An Interesting Turn in Style

January 9, 2025

The end of the year always brings about year-reviews.  Most of them are boring, but some of them are very interesting this year.  

Not only is classic coming back, but the simple black-and-white with clean-line minimalism is losing its allure.  There's more interest in something with some layers of living to it.  And that's showing up on the runways.  The proportions are still off, but we're finally getting some sense of shape and comfort in fashion.  Thank heavens. 

But also noticeable is the style trend in architecture and interior design.  It's interesting that when Boho is in clothing fashion, Shabby Chic is also trendy in interior design.  The styles of our clothes also seem to match the trends in our living environments.  And these days, that's the same.  Notably, the stark, sterile nature of clean minimalism is being infused with antiques and articles that "mean something" rather than just serving a function.  Even if they don't mean anything, it's the idea that the antique has history and therefore a little aura of connection with something/someone in the past.  

From the copper (from my grandmother's kitchen), and the rack it hangs on (one of Walt's creative creations), to the dining table (more of Walt's work), to the warmth, interest, and function that works in our home.  This all has a history with years of memories and even more memories of Walt and me!  Even if it didn't belong to my family, the idea that someone else used it and has their memories all tied up in it, can makes it warm with a patina and history of another's use.  

There is so much memory to this room.  The chair on the right foreground is from my grandmother. She had her portrait done in this chair.  The sofa just behind it (beyond the lamp) is from my family home.  The lamps and tables are from my family home, so they have history for me - lots of stains and marks from family love and use.  The large chair behind the table, across from the piano, is a make-shift chair.  The little bench I had there, from my family home, was falling apart, and I had to let it go, so this chair is a substitute, and it really takes up too much room.  This is one of the first things that gets replaced when the budget allows.  The dishes over the windows are from my great-grandmother, who was from New Orleans - they are oyster plates.  The painting to the left of those windows is a scarf from Hermes of Pawnee Bill, the Native American who traveled to France and came back to his home in Pawnee, OK.  The portraits (by the piano and in the immediate right foreground) are family members.  

The whole room reflects my family and treasured pieces.  This is the trend they are talking about in interior design now.  Pieces that may not necessarily be from one's own family, but that have the "patina" of family, tradition, and history.    

This isn't about sterile, minimalistic lines and styles.

Something like this is almost scary to sit in for fear of ruining the sterility with something that isn't as conducive to the surroundings.  I can understand its appeal as being simple and easy to digest, but for me, as an artist, this is boring and doesn't look user-friendly.  

Same thing is true of clothing.

The preponderance of a sterile, post-apocalyptic world is boring and trite.  Minimalism has gone so far as to become stark, austere, and stingy.  

Whereas quiet luxury is anything but stingy-looking, it doesn't have to be expensive, though it often perceived as being costly.

This is anything but boring.  It has great bones and these sorts of styles are timeless, which makes them the biggest bargain out there.  

When I was younger, I would meet wealthy people, and they dressed very quietly.  I couldn't understand it.  They had all the money in the world, yet they were dressed as if they were on a strict budget, which I knew wasn't right.  But they had one up on me that I didn't know.  Part of the reason they had a good amount of money is that they were dressing very economically.  They were buying well-made, timeless clothing so they could wear it forever.    The style was classic, so it endured through the decades like all well-made and fine styles.  

Yves St. Laurent was asked at the fall of the Berlin Wall, that Russian women and women behind the Iron Curtain wanted to look fashionable, but had very little money, so how could they do that?  His return was, "Black turtleneck and black pants!"  He knew that this was about as classic as you could get.  From this, you could add a classic belt, a scarf, a shawl, a jacket, a coat, and any number of other garments and accessories, but with this one "palette," a woman could go anywhere.  Even back then, this designer understood the essential need for a timeless palette that could be used to create many garments.   

And then there's one more turn at the classic look - that classic western look that you see in dressage today, but also the that classic country look of a camel jacket and dark pants works just as well in the city as it does on the back of a horse.  

Classic styles are simply timeless, and I wouldn't feel funny wearing either of these jackets on the street or anywhere around my activities.

But classic has something more than being timeless.  It has good bones.  That means that it has history and the test of time.  Chanel's LBD (little black dress) is just as handsome and required in a person's wardrobe as her quilted jacket.  Chanel understood timeless, and that's all she made.  I'm sure she could survive in today's cut-throat RTW market because her designs were so timeless.  But because none of that timeless look is offered in RTW, no one wears it.  It's not in style, because it is timeless.  Think about it - timeless doesn't need to be replaced every three to six months.  Timeless doesn't need updating - it's updating all the time.  That's not even close to being profitable for RTW.

So we're looking for timeless, but luxurious timelessness, with a sense of history and grounding.  That sounds weird when you're talking about a fashion style, but that's precisely where we're headed.  But think about this.  Having something that has a connection to history or a background can be a real breakthrough in fashion.  It gives grounding, legitimacy, and authenticity to a fashion style as no other fashion trend has.    

