unusual style jacket
Published: Wednesday, October 11th 2006
UPDATE:- I am in New York 28th October - 1st November. I am staying at the Benjamin Hotel. Please email me if you would like to see me during the period in question.
I am making an unusual style of jacket for two of my clients. Both are good customers of mine and good friends with each other.
Tailoring is not always about the same run of the mill fabrics and styles, it is about individuals expressing themselves through clothing. These jackets are certainly an expression and a welcome change for me.
This is one of the reasons why I love my job so much, creating a garment and bringing to life an idea a customer conveys to me that is at this stage merely nothing more than an idea or picture in their head.
Both the jackets will be the same when finished except one is to be made in a blue shadow stripe cloth, the other is a black shadow stripe cloth. Both clients have picked a contrast lining one a turquoise and the other orange.
The style is unique in its own right but on top of the style features there will be a piping made from the same lining as inside the jacket, which will be fixed to the edge of the finished collar and on the edge of the flared cuffs.
The forepart ( jacket front ) has a pleat running across the chest about where a top welt pocket would be on a normal jacket, the jacket fronts will be a button 4 and square cut at the bottom.
The side pockets on the jacket are a 'bellows' patch pocket, and identical in style to the ones I normally put on shooting jackets.
This pocket will have a large overcoat style flap above it we have not decided the shape of it yet ( the actual depth ) so here it is below just basted in position.
These jackets are also what I would call 3/4 length or the old car coat length. I am not sure what the buttoning arrangement will be ie, button through fronts or a fly front.
Both these jackets which I think are a bit of fun for my customers, are of a fused front construction with 1/2 chest canvas and NOT fully canvassed bespoke garments.
To be honest this fabric is a super 150s cloth and they did not want to spend a fortune ( even though they both easily can ) and the fusible option is sensible.
Some fabrics particularly light weight cloths look terrible with a full canvas showing fullness and uneven, lumps and bumps all over the place so it is sometime wise to look at construction objectively and not purely from a 'canvas is the ony way ' mindset.
I want to give my clients the best looking garments and if that means deviating from canvas occasionaly and making a rational choice to fuse a particular fabric, I will do so.
I have lots of practical experience with using fusibles, unlike the other cutter/tailors who have non yet can and do claim fusing is useless and rubbish, what a cheek!
There are no chest darts ( a dart is a cut or seam made in the jacket front to give shape and help slim the waist ) in either of these garments and they both look a little 'flat' at the moment because of this.
That has nothing to do with being fused.
I have also cut both these garments with a lot of front drape for style and comfort.
Drape is an excess amount of cloth that is allowed over and above the actual clients measures, in this case at the chest, and has the benefit of making a garment easier and comfortable to wear.
The canvas chest piece basted underneath this forepart or front of jacket has not had a 'wedge' cut out for the chest yet.
By leaving the chest dart out, I am also able to move the patch pockets to any position my client wants, up, down, back or forward.
I can asses at the fittings the front dart situation when I still have the option to cut the darts into the jacket fronts if I think my clients need them from a fit point of view when I have conducted the fittings.
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