Evening Dress Waistcoats

"The brute covers himself, the rich man and the fop adorn themselves, the elegant man dresses!"

-Honore de Balzac

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Sator
Posts: 485
Joined: Sat May 13, 2006 2:56 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia
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Wed Dec 03, 2008 7:45 am

I have noticed a couple of discussions of late involving people who wanted a double breasted dress waistcoat but were unable to find one suitable. Of course, that means the only genuine solution is bespoke.

The trouble with this sort of thing, unfortunately, is that most tailors rarely make dress waistcoats these days. Many will be sent scampering back to their old textbooks or even yellowing study notes from decades past. In fact, most tailors have to think about things a little to make any double breasted waistcoat.

I thought I would create this little post for anyone tempted to try a double breast dress waistcoat and wanted to make things as easy for their tailors as possible. That may even translate to saved time for the tailor, who may pass the saving on (time=money in a small business).

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The source text is Archibald A. Whife, writing in a major 1950's West End tailoring text. For details see my Bibliography thread.

http://www.cutterandtailor.com/forum

My suggested source for marcella in this instance is here:

http://www.acornfabrics.com/classic_fabric_list.html

You will need about 1m of double width cloth which can be purchased through their website. Tailors are unlikely to have any such washing fabrics in their swatch books.

Later I will also post Philip Dellafera's chapter on making up DB waistcoats. Given how seldom tailors today are called on to make DB waistcoats, taking a printout of the article when placing an order may be worthwhile.

http://www.cutterandtailor.com/forum
Last edited by Sator on Thu Nov 12, 2009 10:14 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Sator
Posts: 485
Joined: Sat May 13, 2006 2:56 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia
Contact:

Wed Dec 03, 2008 9:53 am

Last edited by Sator on Thu Nov 12, 2009 10:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
clarkebmc
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2005 4:55 pm
Location: Ottawa,Canada
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Wed Dec 03, 2008 6:45 pm

Sator,
Taking the time to scan this information is a REAL service to our community and a real contribution to the future.
As an amateur tailor, I will carefully save these drafting instructions in my files.
Thank you.
/* ClarkeBMC */
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