Finding A Dress That Fits Perfectly Can Be Difficult But Dress Alteration Services Can Help

So much advice is available online, on TV and in the fashion pages about what to wear, how to wear it and dressing for ones body shape that it can make shopping for clothes less of a pleasure than it should be.

One particularly fraught area is women's dresses, currently making a comeback on the fashion scene.

It would be unrealistic for manufacturers to produce off the peg clothes in anything but a range of standardised sizes. There is also some evidence that the predominant women's body shapes vary depending on their country of origin, so that a standardised design made in the USA may be different from one manufactured in the UK, for example.

The advice is that when choosing clothes to select something that the woman likes and makes her feel confident. Although it can be handy to take along a trusted friend when choosing something for an important occasion it needs to be someone who can be relied on to be honest and to say when something really does not look right.

There are four classic women's body shapes, although some stylists may identify several more.

The basic shapes are generally described as apple (triangle downward), pear (triangle upward), banana (straight up and down) and hourglass (two opposing triangles).

It is best when choosing dresses to select something that maximises the good points and plays down the bad points of a woman's body shape. For example a woman with an apple (ie top heavy) body shape may want to choose a dress that accentuates her small waist, her hips and shapely legs. That would eliminate any features like frills that accentuate the top half while a nipped in waist and a gathered or pleated skirt would work well.

Very few people are built to the perfect standardised size and it is likely that a dress whose top fits perfectly may be too big on the hips or a bit too long. This does not have to mean giving up the search for the perfect dress in exasperation.

The answer is to buy something as close as possible to the dress a woman has in mind but in a size that allows for a dress alteration to achieve the perfect fit.

An experienced dressmaker will be able to make the dress alterations necessary to transform something almost right into something perfect. A dress alteration can be anything from a complete revamp or remodel to small adjustments such as removing a trimming that doesn't work to ensuring it fits correctly to the waist or hips and hangs at the right length for the woman's height and leg length.

Over the years as women have less time and skill for dressmaking these skills have become much in demand whether they are searching for dress alterations in London or elsewhere around the country.


Copyright (c) 2011 Alison Withers