The gallery opens at ten. At seven the plaster casts already have their own light, a pale grey that comes in from the north windows and stays low on the floor. It is the light we try to build in the studio, and it was the reason we asked.

Camel Hour is the simplest look in the collection: the double-face wrap coat, wide trousers in ivory wool and a suede slingback. We wanted to see it next to things that have been standing still for two hundred years.

“Next to the statues, the coat stopped looking new. That was the point.”

The cloth has no lining, so it moves with the walk rather than against it. The belt is tied low and loose, the way it is tied in the workroom when the coat is tried on for the last time.

We were out by half past nine. One of the guards asked where the coat was made, and then whether it came in navy. It does.