The majority of your business week will be spent attending meetings and working on presentations, but one glorious day a week you will be allowed to abandon the formal rules of the formal dress code and spend one the afternoon in the midst of the casual Friday. However, with a new dress code comes a new set of rules that must be taken into consideration as you design your custom wardrobe. What fabrics are appropriate for casual Friday? What cuts are appropriate for casual Friday? What colors and patterns are appropriate? What accessories should be worn on Fridays? All of these factors must be taken into consideration as you begin to work with your custom tailor to create your casual Friday wardrobe. These factors will help establish the style guidelines that you must adhere to during the style process of your custom casual clothing. Once you understand the guidelines to casual Friday, you are prepared to make the most appropriate wardrobe decisions as you design your custom wardrobe even if it is just a custom made suit.
As you design your casual wardrobe, take the time to experiment with color, pattern and texture. During the week, there are strict guidelines that should be adhered to with regards to what is considered appropriate in a professional environment. Those rules are slightly more relaxed as you enter the casual environment. Your casual wardrobe is the place to experiment with color, pattern and texture. During the week you may be restricted to rigid sets of colors like black, navy or charcoal but during the casual occasions choose some alternate colors like a brown or a camel. Those colors are still neutral enough to be office appropriate, but different enough to feel like you have broken out of your normal routine. In that instance you have found an alternative without going too far off the straight and narrow. A causal environment is also a great place to experiment with pattern and texture. Working with patterns is an easy way to incorporate a slight bit of whimsy into your business casual wardrobe. If you choose to delve off into the world of browns and khakis, you may also want to consider designing some of your custom casual clothing with plaids and tweeds. Browns always look great when they are created in those patterns. Texture is another way to experiment in the casual environment. Look for fabrics that include a great deal of dimension as a part of their design feature and utilize them to create pieces like a great custom dress shirt. The custom dress shirt will be a bold enough statement in terms of fashion, but not so bold that it will be considered inappropriate in an office environment.
Custom casual clothing presents an entirely different set of fashion challenges. You must remain within the guidelines for what will be considered office appropriate while at the same time allowing people to have a small view into your personality through your design choices. Remember to challenge yourself by experimenting with color, texture, and pattern and allow your creative juices to flow.
Anatomy of A Well Cut Custom Suit
When you first begin working with your custom tailor you may not be familiar with the terms that you will be hearing throughout the process. As part of your investment in your custom casual clothing wardrobe, it may also prove effective to invest your time in identifying some of the terminology that will be linked to the anatomy of your custom suit. As you become familiar with those terms, you will be able to communicate with your custom tailors more effectively and actually get more out of your overall experience. Some of the most important terms to become familiar with are the lapel, the vent, the seam and inseam, the hem and the pleat.
Prior to beginning your relationship with your custom tailor, take the time to learn some of the terminology that will be involved in the design process. In order to create an end result that you will be proud of, you must be able to communicate effectively with your tailor.
What is a Lapel?
The lapel of a custom jacket is the folded flap of cloth that is on the front of your jacket. Lapels are formed by folding over the front edge of the jacket and then sewing them to the collar. The three types of lapels include the notched, peaked and shawl lapel. The occasion that you are wearing your custom suit to will help determine the type of lapel that will work best for your custom suit.
What is a Vent?
The vent, mostly found in a men’s suit is the slit that appears at the back of the jacket. Vents have their origin in the function of the garment; they were originally designed as a way to make riding a horse while wearing a jacket easier. The vent would allow the rider to move about without constraint and the slit of the vent would allow the back of the jacket to drape over the rump of the horse such that the front of the jacket well smoothly down the front of the rider’s body, thereby creating a smooth unbroken line and silhouette.
Vents also helps horse riders to slip their scabbards thru the slits so that the line of the jacket did not break.
Today you can design a custom suit with a single vent, a double vent, or in a vent-less style. The purpose of the vent in modern times is to aid in the hang of the suit jacket itself.
What is a Seam and Inseam?
The seam of a garment is the point on the garment where two or more layers of fabric are joined together and held in place with stitches. Seams can be plain seams, French seams, a flat seam or a lapped seam.
On the other hand, an inseam is that line of joint that binds the interior leg of a pant, and is an important measure to consider as you are designing custom pants. The inseam length in the USA is used as a measure of the length of the pants. The logic goes that on a person, the inseam is the one Measurements that is fixed but the out seam can change depending on the style and the rise of the pants. In the US therefore, pants length is measured using the inseam.
What is a Pleat?
The pleat of a trouser or skirt or on any kind of garment, is the type of fold formed by doubling the fabric back on itself and then securing it in place. The amount of fabric in the pleat will determine the size of the pleat itself. Your frame will also dictate the size of the pleat that you will want to incorporate into your custom trouser. The larger your frame, the smaller the pleat will need to be.
Choosing a Casual Custom Suit
Most people spend a lot of time creating a stylish wardrobe that is suitable for the office environment because they understand the impact that a business suit can have on their career. However, not everyone spends that same amount of time crafting a functional, casual wardrobe. For some, the first time that they think about a casual suit is when they are faced with an event that requires one. Casual suits can be used at beach weddings, a summer party, on a cruise or a myriad of other casual activities where a pair of jeans and a shirt or sweater simply will not do!
Choosing a casual suit and getting it custom made is a slightly different process than choosing a custom made formal suit that is worthy of being worn to a special occasion. Formal suits are worn in a business setting, at the theater or anywhere where a modicum of decorum and formality is required by the wearer.
How casual is Too Casual?
When it comes to choosing a casual suit, the first place to look for guidance is your company dress code. You want to ensure as you make your custom design decisions that you are not creating a look that is too casual for a work environment. As you design your custom made suits, choose fabrics that are less formal than those that you would choose for your formal suit, but more formal than you would choose for your everyday wardrobe. A very casual suit would be perhaps in linen or a very light cotton poplin. Somewhat more formal than this would be a cotton twill or seersucker fabric. A little more formal would be a solid light weight lighter color suit fabric. Thereafter, you go into the formal colors and fabrics like darker greys, blues, navy’s, stripes and so on.
A semi-formal ensemble ideal for a lot of occasions is a blazer paired with dress pants or for less formal look, paired with jeans. Most semi-formal office settings find it acceptable to wear a black or navy blazer paired with a khaki trousers or jeans. In this case, work closely with your custom tailor in order to ensure that the clothes you design is comfortable while still remaining office appropriate.
Add a Dress Shirt to Your Custom Suit to complete the look.
If you are wary that your choice of a casual work custom made suit is too casual for the office, you can always dress it up with a shirt. Or, a semi-formal ensemble such as a blazer and dress pants, can be dressed down with a polo or round neck paired with is. With a casual or semi casual suit, how and what you combine it with, will matter and shows a dressed up or dressed down study.
And these days, casual Friday presents new style challenges that must be taken into account when it comes designing your custom wardrobe. You must take into account the balance necessary to achieve a casual look while still remaining professional enough to interact in an office environment. So, do look to the office guidelines and then make wise choices when it comes to wardrobe selections, and then be prepared to hit the door in style.
Choose Your Accessories Effectively
A casual dress code means that you have a little more freedom when it comes to the design process. It also means that you also have more freedom in the accessories that you choose to pair with your custom made suit. When you begin selecting the accessories that go along with your custom made casual suit, remember to choose shoes that are casual as well. You can select loafers or cloth or suede slip on, but steer clear of sneakers or sports shoes as those will be too casual even for casual Friday! Oh, and don’t forget to add a nice belt to finish off the look.