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June 5, 2009

made in britain....

This is a new television programme that airs this Monday evening.

I've not seen it but the content looks pretty interesting and I like the basic idea behind the programme. A little bird tells me there's a nod to the Savile Row suit.

Basically in this "Green and pleasant land" how many things are still made in the UK?

The details are here.

Posted by tom at 3:54 PM | Comments (1)

June 3, 2009

fishy tails....

(skeleton baste, too tricky for a forward)

These as you can imagine give us tailor's lot of fun. I for one still have to scratch my head a bit when I cut one. Remember, I don't have block patterns so I do this from scratch. It's especially difficult as in this case where it was my clients first order, a morning suit for his wedding. Luckily I always get there in the end and thankfully I have Fred Eltham' one of my most experienced tailors to help me at the young age of 74.

You see I know that there aren't many cutters who can cut one of these straight from a blank sheet of paper and more's the point that there are even less coat makers that can put them together. It does look a little bleak for the future of such beautiful garments, well certainly the hand made ones. You see good coat makers can pick and choose what they want to make. Of course they charge more to make a body coat but they really are a quite a task and in all fairness the extra that is charged often doesn't seem enough for all the extra hours of effort. Needless to say the younger guys are not very keen to learn,

Like fitting any garment there are lots of things to consider, however one of the key things is the "balance". The balance of a coat or trousers is one of those very tricky things to try and explain in words. However with the help of some pictures I'll try to explain a little about what this means. I chose to do this now because on tail coats this is extremely important. If you get it wrong you can't hide it and it ruins this particular type of garment.

So here goes with my brief explanation. If you lose track then don't worry, apprentice cutters have been doing that for generations. In basic terms balance means the relationship between the front and back of a garment. The human form is very simply like this. As far as the coat is concerned try to imagine a person standing normally but sideways on to you. Now imagine a line at 90' to the standing body running through the nape of the neck or top of the shoulders. You still with me? Now imagine another horizontal line, again at the same angle running through at what would be a good coat length, just below the seat. Now the distance between the two lines at the back of the persons body at the front is the same.

However, stand any person sideways on and usually their chest or bust is prominent. Down their back it is usually straight in comparison. This is the part you have to think about, if you follow the silhouette of the body the distance between the lines over the front or chest area is longer than between the lines at the back. So in other words we usually need more in length of material down the front of the body than down the back to keep the garment equal or in "balance" between the lines. I hope you got that bit because you'll see that I said "usually" because this is often not the case. As you can imagine a person with a flat chest and rounded back will turn the equation completely around. In another example you may have a man that has a normal posture but a very large stomach. This again increases the length down the front of the body to keep the lines in balance. You may have heard a tailor say " you need more or less back balance" which is basically this situation that he's trying to get right. If you can get this principle with my description you'll easily image the same process for the trousers or a skirt. Usually this is the other way round as the extra length is usually over the back as your seat is the most prominent. Well it's 11pm here and I'm sure that's enough mental exercises in words for the moment so let me tell you what happens if it goes wrong.

One of the most common errors is shortness in back balance. Basically not enough length in material between our two back lines. The obvious signs are two things, the coat wants to stand off at the neck and when it's pulled onto the back neck you get awful diagonal drag lines from the side seams towards the centre of the back. If it's too long in the back you get collapsing in the lower back in the form of horizontal lines. If it's short in front balance you'll get the fronts scissoring across each other if it's long the fronts will fall away and want to swing open at the bottom. I could go on all night about this but as far as clients are concerned their tailor should be taking care of this. I'll leave the explanation there which should help clarify what I'm talking about next.

(swinging open, too long in the back)

Back to the body coat. These garments, well certainly if I cut you one will be very fitted. My clients know that my armholes are cut very small and that they almost need to be shoehorned into my coats at the fitting. However a body coat should be exactly that, fitted very neatly around the body. The more skin like the fit, the more you can move. This fellow is about a regular 40" chest but look at the tiny armholes. The blade cuts emphasize this further and he loved how it fitted his body like a glove. Now basically the balance on a coat like this needs to be absolutely spot on. The reason is that the length of the tails will make any errors glaringly obvious. If it's in balance as this one was, thank God. It will hang perfectly straight and look very elegant. If I adjust it on the mannequin I can show you what happens if it's long or short in balance. The tails cross over if it's short in back balance and just as bad the tails will swing open if it's long.

(tiny armhole,you'll move like Fred Astaire)

Now after your lesson here's the fun part. To alter a tailcoat is quite frankly a nightmare especially if it's completed. Also it's very expensive. There is however a little shortcut that's been used for years and here it is. Rather than take the coat apart just sew a few lead fishing weights into the lining at the bottom of the tails. It will hang beautifully. Easy when you know how:)

(straight and true, promise no lead;)

Posted by tom at 10:48 PM | Comments (0)