This is the second go I had with using some beautiful toile I got in Manhattan. The first one was meant as a fitting and lining up picture fabric exercise. I was hoping I had the fit correct, but it was almost correct. Wearable, but not to my standards.

This second one uses my fundamental yoke dress shirt design. That would be

• to have a yoke on the dress shirt
• if the yoke were pictorial, to frame it in dark fabric all around to highlight
• band collar
• tunic style worn not tucked in
• highlighted cuffs sewn my way without plackets
• placket hiding buttons
• some asymmetry

I picked black as the “framing” colour because the image was old style, drawn in black. Another colour would compete with it because our eyes are drawn to colour. Black just shuts things down and let the image stick out. I picked a curved yoke because curves are “soft” and that matched the “soft” style, as well as content, of the image. I lined up the front image, as you can see. As for the cuffs, I put no cuff link style button there because I saw I had a change to put an image there with those birds.

I love those cuffs, even if not many seeing it might notice. And you’d be surprised how little people tend to notice “appropriate” details, which are not “inappropriate” things like holes or stains that so easily noticed. But that’s the thing about clothing. If YOU feel great in it or about it, then you’ve won more than half the battle of what clothing is supposed to do other than the basics of coverage, warmth, etc. If others disapprove, sure, it could cause you problem in how they treat you and such, but I’ll take how I feel in things over others’ feelings any time, cause if I’m feeling that good in my clothes, I really feel I can do anything… including overcoming anybody’s judgments!

Overall, not the most colourful of garments, though it will still catch a lot of eyeballs in public. But I love it otherwise. I’ll give it a silver self-rating for being a little subtle, but at least appropriately subtle.

Please click here to see other garments I’ve made and fashion related articles I’ve written.