Natural Fabrics and Fit 101

One of the biggest reasons I chose to start Brass Tacks is because I care about how a garment should fit, and I felt there weren’t many brands in India that had both fit and interesting fabric in the same garment. I am fully aware that the fit may not work for every body type, but it does work for many and when it doesn’t, we do alterations or we make a fresh piece that works better for a different body type. Still, I find that some people are not happy with the fit in comparison to a tight t-shirt or anything with a bit of elastane (lycra) woven into the fabric. Some customers end up buying a size or two too small, and I fear that they are giving up comfort for what they think is a better fit. So I’m taking the advice of my pattern teacher (and mentor) and writing a short piece on why my clothes are not meant to be worn tight like second skin.

The difficult part about getting a “good fit” with natural fabrics is making a pattern that flatters the body without cutting out those few inches of ease that is necessary for basic movement. I’m not saying you can do yoga in Brass Tacks clothes, but you should be able to lift your arms to tie your hair, or at least give someone a hug without having the shoulder or back darts pull at the seams! A good test when trying on an upper body garment is to wrap your arms around your shoulder (like you are giving yourself a hug) and then gently throw your arms back in the opposite direction (like the flying scene in Titanic). If you can do these movements, the garment is not too tight.

Ready-made clothes can never be as perfect as a custom-made piece. I have to follow a size chart at Brass Tacks because we need to have some system for our grading of sizes, but it is unlikely that a woman’s measurements perfectly match up to the measurements of any one size on my chart. They could have a shoulder and bust measurement that matches size 8, but a waist and hip that matches size 6 for example. And then if you want to get into details, there are differences in how the body curves between the waist and hip, or between the hip and knee. Ready-made garments are convenient because they are available without the customer having to do any running around, but it is tough catering to a range of sizes and on top of that variations within each size. At the Brass Tacks store we offer alterations or other solutions to give customers the best of ready-made with some tweaking to work for the customer, but our fabrics are not meant to imitate knitwear. So rather than alter the garments to fit you like a glove, I say enjoy the freedom of movement and the breathing room that our clothes provide!

Leaving during a crisis

Sales at the store have been climbing over the last few months. I guess it’s a combination of word-of-mouth finally kicking in, the press releases, and the emails I sent out to announce the summer collection. That’s the good news. Unfortunately, my quest for good quality tailors has still not been very successful and things have reached a point where not being able to replenish stocks is getting in the way of sales.

I’ve tried every method possible: contacting everyone I know in the garment industry, placing ads in all the major Tamil papers (expensive and futile), and I’ve even gone around tailoring shops in a few neighbourhoods asking them if they know someone. I’m going on a 10 day trip at the end of this month, and I’m worried that production is going to come to a stand still when I’m gone! Also, having only a few tailors means that I always give priority to alterations and customer orders, but that has slowed down the pattern development process. My pattern maker has not been able to show me what he has developed for the monsoon collection because he hasn’t been able to allocate a tailor to stitch a sample. I know, not a good time for me to take off for a couple of weeks…

On a slightly different note, I’m wondering how other stores and clothing brands handle alterations. I keep telling my sales staff that our goal at Brass Tacks is to help customers find what looks good on them. So of course it’s only fair that we offer to do an alteration if something doesn’t fit very well. After all, I have a size chart because everyone has to work from some standardized measurements, but I don’t expect the chart to apply to every woman.

Simple stuff like a reduction in length, releasing a waist dart, or making a fresh piece with a wider shoulder or a smaller armhole is not time consuming. However some alterations are tedious, especially if it requires many stitches to be removed. Sometimes it can take an entire day to rip out stitches on a silk dress (it takes longer for delicate fabric) with a side seam zip, and then re-stitch it (all this just for an extra 1/8th of an inch ease on each side). Maybe I wouldn’t be thinking about this so much if I didn’t have a shortage of tailors. I’d like to provide great customer service, and having a happy customer walk away with something that fits her well is worth the time spent on the alteration.