Fit
Rise decides where trousers sit and the waistband cannot argue with it
The single measurement that determines how a pair of trousers hangs is one that almost nobody checks and no…
· 4 min read
Tara Mukherjee
Consumer editor, The Outfit Files
Tara has written about fit, fabric, care & repair for most of the last decade and prefers a plain explanation to a clever one.
24 articles
Fit
Sleeve length is measured to a bone, not to the end of your hand
Both shirt and jacket sleeves are set against a fixed anatomical landmark, and once you know where it is…
· 4 min read
Fabric
Elastane has a shorter life than the garment it is sewn into
A few percent of stretch fibre changes how a garment fits and moves, and it also installs a component that…
· 3 min read
Care & Repair
Agitation, not water temperature, is what wears clothes out
The heat setting gets all the attention on a machine dial, but the damage done to a garment in the wash is…
· 4 min read
Care & Repair
Moths are after the protein, which decides everything about storage
Clothes moth larvae eat keratin and nothing else, and once that is clear, most of the folk remedies sort…
· 3 min read
Wardrobe
Layering works when the layers have different jobs
Three garments worn together outperform one thick one for reasons that are physical rather than aesthetic…
· 4 min read
Wardrobe
A wardrobe drifts because you replace one garment at a time
Clothes are bought singly and worn as sets, and that mismatch is why a wardrobe assembled from consistently…
· 3 min read
Style History
The trench coat was a military specification before it was a silhouette
Almost every detail on a classic raincoat was there to solve a problem in a field uniform, and the garment…
· 3 min read
Fit
A lining is a bearing surface, not a piece of luxury
The slippery fabric inside a jacket is doing mechanical work: it lets the garment slide over what is…
· 4 min read
Wardrobe
Most sustainability claims describe a material, not a garment
The environmental label on a piece of clothing almost always refers to one input at one stage, which is why…
· 4 min read
Wardrobe
The alteration is part of the price of the garment
Clothes are sold as though the price on the label were the total, but almost nothing fits straight off the…
· 3 min read
Fit
A size range is one pattern stretched, and the stretching has rules
Every size in a range comes from a single master pattern scaled up and down by fixed increments, which…
· 3 min read
Fabric
Worsted and woollen are two different ways of turning wool into yarn
The same fleece can produce a smooth, dense cloth that holds a crease or a soft, hairy one that traps air…
· 3 min read
Care & Repair
Stains fall into four chemistries and each one wants a different attack
What removes a grease mark will set a protein one, so the useful first question about a stain is not how…
· 3 min read
Care & Repair
Packing creases are made by pressure, not by folding
Clothes come out of a suitcase wrinkled because they spent a day compressed in a fixed position, which…
· 3 min read
Style History
Everyone wore a hat and then, quite suddenly, nobody did
Headwear was near-universal in public for centuries and largely vanished from everyday dress within a…
· 3 min read
Fit
Posture is the fitting problem no size chart asks about
Two people with identical chest and waist measurements can need quite different garments, because a tape…
· 4 min read
Fit
A skirt has to pass your widest point and then hang from somewhere narrower
Every skirt is a negotiation between two circumferences that are rarely the same, and almost all of its…
· 4 min read
Fit
Short and long sizes move the horizontal lines, not just the hems
A proper short or tall range is a different pattern rather than a shortened one, because height is not…
· 4 min read
Fabric
A waterproof jacket has to let moisture out, and that is the harder half
Keeping rain on the outside of a garment is a solved problem; moving perspiration through the same barrier…
· 4 min read
Care & Repair
A wet jumper must be dried flat because water makes it a heavy fabric
Knitted cloth has no internal structure holding it in shape, so a garment full of water hung from a hook…
· 4 min read
Care & Repair
Where you keep clothes matters as much as what you keep them in
Damp, light and still air do slow damage to garments that are not being worn at all, and most of it is…
· 3 min read
Wardrobe
Clothes for physical work are specified like equipment, and desk clothes are not
A garment worn while doing something demanding has measurable requirements, and the wardrobes people…
· 3 min read
Style History
Black was the hardest colour to dye and that is why it meant something
A deep, even black was for centuries an expensive technical achievement, and the meanings the colour…
· 3 min read