Tailoring for Women

The life of a garment is determined by the wearer, and the more delicate (and expensive) the cloth the more care is required.  With most ‘off-the-peg’ garments cleaning instructions are included, however with bespoke and made-to-measure suits it is rare to find this information.  Make sure that you ask your tailor about the best way to care for your garment and bear in mind that if a number of fabrics have been used the most delicate will determine the care process.  More elaborate couture pieces that may have crystal or sequined accents will need specialist care which is best left to the experts.

Brushing: This will not only remove surface soiling but reinvigorate the fabric itself by recombining its fibres and encouraging air to pass through.  Brushing is often best done whilst you are wearing the garment.  There are also a range of proprietory  rollers with which you can remove lint, although some brushes also combine a lint removal pad.   In an emergency you can wrap your hand in sticky tape (sticky side out) and gently brush the affected area.

Pressing/ironing: Fabrics exposed to temperatures above those recommended on the care guidance instructions will change in character, so man-made or thermoplastic fibres have to be ironed at lower temperatures than non man-made fibres.  The use of steam will also lower their temperature tolerance.  Beware of applying too much hand pressure or steam, and use a linen press cloth to diffuse the heat.  Remember too that steam alone, without making contact with the garment, may suffice. With non-bespoke wear it is often the case that garments will be fused so use only a dry iron  in order not to release the bond of the adhesives.

Storage: Leave space between the garments and don’t pack them too tightly together, this gives them the opportunity to breath and freshen up.  And never store garments that are soiled.

Moths: We made mention of one particular defence agains moths in a previous post but this dealt more with eradicating the mature insect. It is in fact the lavae of the insect that cause the damage, so when you see them in flight the damage may already have been done.  One of the easiest ways to discourage them is to maintain good care practice, so for instance soiled wool or wool blends should be cleaned before storing.  You will find also that some drycleaners can apply a mothproof finish if garments are to be put in storage.  Wardrobes or closets should be sprayed periodically with repellent as an additional precaution, and if you use moth balls or crystals make sure that they don’t come into contact with the fabric as they may leave a residue.

Travel: Remove your jacket when seated and either lay it flat, or better still use a hanger.  Don’t be tempted to rely on the hanging loop on the collar.

Rotating: Try to give your suit time to recover and change your garment each day.  Even just two days in succession can be too much particularly for delicate fabrics.

If you carry out this regular process of maintainance you will find that the life of your garments will be extended considerably.   In fact, the other day I worked on a dinner jacket that was older than me, but let’s close the post there shall we?!

Photo: thanks to John Corby Ltd

Following on from our Briefing for Bespoke: Fabric post I felt that it would be useful to highlight some of the things you should take into account when selecting a fabric. These will determine whether or not it is fit for purpose, giving consistent performance throughout a garment’s intended lifetime.

There are three sets of factors to think about:

• the inherent properties of the fabric
• comfort
• wear and tear

Properties

The properties of a fabric fall into seven different categories.

Cover is the first, and it relates to how well, or little, a fabric embraces a figure  for either concealment or warmth.  The more crimp in a fibre the better its covering properties, and as crimped fibres tend to cover more area, in the manufacturing process less raw product can be used which makes for a lighter weight fabric with less bulk.  The next category is colour fastness.  Quite a critical issue as over a period of time hue and intensity can fade as a result of exposure to sunlight or overly rigorous cleaning processes.

The outward surface of a fabric is known as the face and this is determined by the fibre length, fibre crimp, yarn structure, method of manufacture and finishing.  All of these influence whether or not the final result will be crisp and well defined, or something much softer.  Feltability is the way in which wool fibres matt together and it gives woolen fabrics body , firmness and stability.  The down side for felted fabrics is that they need extra care in their maintenance.