Almost always, a fashion trend gets attention because it's new or fresh.  Think about it.  What could be fresher or newer than something that doesn't require replacement every 6 weeks!  And although a lot of fashion shows on the runway these days are still in the "non-fit" of the Grunge era, they are coming into a more timeless style that actually eventually (we can only hope) will fit it.  

These styles all have a timeless, quiet look, but the proportions are off.  Fashion styles don't change overnight - they slowly move into the next phase.  And the styles above have a lot of that move into the next phase.  They are classic colors.  They are classic designs, even if the proportions are wrong.  And they look to be more functional than what we've seen from the runway in a long time.   These kinds of designs can lead to more of this kind of look.  (From Ralph Lauren for Winter 2025)

This has all the same looks, but the proportions are the only difference.  So slowly the ugly look is being replaced by this more timeless look.  

In fashion the pendulum swings from one side to the other, but it rarely repeats an exact style.  It might pick something from one look to adopt as an update or another take on a style, but it never returns to the older style.  The shoulder pads of the 80s were completely different than the shoulder pads of the 40s, but they both had exaggerated shoulders, but done in different ways.

Quiet quality and stealth wealth are a more timeless design. Although each fashion phase has a timeless silhouette to it, Mod, New Look, Power Suit, and Bohemian, they all reflected the opposite of their predecessor.  So you would have a Victorian bustle followed by a Flapper's androgynous silhouette, followed by the New Look of an hourglass, followed by the lean lines of the Mod look, followed by the frou-frou of the Bohemian/Hippie style, followed by the Power Suit and Glamour galore, followed by the unconventional and messy style of Grunge, and now followed by Quiet Quality.  They are all the opposite of the one before.  And quiet quality is undoubtedly the opposite of the ill-fitting, ripped, and ragged style of Grunge.  

It couldn't come at a better time.  Quiet luxury, timeless, and quiet quality are all really the more economical way to dress. Although they require a bit more investment, you can still beat any store-bought garment that meets quiet quality standards.  Because those items in the commercial luxury marketplace have luxury prices, this is extremely attractive to us sewists, who can mimic those looks for pennies on the dollar.  

Back in the late 70s, when the oil boom was raging, my friends were spending tens of thousands of dollars a month on their fashions.  I was spending a couple of hundred dollars using the same fabrics, but by making them myself, I was literally spending pennies while they were spending thousands.  I kept up with them in my YSL "Le Smoking" outfit, in my YSL "Opium" dress, and in my Armani suits that were tailored to me so they hung dreamily on my body.  

Today, this is precisely where we are:  Sewing these quality looks for pennies of what they would cost used.  It's hard to find the initial price for these garments because it's part of their quiet quality.  Those people really don't want others to know what they are spending.   We are finally going to see real value in our sewing that others can only hope to have.  While we're wearing that elegant quality look, people will be wondering what lottery we won.  The truth is that our skills and craft experience are gold when working in these styles and fashions 

So here are some of the fabrics and patterns I'm using these days.  

For pants - I'm doing the Tessa Pant from StyleArc, which has been refitted for my figure.  The main thing that has to happen with these pants is the hang.  They must hang from the largest part of the body.  That "large part" could be stomach, waist, hips, thighs, whatever, but it must hang straight from that point.  

I've used this before as a perfect picture of a pant that hangs well.  Churchill always had beautifully tailored and fitted clothing, even though he was never thin.  His trousers always hung well - look at the nice long line from Churchill's massive middle girth to the break in his cuff very much the English style.  

Although Churchill was the bearer of Savile_Row style, Truman was no slouch.  He was a haberdasher, so he knew how well clothing fit, and again, he knew that the garment's drape and hang were essential.    Notice Truman's drape from his moderate mid-section to the "half break" of his trousers hem - straight as an arrow.  

Both styles hang magnificently - and that's what we're after in a well-crafted pant.  So by far the most important thing on your pants is your hang.  Once you get your hang correct, you can start tweaking.  These days, I prefer an elastic waist, but that doesn't mean I'm not particular about how I arrange the gathers around it.  This aids tremendously in that hang that looks so fabulous.  There's a way to arrange elastic? There is! 

We all have sensitive areas around our waists.  Maybe we carry more weight in our sides, or maybe in our stomachs and fanny, or just perhaps fanny only and stomachs only.  What I like to do is smooth those "sensitive" areas and let most of the gathering hang between them.  

This is the way I do my waist, cause I've all 4 zones (sides, front, and back) sensitive.  This not only improves the hang but also makes the pants look thinner on the body.  Basically, we're pre-adjusting the gathering so you don't have to do it after you put on the pants every time.  

