Whether Chicago building manager Lori J. Olson is meeting with clients or joining friends for drinks, the question is always the same: Where did you get that outfit? And unquestionably, she gives her admirers the same answer: Evanston-based fashion designer Annie Andrews.
“Even the most casual wear is just gorgeous; you could wear it to work or out to a nice dinner,” Olson said. “It’s like wearing pajamas in how comfortable it is, but everything fits like it was made just for me.”
In fashion terminology, this type of service is called “custom fit” or “made to measure,” said wardrobing expert Barbara Samuels, who teaches fashion design and styling classes at Columbia College Chicago and has dressed opera star Denyce Graves and actress Angela Bassett. Custom fit is a middle ground between clothes you buy in a store–known as “off the rack”–and true couture, which is crafted from a specially cut pattern.
Olson, a vice president with real estate management company Jones Lang LaSalle, has been an Annie A. devotee for almost five years–hooked, she said, on the designer’s rich fabrics, flowing cuts and personal service. Andrews sells her line, called “Annie A. Clothing,” by appointment from a studio in her home.
This sales method allows Andrews to tweak her own designs to best fit each client. “So if someone likes the body of a suit, I can say, ‘Hey, let’s add some buttons’ or reinvent it in a way to make it fresh and new or more suitable to that person,” she said. “It’s a clothing line, but within that line, there’s a flexibility you just can’t get with something you’d buy in a department store.”
Pants and skirts from the Annie A. fall-winter collection range from $120 to $160; unlined jackets start around $185, and lined jackets average in the low-to-mid $300s. Suits generally run $500 to $625.
“Women are sick of looking like everyone else,” says Pamela Vanderlinde, who creates a clothing line inspired by the Far East that she sells at her West Armitage Avenue shop, Zone. “They want things that are one-of-a-kind, and they want to be able to mix and match, say, that lapel and that fabric,” she said.
Though Vanderlinde provides the full spectrum of design services, from off-the-rack to custom pattern cutting, her focus when collaborating with any client remains the same: “It’s all about fitting, fitting, fitting,” she said. In addition to making the garments, she does alterations.
Suits start at $900, depending on fabric; jackets begin at $450 and pants and skirts average about $270.
At Chicago-based Scarlet Designs, which sells a line of colorful coats that can go from day to evening, fabric choice drives the customization process. Although clients choose a coat from an existing selection of designs and sizes, they can choose the fabric and consult with owner Beth Lambert to ensure a final product that suits their bodies and lifestyles.
“We work with high-end interior design fabric,” Lambert said. “These fabrics are very versatile and very durable–they’re even great for moms with small children.”
Lambert also can arrange alterations if necessary. And the price? Around $400 plus the cost of fabric. Even if the final tally reaches into the $800 range, it can still be considered a deal, said Samuels, considering that department stores have plenty of mass-produced coats available in the same price range. And with custom fit, she says, “you get a lot more originality and usually there’s more consideration given to fabrication.” There’s also no stratospheric up-charge for a fancy designer label, as is common in the couture realm, she added.
For Vanderlinde, the ability to control style and fit is all about empowerment. “There’s nothing like feeling empowered by your clothing,” she said.
That’s also the drive behind Web-based Me Jeans (www.mejeans.com), which specializes in jeans, the bane of any woman with bigger-than-model measurements.
“We solve the fit problems everyone has with jeans while allowing you to avoid the dressing room,” says owner P.J. Benoit of Wheaton. Choices include 21 fabrics, five fly options, 10 stitch colors and 6 back-pocket options, he said.
The price, including delivery, is $89, not including add-ons such as stain guards, special rubs or added fraying. Jeans arrive in two to four weeks.
“You know you look good in these jeans because they fit you exactly, and you can feel like these jeans represent you because you built them,” Benoit said. “And at the end of the day, they do what jeans should do–make you feel cool.”
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Why the size surprise?
It’s a question as perplexing as fashion itself: How can someone be a size 6 in one brand and an 8 in another? Yet the answer is simple, said wardrobing expert Barbara Samuels of Columbia College Chicago: Every designer works with a different size scale.
Plus, “there are variances in every body silhouette,” she said. “For example, a woman could have an hourglass figure, but she may have a bit more sand in the bottom or in the top.”
Vanity also factors into sizing. “Even if you are a perfect size 10, a designer might put you in an 8 so you’ll feel good. So even if the label says it’s the right size, it may not fit correctly,” Samuels said.
The “couture” construction process ensures a perfect fit every time because it involves taking dozens of measurements and creating a custom-cut pattern. It also requires a series of fittings in which a muslin mockup is constructed and hand-pinned to the client’s body before the fabric is cut to create the actual garment–making for prices well beyond the means of all but the fabulously wealthy, Samuels said.
But a good custom-fit garment can often mimic a couture fit, for thousands less. “A good seamstress can start with a basic jacket, take out sleeves, take in the sides, pull it apart and put it back together, and you would swear it was tailor-made,” Samuels said.
And when a garment fits to a T, even the most inexpensive fabrics, such as denim or rayon, look luxurious, Samuels added.
— J.B.D.
