Fit
Seam allowance is the budget every alteration has to spend
A garment can only be let out as far as the cloth folded inside it allows, which is why the same alteration…
· 4 min read
Nikhil Varma
Features writer, The Outfit Files
Nikhil writes about fit, fabric, care & repair, mostly the parts other people skip and is unreasonably interested in the detail nobody else checks.
15 articles
Style History
Pockets were separate objects long before they were sewn into clothes
For centuries a pocket was a bag you carried or tied on, and how it eventually got stitched into a garment…
· 4 min read
Fit
The break in a trouser is decided by the leg opening
How much cloth folds above the shoe is a consequence of how wide the trouser is at the hem, which is why…
· 4 min read
Fabric
Gauge is why one jumper keeps its shape and another grows
The number of stitches in a given width of knitting decides how much a garment can stretch, how quickly it…
· 4 min read
Fabric
Interfacing is the cloth you never see doing most of the shaping
Collars stand, cuffs hold and lapels roll because of a second layer hidden between the outer fabric and the…
· 4 min read
Wardrobe
How many shirts you need is a laundry question, not a style one
The size of a working wardrobe is set by how often you do laundry and how long garments take to become…
· 3 min read
Fit
A shirt collar sits on a band, and the band is what actually fits
The visible part of a collar is a flap sewn onto a narrow strip of cloth, and almost every complaint people…
· 4 min read
Care & Repair
Dry cleaning is a wash in a liquid that is not water
The process is neither dry nor gentle in any general sense, and knowing what the solvent does and does not…
· 3 min read
Wardrobe
Resale value is changing what gets made and how it is built
A large second-hand market gives garments a life beyond the first owner, and that prospect quietly alters…
· 3 min read
Wardrobe
Children’s clothes are sized against a moving target
A growing body invalidates every measurement within months, and nearly every peculiarity of children’s…
· 3 min read
Style History
The paper pattern turned dressmaking into an instruction manual
Before graded tissue patterns were sold by post, making a garment at home required knowing how to draft…
· 3 min read
Fabric
Finishing is the last thing done to cloth and it changes what you can feel
Between the loom and the cutting table a fabric passes through treatments that alter its hand, its…
· 4 min read
Care & Repair
Leather cracks because it lost water, and oil is only half the answer
A dried-out hide fails at the points where it bends, and understanding what is actually leaving the…
· 4 min read
Wardrobe
What a garment costs to make is not most of what it costs to buy
The price on the label is assembled from a chain of decisions in which materials and sewing are only the…
· 3 min read
Style History
The detachable collar existed because laundry was harder than sewing
For most of a century the dirtiest part of a shirt was made removable, and the arrangement tells you…
· 3 min read