“Women are very open about their inadequacies,” says Savile Row tailor Nooshin Bakhshi. “Men will focus on all the good bits. Women will sit down and say, ‘Right, I’ve got a big bum. I’ve got a big bust.”
Your “problem areas” can wreak havoc on a shopping trip for office wear with an off-the-shelf jacket fitting your bust but swamping your waist or disguising your curves altogether. It’s all too easy to put it on your card, take it home and decide that your body, not the garment, is to blame.
Nooshin says: “If you go into a shop and buy something off-the-shelf, you’re very often at the mercy of whoever’s made it or cut it. If you ask most women, they would say something isn’t quite right about it but people just make do.”
With the market picking up, however, women are investing in their wardrobes again with quality pieces that can bear being worn repeatedly and they’re taking artistic control over their style. What better way to do that than with bespoke tailoring?
In the world of bespoke fashion, there is no right or wrong shape. Box pleats can create a bust for the more lightly endowed while a drop waistband creates an hourglass for the woman who is more up-and-down than in-and-out.
The re-emergence of the 1950s hourglass silhouette, in all its simplicity and femininity has brought curves back into tailoring and it’s a look that can be made to suit just about anyone.
“Obviously, Mad Men has had a massive influence on a lot of things being made,” says Nooshin. She admits that many of her garments have been inspired by dresses that feature on the insanely popular American television show.
The bespoke process also allows women to tailor their style to their specific work environment, tasks and social habits. Corporate environments naturally call for a discussion of appropriate lengths of skirts and depths of V’s. And if you’re client-facing, you’ll need a fabric that holds its look all day (Nooshin suggests crate wool).
It’s even worth considering whether you’ll be able to move adequately. Nooshin says: “We go for things that fit you so you can reach down and pick up your handbag or reach forward and type. It sounds crazy but…people need to be comfortable.”
And whatever the style, most outfits need to take you from day to night. Dress and jacket combinations that work with both corporate and social lives are a common request. Nooshin says that her clients often ask: “Please can you do me a jacket and a dress that I can go see my client in. Then I’ve got cocktails after work and I want to be able to whip my jacket off put my heels on and feel like a million dollars.” Don’t we all.
