In 2010 I suggested guidelines for the belt-challenged because most of my clients (and many of our forum members) had belt phobia back then. However, things have changed. These days many more of my clients and our forum members are wearing belts looped through trousers and jeans. The reasons for this are two-fold:

1. The semi-tuck and new semi-tuck are a genius styling tool. The concept allows you to half tuck roomy tops into jeans, trousers and skirts that hang lower than your natural waist. The visual effect is forgiving and camouflaging on the midriff, thereby concealing those extra bits that make you feel self-conscious when you expose them. Semi tucking also adds a little more structure to a casual outfit. In this way, you can showcase the front of a belt without feeling like you’re wearing a straight jacket or that it’s cutting into your waist. Gone are the days where you need a defined waistline to wear a belt. This is brilliantly liberating. 
2. On trend slouchy pant silhouettes and boyfriend jeans often require a belt in order to stay up because they hang lower on the hip. Tuck or semi tuck a top and showcase the belt. 

Furthermore, some of my clients have found that wearing a wide belt over a tucked blouse and skirt combination is slimming. The belt acts like a mini girdle and skims over the contour of the body achieving a smooth silhouette.

I full tuck and faux tuck (that’s different to semi-tucking) loose and formfitting tops into jeans and trousers not because I want to create outfit structure, but because I love how broad belts fill out belt loops. I wear them on my hips because I prefer lower rises. Perhaps that’s because of my tomboy style gene, or my need for outfit polish. Or it’s because I don’t wear jewelry so my belt becomes my jewelry. I really enjoy the way belts finish off an outfit and can create a fun pattern mixed effect. I don’t wear belts as often with skirts and dresses, but do sport belts with those items too. 

Do you sport belts more frequently today than a few years ago? Was it the changing fashions that encouraged this shift? Or are you still feeling belt-challenged? If so, raise your concerns in the comments section and let’s get to work.

The Guardian reports that demand for designer menswear is booming thanks to the rise in style-smart male consumers.

Allen Edmonds, an upscale men’s shoe manufacturer in Wisconsin, continues to keep operations in America. In addition to their more traditional styles, they are now branching out with trendier shoes in lots of colours that are being made to order.

H&M has just announced its new capsule men’s collection for Brick Lane Bikes. “Each piece can be worn on or off the bike, and was tested to provide cyclists a collection that is safe, comfortable and trendy”.

Fab Links from Our Members

Isabel informs us that The Museum at FIT is currently hosting Shoe Obsession: “an exhibit that explores shoes’ phenomenal effect on culture and design”.

NPR talks about the importance of the NYC Garment District for emerging designers. Lena thought the story nicely complements our Behind the Seams series.

Caro recommends checking out these tips on how to tuck non-skinny jeans into boots — with or without socks.

Last week Alison featured Angie in her wonderful True Fashionista series on Wardrobe Oxygen. Angie would like to thank Allie again for her awfully kind words and grace.

Rhubarbgirl directs us to this interesting interview with Lisa Axelson, creative director at Ann Taylor, to find out more about her favourite and practical workwear looks.

Using maxi pads to stop your feet from hurting… There’s an idea. Better than Dr. Scholl’s? asks Vildy.

On the heels of Angie’s recent shopping advice, here are some extra tips from Belle over at Capitol Hill Style. MaryK especially liked the second suggestion: “Put your money where your time is”.

Sam’s reflections on her shopping ban piqued Charmian’s interest because she specifically talks about the pros and cons of fast fashion.

In our last post about how our Dobbin patterns are developed, I skipped over our actual design process. Mainly because the design process is an incredibly subjective part of creating clothing, and less of a ‘pulling back the curtain’ on the path of taking a garment from sketch to production. Every designer has his or her own point of view, and customer in mind, when they design a line or start a business. 

Neither Catherine nor myself comes from a traditional design background, like a professional program at a fashion or art school. Instead, with both of us armed with liberal arts degrees, Catherine’s design skills have been mostly honed on the job throughout her career, and mine have been picked up second-hand through more than 15 years on the business side of the retail and fashion industry. Since we’d already spent the better part of a decade collaborating on design and incorporating customer demand into a line at Liz Lange Maternity, Catherine and I work together very well. We collaborate closely on all aspects of the business, and particularly on design, with a clear goal in mind: we want to create garments that look good on as many bodies as possible (though as mentioned previously, we’re still small and not yet able to design petite, plus nor tall), in primarily washable designer level European fabrics, all for under $200 at retail.

