a roof tile and of the fruit on a tree in November, and it is the reason the set works in a season the others do not.

Sizes run from S to XL. It is cut to Asian sizing and runs small, so take one size up from your usual. Between two sizes, take the larger.