Tailoring for Women

It may appear strange that I lead off one of this week’s blog posts with mention of a man’s magazine, but there is a reason for this.  Man’s World is one of the leading mens lifestyle magazines in India, and I was asked to submit some of my thoughts about the Savile Row tradition and how women fit into the scheme of things.

These are some of the questions and my responses.

What about suits for ladies on Savile Row? Most male tailors believe that female clients shift the goalpost much too often. Is that the case and if so, how do you tackle it? What do you think about doing suits for men?

The female form is far more complex than that of a man.  The journey from shoulder to hip, and from hip to floor needs a wholly different approach in both measuring and the balancing of proportions.  Also I question too whether the traditional fabrics used in the inner workings of the jacket are always best suited to the female form.  Some of the new fabrics have interesting properties that I find quite intriguing and perhaps more suitable.

As for doing suits for men.  I still occasionally make them and enjoy the experience, although the challenges are fewer because a man’s suit is something that has evolved over a long space of time and which fits into a well established pattern .  The women’s suit, that is to say something created specifically for women, is still in a process of evolution. Although there are exceptions, generally speaking  I find that women tend to get a man’s suit that has been cut for a women.  Quite a different proposition.

Can you define bespoke?

What do you need, we will make it, and you will feel supremely confident in wearing it.

Can you define Savile Row?

Savile Row is the contemporary manifestation of a highly skilled tradition that stretches back more than 4oo years.  Isn’t it interesting that the Japanese word for a Western business suit is… sebiru-ro… Savile Row!!

Is Savile Row fashionable?

An interesting question.   If you look at any of the fashion magazines you will see constant reference to tailored garments and how fine tailoring can make a fashion house really stand out.  Also you will find that tailors around the world want to align  themselves with Savile Row whether they have any authentic connection or not.  Savile Row has a unique position as a luxury brand without a single owner, and it is something that people aspire to be a part of whether they are makers or wearers.  Asking whether or not it is fashionable is really forgetting that it is actually one of the few constants in a world which is beset by the whims of the fashion industry.

Is it elitist? What would be the most honest reaction of most SR addresses to a person walking in with trainers and torn jeans?

Sadly most tailors would fail to see the opportunity for educating a new client.  Also people dress differently these days.  The fact that someone wears jeans doesn’t necessarily reflect the true reality of the person wearing them.  As research shows, we judge people first by the way they look, not by what they say.  Maybe we need to reflect on this a little more.

Today, is Savile Row mere geography? What about Hong Kong, Thailand or even Hounslow?

Savile Row has two elements.  a) The physical space in Mayfair and the community that is built around it, and b) its universal recognition as a benchmark of quality and service.

What is the biggest change you have seen in the world of men’s fashion? What is the biggest change in Savile Row?

Cheaply available suits that seduce people into believing that they are getting something that they not.   See our post ‘The credit crunch, suits, and a pricing conundrum’.

So if you were in my shoes,  how might you respond?

Photo: thanks to Man’s World, India

At the moment we are working on a January wedding to be celebrated in St Mary’s, just off London’s Cadogan Square.  I really enjoy these commissions because it brings a true sense of theatre to our work place. The bride, a daughter of one of the curators at the Victoria & Albert Museum, has chosen to ammend the dress worn by her mother at her own wedding. We are now at the consultancy stage with a set of designs for the bride and her 6 attendents. A large part of this is to develop an understanding of the psychology of the client, going deep down into their initial thoughts in order to help their ideas spring to life.

In part this means organizing a collection of images and items from magazines, art galleries, fashion books, the internet, and even family memorabilia. Listening to the client’s input is so very fascinating when finding a direction for the brief - I remember one client who presented me with one of their favourite poems along with a set of colour swatches! We also arrange trips to visit some of my favourite fabric suppliers such as Joel & Son, Broadwick Silks or MacCulloch & Wallis. All of this helps to create a story around what is one of the most important moments in a person’s life.

This project has prompted me to reflect on some of the practical matters and mystique that lies behind the creation of these iconic pieces.

The first thing to emphasise is that each bridal piece is a ‘one-off’; not only in the fundamental design, but in how it is realised. It can’t ever be part of a conventional manufacturing process. It demands a high degree of originality (and invention !) which is is in no small part driven by the fact that it is also a showcase for the bride to demonstrate her own sense of style. And as the stitches add up the garment starts almost to take on a life of its own, and it can become increasingly temperamental and demanding as the process unfolds.