Catherine and I discovered at Liz Lange that our taste levels and interests were very similar, and in some cases complementary. Catherine and I both favor classic sportswear designs from the ’60s and ’70s, as well as ’90s minimalism. We admire designers like Halston, Bonnie Cashin, Donald Brooks, Valentino, YSL and Givenchy. We both like fashion that is timeless and elegant. Catherine’s personal style is sometimes more romantic than mine, and my own is more preppy than hers. We try to steer clear of our more specific personal styles and instead focus on what we think and have learned our customers are really interested in wearing.

When we begin to design a season, in terms of silhouettes, we pull together huge folders of inspirational images. We look for anything with clean lines, streamlined shapes and good construction. We like a ladylike look, but avoid anything too prissy. We want our clothes to have an easy, wearable sophistication. We watch what women around us wear on a day-to-day basis, and ask for advice from our friends, family, industry colleagues and (especially) our customers. Now that we’re in our third season, we have an idea of what our customers like and don’t like, and what they would like us to create in the future. I know from experience that shoppers like an element of surprise, but they also want to find what they’re looking for. We also take trips to all kinds of stores, and try on things from all different designers and retailers. It’s in our best interest to know what we’re up against, and what’s working and what’s not for other companies. Like many other designers, we also shop vintage and thrift stores for silhouette and print inspiration.

We don’t typically have a theme for a season (say, something based on travel, or a movie or book character); instead, we think more about the wearability of the individual pieces of clothing we’re making and how they work together. Most importantly, we think about how each piece we design can be worn at work, to dinner, on the weekend, on a trip and beyond. We think about how women with different body types will look in a garment and how she wants to feel. Then we tend to incorporate trends most by choosing which colors we use each season. A classic body in a chic and high-fashion color makes for what we hope is a winning combination.

Throughout, we also have to think about all the small details of each garment when designing. From pocket placement to hip length to the amount of flare that a skirt has, we need to commit to many choices before we discuss a design with our pattern maker. Small changes can be made throughout the fit process, but we can’t entirely alter our original design. This season, we wrestled with a shirtdress design. We liked the idea of a button-less poplin dress, but the more we played with the sketch and with the sample in-hand, the less we liked the reality of it. So we changed the design incrementally, towards something more traditional, but probably more flattering in reality.

As we grow, we plan to stick to the same design philosophy, but to expand the number of silhouettes we design each season. We want our customers to continue to rely on us for the workhorses of their wardrobes, and to be able to add and incorporate new Dobbin pieces into what they already own. 

Next post, we’ll cover our fit and how we chose our fit model, as well as pictures from an actual fitting!

Design Inspiration Boards

This feels like the most “rough around the edges” or RATE outfit that I’ve posted. Greg begs to differ. He thinks I look polished and not intentionally “rough” and “untidy”. But it’s all relative because to me, the combination of faded baggy boyfriend jeans, a casual chunky cable knit pullover, distressed Frye boots and new punk do, create a different visual to the clean, crisp, graphic and simple outfits that I usually wear. 

The blush moto jacket that I bought last year was a very unexpected purchase. And even more surprisingly has become a wardrobe workhorse. I have worn it A LOT over the last five months — much more than my black moto jackets. More and more I’m drawn to wardrobe items in light colours, especially in shades of white. I tend to think of this jacket as “pinky cream” as opposed to a blush so I guess that’s why I’m wearing it so often. 

The acrylic-rich, chunky rose pink pullover from Zara was bought to go with the moto. I liked the idea of wearing tones of light pink because it’s soft and pretty. I’m glad I rekindled my love for light blue and pink last year because it makes for a nice change against my wardrobe of black, ink blue, white and sour brights.

I’ve frequently worn this pullover with the jacket and I’m thrilled to report that it’s warm and does not itch! I like the contrast between the clean and crisp lines of the leather jacket and the fuzzy hand-knit look of the pullover. It’s like combining structure with chaos. And when hubby thinks you look cuddly, so much the better.

I chose my faded Gap boyfriend jeans because light blue works well with soft pinks. The bagginess of the jeans adds to the casual vibe of the outfit, and at this point also makes it more fashion forward; Wearing your clothes looser is one of the biggest fashion directions for 2013.

The casual taupe booties serve to add length to the jeans, which are a little short on the leg for my liking. They used to be eight-hour-shoes, but that two inch heel has demoted them to four hour shoes as my feet unfortunately become fussier with age. I finished off the outfit with a gold watch, wedding ring, retro black specs and cream satchel. Ideally, I want to wear an off-white clutch with this outfit but I don’t have one yet. I’ve added it to my Spring shopping list as an item I can wear year round.

And there’s the scarf. I love my Burberry scarf, but I did not love it with the outfit. The addition felt too complicated, layered and maximal for my style. But it did keep me toasty warm, and I liked that aspect of it. But it wasn’t that cold and I was fine to leave it off. The happiness-factor of this outfit skyrocketed as soon as I removed the scarf, and that was that.