spring's leading ladies 4. tess giberson; Soft-spoken excellence is what we've come to expect from this fashion intellect.

Byline: Irini Arakas

Four years ago, newcomer Tess Giberson gave new meaning to the term capsule collection, producing eight pieces (four tops, three skirts, one jacket) out of her studio in New York's Meatpacking District. The line caught the attention of talent-seeking buyers (Barneys New York was the first to carry Giberson's garments), and ever since then the 33-year-old has been known as the serious designer with the gift for making delicately eccentric clothes.

Much has stayed the same for Giberson since 2000: She still works and lives in the same building. She still makes deftly articulated clothes, defined by their puckers and bastings and crafty flourishes. There is, of course, one major difference: demand. These days the word is out that Giberson's all-American sportswear pedigree (she worked for Calvin Klein and Marc Jacobs) and her high-conceptualist spirit (she respects the aesthetic preoccupations of Hussein Chalayan and Junya Watanabe) produces precious yet unpretentious clothes.

Signature Giberson for spring: body-skimming

cotton-voile dresses with Japanese trim, and low-slung trousers and Empire tops pieced together with decorative stitching. Giber-

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