Lesson Five. History of Garment Construction

Text A. Garment Construction

Text B. Garment Construction

Text C. History of Clothes and Design

Reading for general understanding

Text a. Garment Construction

The design of a garment from flat cloth, is an engineering and design problem that has been solved in numerous ways.

Wrap-and-tie techniques, exemplified by the Japanese kimono and Chi­nese robes, utilize fabric most efficiently, with the least amount of cutting. They have their root in the earliest garments made from woven fabric, which were never cut to shape but draped and tied at the waist. This type of draped garment was worn by the early Egyptians; the chiton of the ancient Greeks and the toga of the Romans were also draped. The shape is loose and voluminous, fitted to the body by tying or tucking. Such historical garments have been inter­preted by modern Western fashion designers. Especially in the 1920s, kimono-style sleeves and the loosely wrapped "cocoon" coats of French designer Paul Poiret were fashionable. The kimono sleeve, with a rectangular sleeve and straight, rather than curved armhole, has inspired other sleeve styles that are cut as a single piece with the bodice: the dolman, capped, drop-shoulder, or batwing sleeve.

Western silhouettes, with more tightly fitted garments, are created from much more complex shaped flat pieces, which form a three-dimensional shape when sewn together. The design of flat patterns – the shape of pieces, the placement of seams – is a technological art that involves geometry, knowledge of material (fabric), and aesthetic design. The use of predrawn patterns, as opposed to creating garments on a body, dates to as early as the 12th century. By the middle ages a crude form of dressmaking had been developed in France, and by the 15th century much more shape had been introduced. Paper patterns, which are pre-printed on tissue in standardized sizes and used to guide cutting, were invented in the 19th century by Ebeneeza Butterick, whose company continues today.

Paper patterns themselves derive from the simplest fitted form, the sloper. A sloper is drafted based on body measurements; the technique of translating bust, waist, shoulder, and other body measurements into pattern shapes is cue that has been refined over centuries. On a basic sloper, shaping is introduced in the form of shaped seams and darts: angled seams which, when sewn together, create volume. Pattern draft­ing techniques involve the manipulation of the basic sloper pattern to achieve various silhouettes and details. Flat pattern drafting allows the creation of new styles on paper, which can be fine-tuned on a dress form. In the fashion industry, designers sketch garments and the sketches are translated into garments by cutters, experts in pattern drafting.

(to be continued)

Vocabulary

amount n	-	количество
angle n	-	угол
to fine-tune v	-	перенести, трансформировать
flat adj	-	плоский, ровный
pattern drafting	-	создание лекал
sloper n	-	шаблон
tissue n	-	тонкая ткань
voluminous adj	-	объемный

Exercise 1. Read the text «Garment Construction” to find the answers to the questions.

1. What kind of cutting techniques utilizes fabric most efficiently?

2. What sleeves styles are cut as s single piece with the bodies?

3. Is it easier or more difficult to design Western silhouette than draped garments?

4. What are advantages of flat pattern drafting?

5. How can you characterize the design of a garment from flat cloth?

Exercise 2. Read and translate the following words into Russian. Explain the difference between them:

design – designer – designing; to sketch – sketch; cut – cutter – cutting; to sew – sewer – sewn – sewing; standard – standardized; volume – voluminous; to measure – measurement; tight – tightly; technology – technological; fashion – fashionable – unfashionable; to manipulate – manipulation; to draw – drawn – predrawn; to place – place – placement.

Exercise 3. Return to the text to find and translate the sentences with some words from exercise 2.

Exercise 4. To write a summary of the text find the key words and make a list of them. Then find the topical sentence in each paragraph and one or two sentences to illustrate it. The summary must contain not more than 20% of the volume of the text.

Exercise 5. Explain in English why design of flat patterns and pattern drafting techniques in general are more complex than wrap-and-tie technique.

Reading for general understanding.