Tailoring for Women

Welcome to Tailoring for Women; a service dedicated to the wardrobe requirements of professional women, supported by a community of craftspeople working in the art of Savile Row.  Register below for our newsletter to keep up to date with comment, guidance and opinions, or include our RSS feed in your preferred reader. You can also connect to me on LinkedIn.

“Annie Hall” hit the mark perfectly some 30 years ago in the eponymous film by Woody Allen.   From top down, her combination of trilby, shirt and tie, waistcoat and chinos hooked a generation of women into the masculine look.  Although she was by no means the first person to do so.  Think of Marlene Dietrich and the allure of her androgynous cross-dressing.

It seems that every autumn the fashion press re-visits this theme of masculine dressing and it appeared again in the London Telegraph last week.

I find however that many of the images with which the world of fashion presents us rarely features the full potential of the tailoring tradition when it responds to the needs of the female form.

Historically the bespoke suit evolved to fit the male proportions with a cut and underlying structure that emphasised a strong shoulder line with sculptured upper body, and a defined waist which flattered and elongated the masculine silhouette.  This is still very much the case; however women require something that is altogether different.

When tailoring for women the shoulder line needs something much neater and more delicate, and as one moves down the torso from bust to hip the complexity of the female form and its natural asymmetries requires a much greater awareness of the subtle gradations of the all-round profile which then have to be transferred to a balanced pattern unique to the client.

Although there are obvious differences in requirements from client to client, in the short journey from shoulder to hip I have to take many more measures for a woman’s suit, different ones too, than I would for that of a man’s.  And on top of this tolerances have to built in to take into account the cyclical changes in a woman’s figure.

A frequent comment from my clients is that they feel “trussed up as if in a suit of armour”.  I would suggest that this need not be the case and that with greater attention to the point outlined above, and some modifications to the traditional internal structuring, a woman’s bespoke suit can be just as crisp as a man’s, giving a much more flattering and enjoyable “wearing experience” that responds even to the different way in which a woman moves.

Fashion may be one thing…the board room is another.

“I like to have a hand in the creation of my clothes and as you might expect from my work at Sotheby’s colours and textures play an integral role in my day to day life, and I wanted something a little different from my usual business clothes.”

“Sourcing the fabric is part of the fun, and Carol arranged for me to visit some of her preferred suppliers, some in Soho, and one in particular in Edgware; Joel’s.  The fabric I returned with was a French silk chiffon, vibrant lime shot with bright orange/gold!  Apparently chiffons have different weaving processes and unlike Italian chiffon, which is quite sheer, the French version retains the natural blemishes in the fabric adding to its character…almost like the brush stroke on a canvas if you like.”

“The next step is to sit down and decide how it will all fit into the design on which we have been working.  I really enjoy being a part of this process”

To the East side of one of Tokyo’s business shopping districts, Ginza, is one of its oldest theatres; the Kabuki-za.  One of the few remaining venues for this traditional form of drama, people flock to see this elaborate and colourful mixture of theatre, music, dance and costume that originated in the early 17^th century.  On my recent visit to Tokyo I had the good fortune to see it for the first time and it was fabulous.

In some ways it has much in common with Shakespearean theatre with a smattering of pantomime thrown in.  For complex historical reasons the parts are all played by men, even the women’s roles (onnagata), and the actors who take these parts, some of whom can be in their 70’s, are highly admired.  In Kabuki’s early history the costumes worn by the onnagata in performance were quite influential on the fashionable trends of the day

The costumes can be extremely extravagant and in the play I attended, Onna Shibaraku, they extremely exaggerated in order to emphasise the ‘super-hero’ status of some of the characters.

As one might imagine in a theatrical context, there is a certain degree of sleight of hand with regard to the making of the garments.  From the audience’s perspective they look extremely opulent and as was the tradition of the day, they were many-layered.  In fact from a cost point of view it would have been impossible for a theatre company to afford garments made entirely from these expensive materials, so instead, apart from the outer kimono, only the edges of the undergarments that showed were made from these fabrics, a more economical solution being found for the rest.

There are lots of subtleties in design such as the cords built into some of the costumes which enable the technique known as ‘hikinuku’, where outer layers can be removed speedily by the black-clad stage attendants (deshi) by removing the cords which allow the outer sections to fall away.

One particular subtlety is the way in which the kimono fits around the back of the onnagata’s neck, the only place where the white ‘oshiroi’ make-up is not used.  It was considered by the Japanese that this was a highly erotic feature of a woman’s body therefore the collar stands away from the neck in order to emphasise this feature.

Don’t pass up an opportunity to see one of these performances, but make sure to purchase the earphone guide which gives simultaneous commentary.

The gunrooms of Holland & Holland are known the world over.  The weapons they make for the shooting field are highly prized and they have a reputation for making some of the finest hand crafted products available.  They have a tradition dating back to 1835 and  have their own dedicated factory and shooting school close to London.   Their main store is in Bruton Street, Mayfair, although they also have showrooms in Paris, New York and Moscow.

During the period when I ran their bespoke tailoring department I was commissioned to create a special garment for the Millenium.  This maribou-lined chintz jacket and hand printed silk kilt ensemble was featured in their showrooms in Manhattan and Beverley Hills