Get it altered

| Posted Jul 24th 2006 12:08PM by Nicole Weston
Filed under: High-end threads, Casual wear

Buying clothing off the rack, whether it's in a discount or a department store, is much easier and less expensive than getting clothing custom made or going straight to a designer. But even if the actual design of the garment is good, that doesn't mean it's going to fit properly. A few years ago, an ill-fitting garment might have been put back on that rack if it didn't work out in the dressing room, but that is no longer the case. Lately, the trend is to buy clothes and have them altered to fit your body and your tastes. People are even getting their t-shirts tailored -- where once the most common alteration was to lengthen or shorten a hemline or inseam.

This taste for tailoring is known as "remaking" clothes and Barney's, for example, is reporting a 20% increase in the number of alterations made this year over last year. Requests are made for more body-conscious clothing, at a level that clothing made to fit different body types simply cannot match.

Is it worth the added expense? It is to many, who get a satisfaction out of having created something at some level. To others, it isn't worth the time or the price and they'd rather seek out brands that fit them well from the get-go than wait 2-3 weeks for their newly remade t-shirt to get returned.

[via WSJ]

Tags: alteration, clothing, custom, designer, fashion, off-the-rack, remaking, remaking clothing, style, tailor, tailoring, wall street journal, wsj