Bespoke Tailoring
Nice Trousers
Lovely woolen flannel trousers
In case you weren’t aware of it, I also make bespoke clothing for women.
This young lady is the daughter of a Dutch client of mine. She came over to visit her mum and complained of having trouble finding trousers that fit properly. In her own words: “I studied in America for a year, and now my behind is big.”
[EDIT: I just received an email from a reader who was upset about the above remark regarding culture and diet. Please know that I mean no insult, offence or judgement in any way. They were her words and I only included them in this story because I found it an amusing thing for her to say about herself.]
I’m not about to get into a discussion about diet and/or culture, but I can well imagine that she isn’t satisfied with the choices available to her in the RTW industry. If trousers need to fit around the hips while the waist is small (as you can see, she has a lovely figure) then the waistband will always be loose around the waist.
This is the great benefit of working with a tailor. Not only can you get the design and cloth and style that you like, you can also have the cut compliment your figure. You can hide or obscure, or emphasize, all depending on the look you are after.
A small detail I worked in was a hidden pocket. She’s used to carrying her phone in her pocket, but I felt it would be better not to have pockets since that would draw attention to the hips, which is exactly what she wanted to avoid. So I made a pocket in the waistband. It opens from the top between the waistband and the waistband lining, and the pocket bag hides behind the pleat so there is no bulge on the side of the hips. Clever, eh?
Leave a Comment
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
Loading...
Very clever. I’m glad t see you’re posting a bit more regularly.
Over one in three Americans can be classified as obese. Somebody was being hypersensitive.
@ NWA: Possibly. It happens
Hello Martin,
Clever to hide the cell phone behind the pleat. I may try that on a pair of my own trouser and see how that turns out.
Was the hidden pocket inspired from watch pockets? I used to receive requests for watch pockets added to client’s trousers all the time.
I have not had any requests for this option in years nowadays.
As for the culture’weight issue, in the USA, during the late 70′s and early 80′s the average waist for men in my area was 29 to 32 inch waist, anyone with 33.5 inch and above were considered by their peers to be getting a bit of a belly. This depended on the persons height of course.
The majority of my clients were average height of 5’6″ to 5’10″ and chest measurements were usually between 36″ and 38″. Smaller sizes 32 to 35 inches were not uncommon at all.
The 40″ chest and larger were the big men. Rarely did I recieve and measurement that was 44″ and 46″ chest.
Today I see rarely see the above measurements. 42″ to 46″ chest are the norm and not unusual to see 48″ to 52″ chest in mens measurements. I have seen at least a dozen in this size in the last 4 weeks.
Waist sizes today are easily 34 to 38 inches on average. 38 to 42 inches are most common for 35 to early 40′s age. 42 to 48 inch waists on mid to early 50′s.
I will let the readers make a determination on the size increase of the population in the US.
Kind Regards,
Jeffrey