Q: What's the difference between ordering my Whirlingturban dress
custom-fit and choosing a dress in the Boutique?
A: Our custom-fit dresses are more expensive than our ordered-by-size,
ready-made "Boutique" dresses.
Here is the technical answer:
The titans of industry order their suits custom-made whereas the branch bank manager buys off-the-rack in a ready-made, predetermined size. Does Barack have his suits custom-made because it’s a status symbol or because he enjoys standing and having his measurements taken? No. The reason why suits are custom-made is because, when a garment is made for you and only for you -with a unique fit particular to your body alone- the fact that the garment fits well actually conceals "flawed" aspects of your anatomy. A garment that is expertly custom-made to fit you makes your body, posture and proportions appear more ideal. A well-fitting garment can absolutely take off ten pounds or be as good as plastic surgery. This is a "movie star fit" and it's what we do at Whirlingturban. Not to be confused with off -the-rack garments made with a loose "general fit" cut.
When fabric pulls because it is attempting to drape around a shape underneath that the garment doesn’t fit, it calls attention to flaws or can create the illusion of flaws.
Here is an example of how the manner in which a garment hangs can affect our perception of the body underneath. You have no idea how big the person wearing this shirt is; this could be a slim, athletic person wearing a child’s shirt. But you assume the person is fat and ill-shaped because the pulling lines, folds and wrinkles on the garment tell you that the body underneath is shaped badly and that “something is amiss underneath this garment”.
If this garment hung smoothly and evenly around the body underneath, you would think the body underneath was “right” and in proportion or ideally proportioned.
If you are truly a standard size with standard posture and have no unusual characteristics, an off-the rack garment will likely fit you just fine and having a garment custom-made could be a waste of money, unless you are having it custom made for some reason other than fit and in order to get a special style, fabric or detail.
However, you may fit mass-produced garments in standard sizes because mass-produced garment must be made to fit a variety of figures. To accomplish this they are either made from stretchy fabrics to adapt to many different bodies, or they are cut loosely to accommodate different shapes. This is not the type of garment we make at Whirlingturban- we use a more personalized and precise cut; a cut that duplicates and defines your own unique contours.
While we list our "ready made" or "off the rack" garments on our web site in our "Bombshell Boutique" and our "Wedding Boutique" by just a few specified measurements, if you are shopping for a wedding dress we will "detain" you briefly to ask you a few additional questions about your figure in order to insure that the dress ends up fitting you. We will likely encourage you enthusiastically to try a loaner first or warn you if we feel you will need a custom pattern. We do this because we want you to have a red carpet fit.
There is more that goes into fit than circumferences or the distance around your bust, waist, and hips, unless you are wearing a very loose-fitting garment that doesn't need to fit your contours. (Having fit “built into” the cut of a garment becomes less critical if the fabric is a stretch fabric.)
Below are six variations in your posture alone that will affect the fit of a garment. If your pattern is not made to accommodate any of the below variations, the result will be pulling or bagging in the fabric of the garment with the result of making your body shape look less appealing inside the garment.
And the variations above are only the postural variations! You can also be short, tall, have a long or short torso, a low or high bust, hips or a derriere that start in a higher or lower than average position, have a broad back and the list goes on. These things are not “figure flaws”, unless the garment doesn’t fit and makes the body underneath look “wrong”.
“How do you create your precise, custom fit at a distance?”
In order to determine the size, shape and contours of your body, we ask you to submit a thorough list of your measurements. We also ask you to send us, via email, digital body pics. We use the body pics and our considerable experience to 1) confirm the measurements you have sent us and to 2) analyze and create a pattern for your posture and contours. We we also request that you try on a loaner dress, order a test dress or a send sample mock-up/toile, as needed. We have a lot of experience fitting garments at a distance.
“Do I need a custom fit?”
The more closely-fitting your garment style is, the less you can get away without a custom fit if you are not a standard size. This is why clothing manufacturers make today’s fashions without a close fit and/or they use stretch fabrics. They want to create a garment that is going to fit many different bodies. If you want the impact of a garment with a close fit like Whirlingturban dresses have and are not a very standard size, you may need a custom fit. Only about 15% of our wedding dress customers do not need any customization of their fit.
Be aware that you may not have worn that many garments in the past that were very closely-fitting and made from non-stretch fabrics, so you may have non-standard fitting characteristics that you don’t know about.
You are more likely to be able to get away without a custom fit:
-your fabric is dark, colored or has a motif/print
-your style is not form-fitting
-your fabric is has a matte finish and is not shiny
-your fabric is stiff and is not thin, soft, drapey
-you are thin (since the closer a person is to their skeleton base form, the more alike people are shaped)
“I think I have a standard shape and I want to order my dress by measurements only.”
(Also, see BELOW for info about trying on our LOANER dresses to check the fit.)
If you think you are close to a standard size, go ahead and order one of our “Boutique Dresses”, which we make from our popular patterns that have successfully fit many people with your measurements. We do not sell in sizes like 8, 10, or 12 because there can be too much variation in the sizing philosophy from manufacturer to manufacturer. We carefully measure each and every dress we make and list the dresses by measurements, doing our best to tell you what range of fitting leeway there is in each part of the dress. We allow some extra fabric inside the dress and construct the dresses to be easy to alter wherever possible.
If you do not match the seam lengths and contours we build into the dress, with some information about your figure, we can tell you how likely it is that you can have it altered locally for a reasonable cost. Assuming you bought the correct size, you may also send the dress back to us for alterations. If you need alteration advice please don’t hesitate to ask as we are experts at altering our dresses and are happy to help.
We can also provide an alteration, at an additional charge, to the dress before we send it to you. We can alter it for you at a more reasonable price than you can have it done locally.
Watch out For These Potential Problems
Beware of wedding dress vendors who want you to buy the dress "and just have it altered locally". Not all alterations can be made once the dress is cut so you might end up with a dress impossible to alter. You might also wind up with an ordeal or major expense getting the alterations locally. We try to avoid these problems before they occur. It's more "trouble" ordering the dress from us beforehand because we are going to ask you for more information. But this way we are preventing mistakes ahead of time. We'd rather do that than make it very simple to order and receive the dress and a big hassle for you after you get it.
Also beware of dresses that are cut more loosely than you are expecting. Look at the photos closely- is the model's pose distracting you from the fact that the dress actually has a less-defined fit than you are expecting? Or is it a dress that fits loosely as part of the style but which only looks well on a tall, model-thin frame? An "artsy, loose" fit is generally not for the curvy or the short in stature.
“I am pretty easy-going and I can’t afford a custom-fit dress, so I prefer to take my chances on a dress made by measurements only and not fully custom-fit.”
(Also, see BELOW for info about trying on our LOANER dresses to check the fit.)
OK! Some brides are fussier than others, and Whirlingturban can be very perfectionistic. But in order to protect our reputation and insure your happiness, we must always err on the side of caution in our recommendations about whether we think you need a custom-fit dress or can just order by the basic size information of height, bust, waist and hip size.
If you prefer to make the decision to buy an “off the rack” dress from us or one that is made by measurements only:
1) You must be very careful beforehand to insure that your measurements are accurate and that they are taken according to our instructions.
2) You must take responsibility for the decision. If our pattern does not not fit your unique body shape this does not constitute an error on our part and wedding or custom made dresses are absolutely not returnable. The only way to predict *with certainly* how a given pattern will fit you is by trying it on first via a Loaner Dress (http://www.whirlingturban.com/wedding_boutique/loaner_dress.php), or by having a test dress or toile which is part of the process of a completely custom-fit dress.