November 5, 2021
Your Fitting Stance
I know this doesn't sound like much or even worse, like I'm being picky, but when you fit, you have to remember how you will be looking in an at ease position. And no I'm not referring to the "military at ease," but more a position that you would stand in normally.
Here's what I mean, if you stand a little relaxed with your shoulders, and a little sway back, don't try to correct those when you are fitting. These are the natural ways your body stands, and when you're not thinking this is the position that will best suit your needs.
That doesn't mean that you aren't "not thinking" because what you do want to remember is your feet evenly apart, usually about shoulder length apart, unless that feels awkward, weight evening distributed between hips and as balanced as you can be.
Not only is this bad posture, but because the body is so contorted, there's no way you can get a good fit. The thing to remember here is that if you're standing outside waiting for the light to change at a corner to walk, would you be standing like the posture on the left or the right? How would you be standing?
Not all of us look this young or trim, but the point here is that she is in a relaxed position with her weight evenly spaced. This is the correct position. The wrinkles that show in this position are wrinkles that need to be solved.
Many mannequins, croquis and other sketches of model often do not show the model in this position. It's boring. It's more fun to have them reaching here or doing this or that and I agree with that, except it doesn't give us a very representative photo of the garment. The truth is not standing in this "simple relaxed pose" can give you tons of problems that are very hard to work through that really don't need to be solved.
So standing or sitting or jumping, standing on one leg, or in any position Tony Manero had in Saturday Night Fever, aren't good fitting positions EVER.
There are times to break this rule - yeah I know you gotta learn the rules to break them, and this is the perfect example. For years I have worked with Dressage clients, and love making wonderful tailored coats that look divine on them, but I was also picky enough to know that it was while they were on the horse and riding that they needed to look immaculately tailored NOT standing or off the horse or outside
the ring!
In this example, the client was perfectly straight and flat while her legs were straddle the horse and her arms bent and up close to the saddle pommel, which is how I fitted her. Her sleeves actually don't have these wrinkles in them when they are a little more forward which is how she rides this horse. This is a perfect example of not being in a relaxed, balanced standing position to fit her.
Another example is the same principle - not being in a standing position when you want to look correct in your fitting. A student recently came to me wanting to create a shirt for her grandson performing a violin music piece. This mean that his arms were going to be very bent (taking up more space on the length of the arm) as well as bent forward (taking more space in the back of the garment). So I had the grandson stand and pretend he had his instrument in his hand while
we fit him.
It caused me to look at famous young violin soloists and how they are fit. This one of early Issac Stern is a classic.
This is a photo of him at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem hence the guard. Notice how long his sleeves are and how low they hit.
 
Here are two Bond actors and there's several things to notice here since the character James Bond is supposed to be the sartorial end-all for men's fashion. In both cases the cuffs show under the jacket sleeve. This means that the bespoke tailored jacket sleeve should be shorter rather than longer. The cuff needs to be longer to show through in the proper way.
So in the Issac Stern (who is an internationally famous solo violinist) photo above, his jacket is "sartorially speaking" way out of style and wrong.
But here's the thing, when Stern is performing, look at how much shorter the cuffs are?
Why? Because look at how bent both elbows are. This takes up a lot of length on the sleeve. And as if that weren't enough he's stretching forward to hold the instrument and play the instrument. Additionally, the artists does not want to be encumbered or otherwise restricted from moving the bow up and down or holding the violin.
As my student and I finished working with the shirt, we made sure her violinist grandson felt unencumbered as well as comfortable, but fitted in his shirt so that his performance would be as excellent as it could be. That's what we did. Additionally she made the cuffs fit (remember fitting is not skin tight but close and with ease) the wrists of her grandson and so they weren't baggy but were nice and long. I'm sure standing up he looked like a
baggy mess, but that wasn't our aim. When he was performing, he looked great. I asked his grand mom how he felt, and he said really well. In a photo she sent me, the other parents totally copped-out and had their kids dressed in knit polo shirts with short sleeves - they didn't even try and address the sleeve situation NOR the back ease situation leaving it to the stretch fabric to play their instruments. My student's grandchild really looked great, but
there's a future problem I warned her about.
"Oh grandmom, you make the best shirts, and I can't find any shirt like the ones you make me at the store. Can you make me some more - maybe one in white and another blue one? Please? Your shirts are so special!"
Yep, playing the nice and poor-pitiful-me card, always wins out and my student's grandchild has already experienced the joy of having something custom-made with great care for solving all the problems of fitting!
Yeah, and it's also hard to say no to that!
This is the quintessential toolbox for the wannabe designer, and you don't even have to draw to use them. All you have to do is trace. That may sound just a little too far-fetched, but believe me, not all designers can draw, and most of them do not sew. So you are one up on most designers.
This package includes a lot:
Elements & Principles of Design w/Color
Proportion (Divine and Rule of Thirds) and Apex Point Fitting
and something new:
 Sketching - taking the idea to sketch, to pattern to garment and yes, you can do that. It's not that hard. There are a lot of steps, but this is the final part of the whole package of creating something especially for yourself.
You know all those pictures on Pinterest or pinned in your studio or on your bathroom mirror?...those ones you know you would look smashing in if...1.) you could find the right pattern, 2.) you might be able to find it in RTW, but to fit you would be a problem or 3.) you've always wanted to create a look or certain collar or fabulous sleeve or some other detail and never knew how. Here's how to do that.
This does require that you have your core pattern up and running. That's what the whole pattern will be based on and it is what makes all this work so well. Whereas commercial pattern makers and designers have to go through 5 to 8 iterations to get it right, with your core pattern, we already know it works, and what we're doing is copying that to make the style you want.
If you already have only one of the above, then you have the opportunity here to bring your toolbox up to date by acquiring the only what you need at a discounted price. The Sketching Resource is the only one that's new that no one has before this month.
At the same time if you want the whole kit and caboodle, it's at an even greater discount than normal. Here's everything with the whole kit and caboodle at the bottom!
Enjoy!
Elements & Principles of Design with Color Primer - This is what art and design students learn in art school. The only difference between them and you is that they have the time to play around with them. But we can do the same, albeit a little less time.
Fitting with Proportion and Figure-Flattering Tools
(This one comes in two parts)
Sketching - From Idea to Garment
The Design Toolbox - All Three Resources above in one download at a terrific price.
Once this special is over, the Sketching will go into both the Proportion and Elements & Principles (it's already in the Toolbox), at regular pricing.
On the Blog
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