Product Review

The trade secrets of couture tailoring are revealed—an invaluable guide for professionals and enthusiasts

Traditional tailoring has not changed for many centuries, however, the techniques are now known only by a few practicing in the best couture ateliers and bespoke tailor's workrooms. Nothing feels quite so luxurious as custom-made clothes, but the tailoring skills they require are often thought to be shrouded in mystery, and the clothes therefore only accessible to the rich and famous. This practical book brings vintage couture tailoring within everyone's reach. With step-by-step photographs and professional tips throughout, it shows how a lady's jacket is made and thereby introduces a range of fundamental tailoring techniques. These can be used for garments for either gender, as well as other sewing projects. The book discusses molding fabric to shape with the iron, employing loose interfacings, hollow shoulder construction, pad stitching canvas, interlining and weighting hems, making tailored and bound buttonholes, and more forgotten techniques.