Business Suits

Monday, November 28, 2005

Words, Meanings, Technical Jargons

Here are some Jargons of the Tailoring World


Cork - The Boss.

Doctor - Alteration tailor.

Kill - A spoiled job that has to be thrown away.

Kipper - A tailoress. So called because they sought work in pairs to avoid unwelcome advances.

Pig - An unclaimed garment.

Pigman - Person who buys pigs and pork usually at a minimal cost.

Pork - A misfit rejected by a customer, but which might be sold elsewhere.

Skiffle - A job needed in a hurry.

Tab - Fussy, difficult customer.

Trotter - Fetcher and carrier - messenger.

Tweed Merchant - Tailor who does the easy work- a poor workman.



Who are These Guys?

Finisher : The person (normally female) who sews the button holes, fells the lining and stitches the edges of the garment once it is complete. These are the last processes in finishing a jacket and do not usually take place until the customer and cutter are satisfied with the suit.

Alterations Tailor: Most tailoring firms operate piece-work (q.v.) payment systems with their tailors . Consequently a coatmaker’s work is finished sometime before the garment is actually ready for delivery to the customer. Apart from the finishing stage, it is usually the case that minor adjustments to the fit of the garment will be needed to achieve perfection. For these final touches the cutter will use an alteration tailor. Alteration tailors are highly skilled since they alter the work of other tailors. Because of this they are normally housed separately from their colleagues.

The Cutter : The person (usually male) who measures and fits the customer. The cutter makes a pattern from the measurements he takes and observations of the customers figuration and posture. The cloth is cut using the pattern. The pattern is altered after each fitting dependent on changes made to the garment. Once the suit is delivered the pattern should, in theory, be perfect.

Coatmaker : The tailor responsible for making the jacket. Each garment is made by different craftsmen. Thus trouser makers only tailor trousers. Specialist garments such as smoking jackets, overcoats and morning suits are also made by specialist craftsmen.


What do you mean???

Balance : Adjustment of back and front lengths of a jacket to harmonise with the posture of a particular figure. Balance is very difficult to achieve in ready to wear clothing. Poor balance is often reflected in the jacket collar standing off the customers neck.
Baste : Garment loosely assembled for first fitting.
Bespoke : Made to a customers specific requirements. Nowadays also taken to mean made by hand.

Canvases : The inner materials used in the garment to give it shape. Much of the coat makers work goes into shaping the canvases so that the coat becomes three dimensional reflecting the customers figure. Canvases include linen, horse hair, hemps, jutes, meltons and many more. The weight of cloth from which the jacket is being made determines the particular canvases to be used.

Floating : A misnomer used by the ready to wear industry to imply a certain Canvas quality of make in their jacket construction. The chest canvas in a Savile Row suit is an integral part of the coats construction attached at certain strategic points to ensure the front of the garment is unmarked. In a ready to wear garment a floating canvas is likely to be affixed firmly to the collar and glued in other places (see "fusing").

Fusing : Use of chemicals and heat to weld the interlinings (including canvas) to the outer fabric, as distinct from stitching. Fusing cloth helps the appearance of the garment to look clean (i.e. flat) and is particularly popular with light weight fabrics which are difficult to sew. It is however difficult to impart shape using fusing and many fusible materials tend to perish during cleaning and with constant usage. Fusing is regarded as something of a cheats charter by traditional tailors since superficially a garment can be made to appear well made with little actual craft used in its manufacture. A useful analogy would be a building without foundation. Nevertheless, these days fusing material quality has improved exponentially such that even top ready to wear garment manufacturers use this method in the coats and suits.

Gorge : The point where the collar is attached to the lapel forming the Notch (either Double Breasted or single Breasted). Savile Row suits tend to have a high gorge, Italian designer suits low.
Made To Measure : Garment adjusted to a customers measurement from a standard Measure block, usually by machine. A very limited number of adjustments can be incorporated into made to measure suits. (i.e. to sleeve length, chest, and trouser length). Savile Row suits are not made to measure. A Savile Row tailor will take up to 30 different measurement, plus notes of figuration and posture, and starts from a blank sheet of paper.

Piece Work : Most of the tailors in Savile Row are self employed and are paid a fixed rate per garment according to their skill, the quality of the work, and the difficulty and time involved in making the garment. The monetary rate for a particular tailor is known as the Piece-rate.
Puckering : The tendency of cloth to gather in runs, often apparent on the lapel or trouser seams. In hand made garments this can result from too much tension applied in the thread when sewing. It is more common in fused apparel and results from different levels of shrinking in the fused material and the cloth or distress in the fused material.

Scye : The armhole: from arm’s eye. A tailor will take several measurements to divine the scye. A correct fit of the scye will hold the collar and shoulder of a jacket in place when a customer is seated ensuring that the back of the jacket does not rise. Many people trying a Bespoke suit for the first time feel the jacket is tight around he arm hole for this reason.
Sleeve Pitch : The angle at which the sleeve is pitched to the sleeve head. In a Bespoke suit the sleeve should be pitched to match the angle at which the arm hangs naturally from the shoulder.
Trimmings : Canvases, interlinings, silk threads, linings, buttons, hooks, felts and meltons. The raw materials that in addition to cloth make up the suit.


We remain with best regards,
E-tailor at www.mycustomtailor.com

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Mens Clothing Continues To Evolve

Once upon a time, men adhered to strict fashion rules, never daring to buck the sartorial system. But today´s top designers say the modern man is now willing to take risks to create a more personal look.
So what are the new ground rules for masculine elegance in 2006?

Ahead of Paris men´s fashion week, which begins Friday, AFP asked a diverse cross-section of
Designers, form Japan´s Naoki Takizawa at Issey Miyake to Veronique Nichanian at Hermes, to describe the recent men swear revolution.
“Today´s man is more comfortable with himself and lets his real personality shine through,” said Nichanian. “Before, he followed trends, but basically never deviated from a set dress code. Today, he mixes it up a bit.
Takizawa, who will present his spring-summer 2006 collection for Issey Miyake on Friday, added: “There is no longer one standard definition of elegance with a few variations, but a multitude of dress codes and attitudes”.
At the fashion house of reclusive Belgian Martin Margie, who never makes public appearances or comments, a company spokesperson said: “Many designers finally got what they had been asking for, after such a long time!”

“There are on more universal fashion diktats, but rather personal fashion diktats, but rather personal tastes, creative expressions and in dividual styles. Men can wear what they want, without thinking about fashion per se.”
For Franck Boclet, the designer at Francesco Smalto, actors Nicolas Cage and Vincent Cassel are typical of the new modern male “who takes care of himself and likes to dress up.”
“Men are more and more chameleon – they can dress in a different way every day, according to their moods,” Boclet noted.
Jose Levy, designer for Emanuel Unger, hailed English football star David Beckham – famous for his moves on both the soccer filed and the red carpet – for “reassuring men who would have never otherwise dared” to strike a pose.
The Frenchman calls it the “new pleasure in dressing,” explaining: “Before, at 20, men went to work at a bank in something that looked like Dad´s suit. Today, there are actually suits for young people!”
Levy´s countryman Pierre Henri Matt out, who will unveil both his personal line and a collection for Dormeuil in Paris, said: “Men´s behavior has changed a lot in the last decade. They care a lot more about their appearance.”
Matt out predicted that men would follow a course taken by women 20 years ago, embracing “beauty products, fashion, shopping and the fact that they belong to a world of labels.”
Nichanian said the evolution of societal morns, family, and the workplace made the men swear revolution possible


We remain with best regards,
E-tailor at www.mycustomtailor.com