Darling, What Size is This?

 We at Darling couldn’t wait to get back to tell you about our fantastic winter sale, everything from the Christmas season is now 30% off, so make sure you check it out as now you can party for less as our popular Eloise Dress is now only £42! Now we KNOW you have just had you Christmas holidays, and if ours is anything to go by the last thing may want to see is a tape measure. Then again it IS vintage, and vintage is there to last so you will have more than enough time to get rid of those post- Christmas pounds, then again if you don’t read a few of our tricks and get altering…
So hopefully you should already have the basics on sizing so we thought we would give you just that little bit more on sizing vintage. Once you have got rid of your initial fear of the tape measure here are some more measurements worth remembering.

In our last blog, we mentioned ‘allowing for ease’  to avoid straining fabric and seams, especially in older more delicate garments. We say as a general rule to add two inches everywhere except the shoulders. However, for a more accurate fitting, additions should be made in the following:

Recognise your era
Clothes today rarely serve to highlight natural figures as they often sway towards an empire cut which is either higher or lower than the waistline. Therefore certain decade may have a silhouette that may feel unusual, let’s take for example the old favourite the 1950’s silhouette:

This silhouette can be contrasted with the 60’s pattern which already has leanings towards the empire line cut:

Remember Remember Remember
If you ever consider purchasing a ‘fixer upper’ make you know the following or face a lot man hours wasted in your search for vintage treasure.
1)  How much the garment can be let out or taken in
2)  If the cost of alteration (if you cannot do it yourself), is more than the item purchased. It is not a big deal if it is worthy purchase but if it is a significant amount, it might be worth letting someone else have the opportunity to deal with it.
3)  If old hemlines and seam lines will show upon alteration, it’s like putting a new bandage over an old one, it can be done but it will just defeat the purpose.

For more advice on vintage wear click here