The Orchard Collection, Part II: what's coming on 8 October

The second drop of The Orchard Collection arrives on 8 October, with 72 hours of early access for The Ivey Circle. It is twelve new pieces, designed in the same months as the first drop but held back, because each one needed a material or a technique that took longer to get right.

Part I was about the walk to work in early autumn. Part II is about the weeks when the clocks have gone back and the evenings are properly cold. Below are the four pieces we are proudest of, how they were made, and how to shop them before anyone else.

The long shearling coat

This is the piece that kept our pattern room busy longest. It is a long, double-breasted shearling coat that falls to mid-calf, cut from merino sheepskin tanned by a family tannery in Catalonia. Shearling is a single material that behaves like two: suede on the outside, dense curly fleece on the inside, and both have to be considered at every seam.

There is no lining and no interfacing. The seams are lapped and stitched flat so they don’t add bulk, and the collar is cut from a single skin so the fleece runs in one direction around the neck. Each coat uses between eight and ten skins, matched by hand for colour and pile height, which is why it is made in the smallest quantities of anything in the collection.

Shearling doesn’t forgive you. Every skin is a different shape and a slightly different thickness, so you cut it like a puzzle. You get one chance with the knife.

— Elif Şahin, pattern cutter, Marylebone atelier

A cashmere wrap and a pleated wool skirt

The cashmere wrap is the simplest thing in Part II and probably the most useful. It is a generous rectangle knitted in a two-ply Mongolian cashmere, with a fine rib border that stops the edges rolling. Worn over a coat it acts as a scarf; worn over a knit at home it replaces a cardigan. We tested it on the train, on a plane and on a cold terrace, and it earned its place every time.

The pleated wool skirt is cut from a worsted wool from one of our Italian mills and finished with permanent knife pleats, heat-set at the mill so that they survive a rainy commute and a dry clean. It sits at the natural waist and falls below the knee, and it moves beautifully, which you will see the moment someone walks across a room in it. Pair it with the Cashmere Boxy Cardigan in Oat for the version we keep reaching for.

The apple-red trench

Every collection needs one piece that is slightly braver than the rest. In Part II it is a trench coat in apple red, cut from a tightly woven cotton gabardine that sheds light rain and holds a sharp crease. It has all the details a trench should have, a storm flap, a gun flap, a belted waist and buckled cuffs, but we narrowed the shoulder and lengthened the body so that it reads as a coat rather than a costume.

Getting the red right took four rounds of lab dips. On gabardine, a colour that looks warm on a swatch can go cold in daylight, so we approved the final shade outdoors at four in the afternoon. It is the same apple red that runs through the rest of the Orchard Collection, and it is meant to be worn with Ink, Loden and Umber, not with more red.

The other eight

The remaining eight pieces fill out the wardrobe around those four: knitwear, a pair of trousers, a shirt and two accessories. We will show them properly on the day, but they were designed to sit alongside what is already in your wardrobe from Part I, the Merino Rib Crewneck and the Suede Chelsea Boot especially.

As with everything we make, every Part II piece is produced once, in quantities we expect to sell. When a size has gone, it has gone.

How to shop it first

Join The Ivey Circle: membership is complimentary. From this drop, Circle early access extends to 72 hours, and members can reserve a size before a piece goes live online. A few practical notes:

• Membership is free and takes a minute to set up online or in any boutique.
• Reservations open to members during the early-access window and are held for 48 hours.
• Every boutique will have the full twelve pieces in store for try-ons during early access.
• Complimentary alterations apply to Part II, including hems on the pleated skirt and sleeves on the trench.

Until 8 October, the first drop is still in the boutiques. Shop the story through women’s knitwear.