Here you can see my center front and sides are smooth, while most of the gathering is in the spaces between my center front, center back, and side seams.  This smooth space doesn't need to be too big.  This is to make the hang at the stomach, sides, and fanny much smoother.  I also find that when I do this, if the waistband tends to roll, it prevents a lot of that rolling.  But then I also prefer using a Banroll (I think that used to be a trade name) or non-roll elastic.

This is not only great at keeping the bulk of fabric from already fuller locations, but I guarantee it makes the pants hang like a dream - like they are supposed to.  

I'm also changing my mind about the break at the bottom.  I'm liking a little longer pant leg even with flats.  I'm mostly wearing flats, like this, so a slight crush at the bottom means the pant hem drapes a very tiny bit on the floor.  It's not dragging, just hitting the floor at the side while "breaking" in front.  

The fabric I'm using here is tencel, Lyocell, or rayon challis.  These seem to yield the best online results.  I've been using Tencel or Lyocell (trade name) from Vogue Fabrics, Sawyer Brook Fabrics, and Mood Fabrics.  I search for rayon challis or tencel, and get pretty much what I'm looking for.  This is a lightweight fabric; the Sawyer Brook fabric is fairly weighty for a draping fabric.

For the tops, I'm in love with the Brooklyn top collar from StyleArc, which I put on my core knit pattern.  I've been looking for something like the collar on that sweater Gwyneth Paltrow wore in her court proceedings. The Brooklyn collar is that collar.  I copied the neckline from the Brooklyn pattern onto my core pattern, then used the Brooklyn collar when cutting.  My core knit pattern already has a lot of style, and I don't have to fuss with fit or looking good.  It works every time, but I've been looking for a collar like this for ages.  The Brooklyn top has an off-the-shoulder look, and that's not a look I like right now, so using my core knit pattern and adding the Brooklyn collar gives extraordinary results.  

Ever since I saw that sweater on Gwyneth Paltrow in her many court appearances, I wanted this collar.  This is as close to this Paltrow collar as anything I've tried.  It's big where it needs to be big, and not so big that it takes over your neck.

Then I copied the pockets from the Brooklyn top because I can't have enough pockets, and sewing them to the front means they aren't flopping around where you can't find them or folding over themselves, adding bulk in an area I don't need.     

I've been playing around with a faux cashmere knit lately, and it's been a lot of fun. (Click the photo below for more information)  This is a divine fabric to work with.  It's got some body to it, so it acts like a heavier knit.  They have a lighter-weight version on the site, but this is the one I love so much.  This fabric SCREAMS quiet quality, and it's easy to work with.  

This "faux cashmere" is rayon, so be careful with the iron temperature. I really recommend using a Teflon sole, so your temp stays high, but nothing funky happens to the fabric.  And always press on the wrong side of black.  It will shine at the drop of a hat when ironing, but nothing makes the seams look prettier than a good pressing.  

So I really shouldn't be surprised that I quickly grasped this stealth wealth with a fine patina from other generations.  I'm not so much using the same materials  as I am using the "look" from the past, only with more moderately priced, modern fabrics.  

This is precisely the turn my clients have taken lately.  I'm doing more restoration and re-creation of old wedding gowns than building new ones.  People seem to be more willing to do that, and honestly, I can't blame them.  Having 2 or 3 generations of wedding gowns to choose from can be a lot more fun than buying a new gown.  That I'm choosing to draw inspiration from the grande dames of the past is sort of a walk on the wild side for women I have admired from afar all my life.  

But that's a story for another day.  For now, I'm ready to change up the style and silhouette in my closet.  It's a new reason to sew!  And that always makes me happy.  

The SewingArtistry Resource Library is designed to contain information to not only make your sewing better, but to aid in you fitting and flattering your shape, size and style.  Check it out. 

I'm taking a break from teaching right now, but I am able to do Zoom demos or talks for your sewing group.  Contact me for details. 
 

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The Path of a Fashion Trend

Tracking a fashion trend isn't all that hard after seeing a few of them.  Living from Mid-Century Modern through Twiggy...

The Style of the Very Wealthy

It's worth the time to look at these styles, particularly today as there is a group of that wants to look....

WOW!

This is the way fashion used to be -- pretty, flattering and I can't wait to make some of...

NOTE:  There are some folks who can't get my email, or it's sporadic, or something is hinky.  I will always respond to any of you who send a private message, whether it's about the topic of the week or something else.  If you don't get anything from me, it's probably because the support@sewingartistry.com email is blocked, and even a private message can't get through.  In that case, I'm on Instagram often, and you can always PM me at @sewingartistry.  

As a precaution, please ensure I'm in your email Address Book and check your spam, junk, and trash folders. Some email clients get extra excited when they see emails coming into the Inbox that go to many other receivers. They automatically think it's trash or spam, and it never makes it to the Inbox.    I must constantly check my spam and junk folders to ensure I'm getting the emails I subscribe to.  

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