You need a different level of confidence when working with these types of garments and one develops a focus which has to block out other distractions. This is one reason why I plan to use off-peak hours for the more intricate design elements. These are high risk undertakings particularly as one reaches the final stages.  Why is it that that a garment always seem to become vulnerable to a ‘crimson ambush’ from a pricked finger particularly when you are doing the final hand ‘felling’, and always when the fabric is white! Between final finish and delivery the creation may even demand it own private space, and indeed it should, to protect everyone’s precious investment.

We are finding increasingly too that having committed to the investment, clients don’t just want to create a piece that will end up in an attic box.  They now are ask us for something that will merge into their wardrobes in a practical way.  This may mean building in the possibility for re-purposing it into a piece of day or cocktail wear, which in turn adds another layer of complexity to the pre-planning stages.  I can see the trend in bridal wear continuing towards the use of simpler, more tailored dresses or suits which are then supplemented with bespoke jewellery or accessories.  This does steer more towards our particular forte, the business suit, although working on these special occasion garments makes me appreciate just how complex and extensive the arena is for dressing women.  One that requires a correspondingly high level of diverse and creative skills.

Photo: thanks to Ronsho from Flickr.com (With CCL)

When Jerome Kern and Buddy De Sylva first set out to write their 1920’s classic melody I doubt that they had the lining of their jackets in mind, snappy dressers though they were.  A well cut lining however, made from an appropriate fabric, can really put a new slant on any garment.

Here are a few reasons why we have a lining in a garment in the first place:

• It makes it easier to slip the garment on and off
• The lining hides the inner workings of a garment
• It can protect the skin from a harsher outer fabric
• It allows a jacket to freely interact with the garment underneath
• It helps to protect the main garment from the body’s heat and moisture
• It helps to maintain a garment’s structure and shape
• It allows a body to move freely
• It preserves the life of a garment, bearing the brunt of the wear and tear, and can be replaced.
• If the main fabric is translucent or opaque a lining can change its hue
• It can add a touch of fun

Maybe you can add to this list?

With tailored jackets in particular, the lining is made slightly bigger than the garment and it is installled with extra pleats and ‘ease’.  This helps with both comfort and the outward appearance of the garment.  Next time you are out and about see if you can spot the person with the lining that is too small or has shrunk.  You will notice from the way the hem at the centre back curls up inside the jacket and how it takes away the crisp fold of the hem.

More recently with the development of new fabrics, the introduction of lycra into the weave has extended the capabilities of linings enabling them to stretch and give a greater feeling of comfort.

Linings can also be a way of bringing a subtle flair to the business suit, and a flash of crimson against an otherwise sombre pinstripe can give added frissons.  One of my clients, the violinist Gil Shaham always took a secret to the platform whenever he performed.  With a passion for Warner Brothers cartoons, his tail-suit was lined with ‘Loony Tunes’ characters…where Tweety Pie ended up is perhaps best left to the imagination!

Gil, Claudio Abaddo, and the Vienna Philharmonic

Pbotos:  Thanks to www.free-scores.com and The Strad

The Sunday Times (UK) Style section devoted a number of column inches to the do’s and don’ts for women who find themselves at the front of the political stage either as leader or consort.  It seems that once again the dilemma for high-profile women has surfaced; about giving the right sense of gravitas without appearing domineering, or warm and genuine as against frivolous and ‘fashiony’.  From some of the books I have collected about the psychology of clothing its background is long and complex.   This rarely seems to be a problem that confronts men.  What I question however is the term power dressing.  Is it not a dated term in itself?  Also, let’s not confuse the fact that the needs of the political band wagon are rather different from those of a shareholder meeting.

For me power dressing immediately conjures up a dated picture of big shoulders, tight waists and sculptured hair-dos that look not dissimilar from the City Hall building here in London, and with as much immobility!

It smacks of theatre with only a veneer of seriousness, and as I visit my clients in the City you can see that these financially challenging times require a degree of authenticity that suggests a ‘safe pair of hands’..

One of my clients articulated her dilemma well when she talked about walking into a room of 100 venture capitalists, all male apart from a handful of women, and all with the same, almost regular-issue pinstripe uniform.  Custom and practice has not given us the opportunity to develop a similar sort of iconic look, and in this the fashion industry has been no help.

“Real power dressing is about being smart and true to yourself, and the balance between the two is what makes it new. Work out what suits you, and don’t deviate” says the Times.  But what does this mean in practical terms, and where are the places a busy executive can go to build an appropriated wardrobe without spending vast amounts of time doing it.

So I would suggest that the journalist in the Times should perhaps look a little closer at the trading floors and boardrooms and consider the realities of the executive life-style, and whether or not the concept of power dressing may in reality be rather disempowering

“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.

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