Fran, I realy appreciate your take and advice on this trend and issue. Given
the wide scope of researching
?historical costume and puting it together with contemporary interps of?this
history, having an automatic market out there that will be clamoring to buy the
designs in Any size does not bode well for a costume business...either in
selling patterns or ready made clothing..? Anyone who can look at a
picture/painting and presume to replicate the costume image is dealing with
more than size, color, fabric. and etc.
Expecting a Class that will allow you to be able to do this is not a real
prospect
; then you are making Historical Costume just another factory project. Most of
the costumes that are trying to be faithful copies of originals are/become
originals in themselves because of the very fact they were designed and
made?for the individuals who called them forth to begin with.
?kathleen who is always celebrating historical fashion by recreating it in
miniature...Cut Down To Size?
-----Original Message-----
From: "Lavolta Press" <f...@lavoltapress.com>
Sent 3/11/2011 5:35:29 PM
To: "Historical Costume" <h-cost...@indra.com>
Subject: Re: [h-cost] History of Costume text?> I agree that it is frustrating
to "waste one's time on something that cannot be worn or sold" but how else can
they learn the process?
The person who originally posted was planning to teach a *beginning*
sewing class. A great many people want to learn to sew, to custom fit,
and to create patterns, without any intention of entering the
ready-to-wear field. This is as it should be. Not everyone can enter
that field, and not everyone wants to start a small business
manufacturing ready-to-wear. I will not say that everyone can make their
own clothes, even if they have the skills. People have time constraints,
or they lose enthusiasm. But, it is still much more likely that the
person who enters a beginning class can continue to make clothes for
themselves, than it is they will find a job in the industry. Therefore,
a beginning class that accommodates such students will be much more
popular. And as I pointed out, a class that focuses on ready-to-wear
sewing techniques, like the one I dropped out of because it was bad for
my health, is a course in factory sewing on factory machines. The
instructor actively helped to place students who wanted factory jobs
into factories in the local garment industry (which used to be much more
vital than it is today). But, not everyone wants to sew on the factory
floor, not to mention most of that work gets outsourced to third-world
countries these days.
> But will force those manufacturers who don't care about size to fix their
> doing issues and thereby bring the industry back to where it should be. That
> would be the ideal program of study.
No matter what manufacturers do to sizing, they still will never custom
fit the human body, unless they make clothes on a custom basis. Nor, I
think, will most of them ever use fine seam finishes or do hand sewing
except at the high price ranges.
Remember, this is an e-list that focuses explicitly on making historic
clothing. Of course, the styles, the fit, etc., vary a great deal with
geographic location and historic era, and include garments that are not
fitted, but draped around the body. But, most of us are custom making
clothing, and much of it is for eras where garments are closely fitted,
were custom fitted at the time, and are custom fitted by the people who
make them now. Furthermore, everyone has personal fitting issues and
sometimes these are discussed in great detail. Many people on this list
are making very high-end and elaborate garments, whether unique or
duplicated from period portraits or extant garments. Many of them do
handwork such as hand sewing, embroidery, beading, etc., or they do
spinning, weaving, dyeing, etc. Many list members have been doing all
this for many years and have a high level of expertise in specialized
fields.
I am not saying that it's somehow wrong to make modern clothes or
practice modern mass-manufacturing techniques, but that's not what most
list members are doing. Even though some of them make modern as well as
historic clothes for themselves, that's not the focus of this list.
Fran
Lavolta Press
Books of historic clothing patterns
www.lavoltapress.com
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