Front balance and back balance

[Greger]

The Swedish method yonder years is the boy begins at 4-5 years of age. The process is all hand sewn. Tailors wouldn't dare have a machine or your name is ruined. So you sit on the bench and work at straight stitches. When you can sew straight then it is straight to making a pair of pants. From there a coat. In making a coat you are taught fitting, styles and fashions. During the fitting you learn how a coat should fit. Therefore, with your first coat you are learning balance and how to correct off balance. There is no reason to write this down. The child doesn't know how to read. The apprenticeship includes various body shapes.

Jim showed several diagrams. That kind of cut you can't slide the back up or down on the side seams. Modern coat cuts it is easy. A number of books show raising and lowering the back neck and/or raising and lower the neck shoulder points. Lateral balance (straight or crookening) on the front, is maybe 22 degrees angle, is also part of vertical balance. Poulin shows quite a bit about balance, including lifting and lowering the neck. Harry Simon's deals with balance in at least one of his books. Hostek deals with it. One tailor, forgot his name, in his video shows drawing a pattern mentioned when drawing the front to start higher or lower. Some tailors are really good at eyeballing its location (this is from experience). Believe Poulin said the difference can be 1 1/2 inches 3,8 cm. David Carlin shows quite a number of ways for adjusting balance. An old American journal, that I have/had, goes into a lot of details about balance. Tailor and Cutter books and journals certainly deal with it when discussing fitting. A straight line is shorter than a curved line. So a round back means the back length is longer for stooped. It is also a wider back. A chest jutting out is rounder than its straight back. Therefore the back is shorter and adding to the front is a good idea. The front width is wider. The extra wideness is taken from the back to keep the circumference. ATailor who wrote here said the strap measure is helpful. He also took the measure from nape to where the customer wanted the coat buttoned. There are a lot of variables. Inlays are necessary. Experience helps draw better patterns. The word balance isn't always clearly used. Some tailors chalk the pattern and cut added inlays. Some show the pattern chalked and chalked inlays. Beginners should have the inlays chalked before cutting.

[Gerry]

Recently someone was selling a batch of late-fifties 'Snob' magazines on Etsy. I knew nothing about this publication, but clearly it was the Italian equivalent of the Tailor and Cutter. Better IMO, because it covered couture and a fair chunk was dedicated to Ladieswear. There were tailoring articles, fashion pages, 'join-the-dots'/regular drafts and completed drafts, drawn to scale.

No idea how long the magazine ran for, but clearly a wealth on info that definitely included articles on fitting. Were I made of money I'd have snaffled the lot (and spent a fair bit of my time on Google Translate, no doubt).

There was also a similar French magazine for the tailoring trade. Can't remember its name though.

Edit: Possibly L'Homme magazine? I just had a look at copies on Esty and it included drafts plus a 'Technologie' section, which covered issues of fit, by the look of things:

https://i.etsystatic.com/13710205/r/il/226481/2197240436/il_1588xN.2197240436_aigl.jpg

[jruley]

Jim showed several diagrams. That kind of cut you can't slide the back up or down on the side seams.

Actually, you can (or at least DeVere thought so:)






Again, this is purely for historical interest.  But it does show the idea of correcting for balance issues was known.

[Gerry]

There was also a similar French magazine for the tailoring trade. Can't remember its name though.

It was called Le Maitre Tailleur. There was a copy on etsy a while ago. Very similar to the tailor and cutter, by the look of things.