Natural Fabrics and Fit 101

One of the biggest reasons I chose to start Brass Tacks is because I care about how a garment should fit, and I felt there weren’t many brands in India that had both fit and interesting fabric in the same garment. I am fully aware that the fit may not work for every body type, but it does work for many and when it doesn’t, we do alterations or we make a fresh piece that works better for a different body type. Still, I find that some people are not happy with the fit in comparison to a tight t-shirt or anything with a bit of elastane (lycra) woven into the fabric. Some customers end up buying a size or two too small, and I fear that they are giving up comfort for what they think is a better fit. So I’m taking the advice of my pattern teacher (and mentor) and writing a short piece on why my clothes are not meant to be worn tight like second skin.

The difficult part about getting a “good fit” with natural fabrics is making a pattern that flatters the body without cutting out those few inches of ease that is necessary for basic movement. I’m not saying you can do yoga in Brass Tacks clothes, but you should be able to lift your arms to tie your hair, or at least give someone a hug without having the shoulder or back darts pull at the seams! A good test when trying on an upper body garment is to wrap your arms around your shoulder (like you are giving yourself a hug) and then gently throw your arms back in the opposite direction (like the flying scene in Titanic). If you can do these movements, the garment is not too tight.

Ready-made clothes can never be as perfect as a custom-made piece. I have to follow a size chart at Brass Tacks because we need to have some system for our grading of sizes, but it is unlikely that a woman’s measurements perfectly match up to the measurements of any one size on my chart. They could have a shoulder and bust measurement that matches size 8, but a waist and hip that matches size 6 for example. And then if you want to get into details, there are differences in how the body curves between the waist and hip, or between the hip and knee. Ready-made garments are convenient because they are available without the customer having to do any running around, but it is tough catering to a range of sizes and on top of that variations within each size. At the Brass Tacks store we offer alterations or other solutions to give customers the best of ready-made with some tweaking to work for the customer, but our fabrics are not meant to imitate knitwear. So rather than alter the garments to fit you like a glove, I say enjoy the freedom of movement and the breathing room that our clothes provide!

One Solution to the Tailor Crisis

Last week I was supposed to launch my Monsoon Collection in the store. I had the pictures from the photo-shoot ready to mail out along with my press kits, I had started telling customers at the store to lookout for our new collection on September 6th, and I had planned a trip to Ahmedabad and Jaipur later this month to meet with suppliers after I launched the collection in the store. I had a big problem though: the clothes weren’t ready. In the last month one of my tailors has taken indefinite paternity leave, one has left to join a more lucrative job closer to his home, and another left to move back home to be with his wife and kids where he will take up a job as an auto driver.

I have spent the last two weeks calling everyone I know in the garment industry, but everyone tells me that their situation is similar: it’s tough to recruit new tailors, the existing ones don’t show up for work regularly, many of them prefer to work at a small tailoring shop where the hours are flexible and they get paid per piece (which means no one to question quality as long as they are churning out sari blouses by the hour).

Or, they could leave the tailoring profession altogether for more lucrative jobs elsewhere.

There is a dearth of quality labour in India but the economy is growing and every business needs people. Salesmen at Lifestyle barely speak English, let alone understand what products are stocked there, but I am willing to bet they get paid more than the average tailor. Plus who wouldn’t like to work in a large air-conditioned mall rather than slog at a sewing machine? Large banks need “office boys” and chain supermarkets need cashiers and helpers at their stores, so all the large export factories who need tailors at reasonable salaries have moved far out of the city, where the job options are agriculture, manual labour at a factory, and now tailoring.

I met with the principal of the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) two weeks ago. AEPC was set up by the government to train and supply the garment industry with manpower at every level- tailors, cutters, pattern makers, and supervisors. The principal said they are finding it hard to recruit tailors because being tailor is no longer a very lucrative option compared to other jobs that are available in the market.

I took that as sign (one among many) and my solution has been to increase my average salary for tailors. Obviously moving out of the city to attract tailors who live in villages isn’t an option for me, but then again people are hopefully buying my clothes because of the style and the fit – my profit isn’t determined by price alone unlike for many export factories. I hired two new tailors from AEPC (we’ll train them up to our quality standards and I can only hope that they stay as we give them a raise for every stage of improvement) and I gave my existing tailors a finder’s fee for using their network to find new recruits and that resulted in another two tailors. Now I am back in production for my monsoon collection.

Here is a preview of what will be in the store on October 5th:

Research and Documentation

A friend of mine once told me that Indians haven’t done a good job of documenting our history and our knowledge. She was referring in particular to the field of traditional medicine and healing techniques. In the last few weeks, while I’ve been gathering research material for a section on textile crafts that I plan to have in the new Brass Tacks website (that’s right- coming up very soon), I realized that even in the area of textiles where so much has been written, it is still hard to find books that explain the crafts in a language that is easy to comprehend. Many of the essays are detailed analyses related to economics and the textile sector, and many of the coffee table books are more for visual appeal with just a paragraph of information on the origin of the craft or details of the technique.

There is one visual guide on world textiles by John Gillow that provides, albeit only for famous or popular textiles, clear explanations on craft techniques from different parts of the world. Since the book is a visual guide however, it does not go into the details of different designs or variations within a craft, and it does not provide much insight into the origin of the crafts either. For example, I am not sure why the world famous Varanasi sarees that use an extra weft technique in gold and silver are referred to by the Bengali word for extra weft: Jamdani. The Craft Revival Trust, as I’ve mentioned before, has documented many crafts and classified them in a way that makes them easy to find on their website, however a lot of those descriptions seem as if they are meant for people who already know the basics (or are some basics like the origin of Varanasi Jamdani omitted due to lack of information)?

This post was first motivated by a piece I found on the Craft Revival Trust website, and then more recently while writing information on textile crafts for the Brass Tacks website I became more appreciative of this clear and concise piece on the loom. Written by a textile designer, this definition-essay is a simple but thorough explanation of the way a handloom works. For many readers the details on the intricacies of the loom might be a little too much, but if you are interested in studying the basics of fabric construction, then this is it: easy to read, easy to comprehend, and easily accessible - Ayeshe Sadr’s Demystifying the Loom.