Different fabrics react to heat in different ways and this can produce alarming results particularly during the pressing process.  Heat sensitivity is something you should bear in mind particularly with man-made fabrics.  Interestingly, one of the ways in which we tell the difference between man-made and natural fabrics is to burn a small sample with a match and the resulting smell will give you an immediate indication of its composition.  With modern manufacturing processes man-made fabrics can mimic their natural counterparts so accurately that this test is not so out of place as it might first seem.

Luster refers to  the amount of light that reflects from the strands of the yarn and this can be affected by the length of the fibre, its cross-section, crimp and structure.  Fibres can be combined to give a hard gloss, soft luster, or dull matte appearance. The finish on a fabric can also affect the luster.

The last category is a fabric’s drape or stiffness.  This determines the degree of flow you require in a garment and whether or not you want to create something more structured or relaxed.

Comfort

Comfort concerns not only to the physical contact a fabric makes with the body, the feel, but also to the stretch which allows the wearer go move freely.  Two additional factors which are rarely considered are how a fabric reacts to moisture, and its electrical conductivity.

Their are three ways for assessing how a fabric might react to moisture. Porosity, absorbency and wicking.

Porosity relates to the ability for air or moisture  to pass through a fabric and  is determined by the tightness of the weave.  Ventile,  a fabric originally developed for RAF pilots in WWII to improve their chance of survival when forced to ‘ditch’ in Arctic seas during convoy duty, was also used by Sir Edmond Hillary’s Everest expedition.  Its construction was such that when the fabric becomes damp the fibres swell and tighten up preventing moisture penetration.

Absorbency is governed more by the  chemical and physical structures of the fibres and governs affecting how a fabric deals with matters such as perspiration, water repellency, colour fastness, shrinkage, spotting and static build-up.  Wicking is the way in which a fibre transfers moisture along its surface.  This has particular applications in sportwear by taking moisture away from the body to the outside of the garment where it more easily evaporates.

With electrical conductivity, although this can be influenced by the context in which the garment is worn, one of most uncomfortable experiences for the wearer is to find that their diaphonous gown has suddenly become figure hugging, and they they are both the recipient and giver of electrical shocks.  (If this is the case and you don’t have an anti-static shift to hand, rush for the body lotion and apply it to your undergarments!)

Wear and Tear

Finally, wear and tear.  This is caused largely by abrasion or over-stretching. As a rule of thumb the stiffer  the fabric the less able it is to withstand rubbing or chaffing.  Snagging is also a form of abrasion where individual yarns are caught and  pulled from the main body of the fabric.  The ability for a garment to return to its original shape as its elasticity diminshies also limits its life.  This can be caused by general use, or by the effect of chemicals or overheating during the cleaning process which can also affect both colour and composition.

For the next post we shall look forward to a brighter note with some tips for taking better care of your wardrobe

Photo: thanks to ChorLeoni & Everest News

Last year there were a number of newspaper articles about plagues of moths that was insinuating themselves into our drawers and wardrobes.  At the end of 2008 I have to report that our ‘moth man’  is as active as ever.  I was particularly distressed to find that one of my favourite cashmere scarves now resembled one of those string vests so popular in the 60′s.  And it is not only clothes they attack.

A violinist friend of mine went to his violin case after a few days break to find that the horse hair on his violin bows now resembled a collection of spun sugar.  Moth balls are now de rigeur alongside his other equipment.

Apparently moths often set up a colony in your wool carpet and will migrate from this to your clothes.  There are a number of different treatments one can get, from impregnated cedar balls to the old fashioned napthelene moth balls, the smell of which used to hover in the air around one’s gramdparents.

One of the most effective treatments I have come across is something called a Demi-Diamond.  It has a chemical, harmless to humans and pets, which gives off female moth pheremones which prove to be devastatingly irrisistable to the male.  He ends up by coming to a sticky end on the adhesive pad to which is attached the small phial of attractant.  After that the females pine away.  One of my clients was alarmed to find that when she used them in her wardrobe, instead of the couple of moths she thought she had, a whole squadron had landed in the trap after only a couple of days.