Game of Thrones star discusses Giles Deacon

London is melting. It’s the hottest day of the year, and outside Giles Deacon’s Brick Lane studio, the youth of Shoreditch are wilting in their rompers and crop tops. Inside, we’re above it all in the couture zone — a place of custom-woven double jacquards and hand-painted gold feathers, of gowns so lavish, so transporting and so expensive, they may well come equipped with their own weather systems.

Behind a closed door, Deacon is directing Gwendoline Christie (the Game of Thrones star who happens to be his partner) as she swishes through a series of looks from his first couture collection.

At 6ft 3in and with a regal confidence befitting the only actress ever to portray both a Shakespearean queen and a Stormtrooper commander, Christie seems born for gowns, particularly those with Deacon-esque heights of verve and individuality. She wears a silk gown printed with bird eggs of the British Isles with the same confidence and ease that most women would bring to their favourite jeans.

“Giles has long been one of my favourite designers,” Christie says via email later. “He has two of my favourite attributes in artists: wild imagination and technical rigour. [His designs] can be practical, otherworldly, sculptural and mindbending, but you always feel celebrated as a woman when you wear them… Their confidence somehow increases yours. It’s quite a power for a designer to have. His clothes have personalities.”

Christie and Deacon, a couple for nearly four years, have collaborated on designs for some of Christie’s biggest red-carpet moments (the black ostrich-feather embellished column gown she wore to the London premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens included).

“It’s a pleasure to work with your partner,” Deacon says, sitting at the studio table. “She’s a fantastic muse. She’s a character herself, and her trail of various characters is brilliant — she’s pretty transformative, which is always an interesting thing from a designer’s point of view.”

In January, Deacon suspended activity on his ready-to-wear line to focus on couture. He’s fresh from presenting his first couture collection in Paris and still seems dazed and delighted by the “rapturous, really wonderful reviews”. He was already the most couture-like of London designers, with rich, dramatic designs and shows that had more in common with performance art than standard runways.

Deacon supported his main line with a string of collaborations and a small but strong roster of private clients. The latter made the official switch to couture less a leap than a pivot. “What I really love doing,” he says, “and what people really love from us is beautiful, crafted dresses.”

Deacon drew inspiration from Lady Ottoline Morrell, the Bloomsbury Set patron whose affairs were as legendary as her parties (she counted philosopher Bertrand Russell and artist Dora

He has two of my favourite attributes in artists: wild imagination and technical rigour.” Gwendoline Christie, actress

Carrington among her partners). The looks he created for one of her imagined gatherings include an emerald silk jacquard gown with tonal crystal panels, a frond-printed pink satin gown with embellished corset and a razor-sharp silver silk jacquard dress with a smocked velvet capelet.

Deacon designed many of the ensembles with specific clients in mind. His “25 to 30” worldwide clients include women ranging in age from 25 to 70. They find him through word of mouth, and what mouths they are. “I am very good friends with a Saudi princess who has been great about introducing me to a number of her friends.” Bespoke day dresses start at £8,000; the mid-tier eveningwear looks come in at about £24,000, and prices can spiral to £120,000 for extravagant wedding gowns.

Part of the value lies in the understanding that Deacon won’t produce more than one version of each look per territory. “My clients all want something that’s beautifully made and considered for them, and they’re willing to pay for that.” Unlike ready-to-wear fashion, which typically operates on a six-month lead-time, Deacon’s atelier can fulfil couture orders in three months. Deacon’s studio team creates digital avatars for each client — they can send 3D renderings of bespoke designs for a client to swipe through from her yacht or ski chalet. So it is that couture, the most hallowed and esoteric corner of fashion, remains modern and relevant. “I like to keep things as controlled as possible and the lovely thing about making couture pieces is that you can do that,” Deacon says. “I want the label to be a very advanced couture house for the 21st century.”