From the vault: your body isn't wrong
your clothing just wasn't made for you
One morning about a month ago, my friend Rachel Cole texted me this New York Times article. This is a concept I talk about with almost every client and in every course or workshop, so I created a quick video in response, which then went viral.
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Here are the posts I reference in the video:
Part one (originally published in 2020)
A hundred years ago, for the most part, you either made your own clothes or you paid someone else to make them for you. Either way, the clothes were made specifically for you, for your specific body shape and measurements.
Many women today feel terrible when they go shopping because they feel as though their body is somehow wrong for the clothing in stores. A huge part of this is because manufacturers aren’t making clothes for a wide enough range of sizes. But it’s also because women’s bodies of any size are too unique and varied to fit into a mass produced item. Manufacturers are making clothing for a fictional ideal shape and hoping to cover as many bases as they can. I teach in my shopping workshop how to adjust your expectations about how long it will take and how many items you’ll have to try (spoiler alert: a lot) to find something that fits not only your body, but your aesthetic style and your lifestyle.
Until recently, I thought that sewing your own clothes was something only moms in the 70’s did. There seemed to be no place for it in our fast paced, fast fashion world. Why would you spend the time and effort when you could buy a shirt from the clearance rack at Target for $7?
My mom sewed when I was very little, but as I got older, she got busier with 3 kids and a more than full time job as an elementary school teacher. She taught me a bit and I vaguely remember sewing something badly for a 4-H fashion show in middle school. My husband (then boyfriend) bought me a sewing machine for Christmas years ago. I used it often to hem and take things in, but the one time I tried to make something from scratch, it turned out horribly wonky and I decided that sewing was too hard for me.
As much as I hate to admit it (because of my love/hate relationship with social media), Instagram really opened my eyes to the possibility that there might be a way for me to sew my own clothes. If it hadn’t been for seeing so many other women start the process, I'm not sure I would have even considered it.
I decided to give sewing another shot in April. As I said in a recent Instagram post, it’s been equal parts frustrating and fulfilling. I’ve spent more time making practice garments and fixing mistakes than I have sewing wearable garments.
There are so many aspects about the relationship of sewing to wardrobe that I’m excited to explore: sewing as a form of mindfulness, how it relates to wardrobe budget, whether it's possible to retain a minimalist approach when all of a sudden an entire new world of garments is opened up, but for now, I appreciate the most empowering aspect of sewing your own clothes - there is nothing wrong with your body, just that previous clothes haven’t been made to fit it.
Part two (originally published in January 2023)
Did you know that men’s clothes are designed with the knowledge and assumption that all men’s bodies will be different in shape and size? Pants are often sold unhemmed because it’s assumed that the ratio between men’s waists and their inseams will vary. I learned only recently that men’s clothing is also made with fabric allowances to let out or take in to fit to the body of the person buying the garment. It’s almost as if they know that no item will fit every unique person. 🤔
Imagine if women’s clothes were made like that, to acknowledge the fact that EVERY single person buying the item will need to make changes to it to have it fit their body.
Not only are women’s clothes *not* made with a diversity of bodies in mind, women’s clothing manufacturers will actually design clothes to fit a mythical body and then search for the one human on earth who fits those dimensions to be their fit model. If they have a hard time finding one person to fit into their clothes, how are the rest of us supposed to do it?
And don’t get me started on the inconsistency of sizing (skip to 1:10 in this video for the history and check out this illustrated version on the
)
I wish there was a better solution to this problem than trying on a ton of items to try to hit the fit lottery, making your own clothes, or blowing up the entire fashion industry and starting over, but at the moment, there’s not.
So, just a reminder: your body isn’t wrong, your clothes just weren’t made for you.
Are you enjoying ? I’d love it if you could send this post to someone you think will also appreciate a different take on fashion and style.
My mom used to tell the story of how a store assistant was helping my grandma try on a dress (1940s or 1950s) and saying "This dress requires a taller woman."
Because I'm old, I know how to sew. But what I really need to learn is how to tailor. I'd vastly prefer to buy off-the-rack clothes and alter them to fit. There are a couple of tricks to hemming jeans so that the original hem is displayed rather than some odd-looking flat hem. I've never learned to take the waistband off the jeans, take the waist in, and replace the waistband, but that's absolutely the best way to get jeans to fit if your waist-to-hip ratio is large.
Partly this is because my current sewing machine is kind of cheap and crummy. You need a decent machine and needles made for denim, and then I stare at the prices for good sewing machines, wonder if I'd really use it enough to justify the cost, and go into analysis paralysis.
It's also very easy to get overwhelmed by the social media groups for seamstresses/sewists/sewers (each term has its proponents) and their focus on how you need at *least* 20 different presser feet, and fifty million other little thingies, and then I just go to Ross and buy something.
Does anyone shop at e-Shakti? I've bought several things from them. They ask for dozens and dozens of your measurements and then sew to order. Unfortunately they don't have every item of clothing that I might possibly want, so I'm still stuck either tailoring or taking the item to the alterations place.
This is a class taught by a really creative and fun teacher of many crafty things. Soft Work. How to sew garments for your own body. I think enrollment ends very soon and so I wanted to share with all of you. I don’t think I can join this round but am keeping it on my radar. https://www.mixedcolor.net/soft-work-details
I have a sewing machine. I have a lot of supplies. It is hard to get started!