Every garment we make begins as a question about weight. Silk satin falls one way when it is cut on the straight grain and another entirely when the cut runs true to the bias, and the difference between those two answers is the difference between a garment that is worn and one that is inhabited.
Our drapers work on the stand rather than the table. A length of cloth is pinned, released, pinned again — sometimes for two full days — before a single pattern piece is traced. It is slow, and it is the only method we have found that respects what the fabric already wants to do.
