I didn't mean for this to turn into the small tirade that it did

Mucking stalls everyday provides a lot of time to think. Well, it provides a lot of time to think when I'm not listening to a podcast. Sometimes I just need to have some quiet; as if my brain is full and it needs some time to process. All of this is the prelude for what I'm going to write about.

I would really like someone to do a study on women's perception of body image correlates to the shift away from custom made clothing to ready-to-wear. I have a hypothesis that perception of body image becomes increasingly negative as less and less clothing is custom made from individual measurements. This is all due to my own experiences learning to draft patterns from scratch.

Before industrialization, all clothing was created with a specific person in mind. Either these clothes were made in the home, or tailers and dressmakers were hired to create a wardrobe. Some dressmakers would live with a family for a period of time, taking measurements, doing fittings, and creating clothes and then moving onto another family when finished. As time moved on, already made clothing was available to purchase, though many clothes were still made at home. The difference being that commercial patterns were more and more available. The sewing knowledge of the women (usually women) using these patterns allowed them to custom fit the garment to the person. The pattern was a starting point, not a guarantee of perfect fit. Eventually things moved to where we are today with clothing being purchased in a store and those who do their own sewing a relatively small percentage of the populace. 

Along with this move to ready made clothes, several other things happened. The first is that sewing skills were lost, not being transferred from one generation to another. Along with those lost sewing skills, other vital knowledge such as an understanding of fabric, garment construction, and how clothes should fit were also lost. If you don't know how different textiles function, if you don't understand what a well-constructed garment looks like, and if you don't understand much less expect a good fit, you have very little to base a clothing purchase on. Your sole criteria becomes current style, cost, and can I zip it. I also posit that it means an undue importance placed on what size one wears, with a smaller number being "better" than a larger one. So often someone will choose a poorly fitting smaller size when the larger size would actually look better. We have lost the idea that clothes should be made or altered to fit us and instead have become a people who force their body to fit a size. 

I have found it so freeing to have a set of pattern blocks that are made to fit my body. There is no size on it anywhere; it's just my block. Then, when creating a garment, the question isn't, ""Does this make me look thin?" (or whatever variation on that theme you ask yourself while trying on clothes in a dressing room), but instead, "Where doesn't this fit and how do I adjust it so it does?" A size too often conveys a judgement about the wearer, whereas looking where to change the fit directs the issue to the garment which can be changed. 

This is yet one more subtle way companies and the marketers they employ create dissatisfaction, and dissatisfaction sells more stuff. If everyone had a way to create clothing that fit, would last, and could be repaired, there would be a lot less ready-to-wear sold. Marketers are never going to tell you that you have enough. Marketers are never going to tell you that you are buying plastic garbage. Marketers are never going to tell you to learn a skill to make yourself more self-sufficient. They may tell you they care and have your best interests at heart, but they don't. Their care and concern starts and stops right at your wallet.