The DIY YouTube tutorials that designers swear by
A few of the best how-tos for sewing zips on, lining tracksuits and other important techniques.
As any budding designer can attest, there are just some patterns, fabrics, techniques and factors involved with putting together a collection or capsule that inevitably leave you stumped. Perhaps you’re coming to the end of a breakthrough toile and can’t for the life of you remember what your art school seamstress said about pleating cuffs. Maybe you’re mocking up some range-building essentials to complete a line sheet when it dawns on you that, until now, you’ve never made a fly zipper. You might, more specifically, be fine-tuning your patchwork skills for added finesse.
As many designers know, sometimes your best friend in these moments can be YouTube. Sure, it's filled with distraction, but it's also brimming with clear, comprehensive guides from professional tailors, couturiers and streetwear nerds. Of course, nowadays, art schools and DIY designers are increasingly made up of digital natives, making online, video-based formats all the more important to one’s formal or self-taught training.
Granted, good, old-fashioned methods that the likes of the late, great Louise Wilson purveyed can’t be skipped – there’s no shortcut for graft – but you can always bolster experience and time in the studio with a little, at-home learning. And so, after speaking with some of today’s contemporary and student designers cutting their teeth or setting up labels for recommendations, we pulled together some of the trustiest tutorials, ticking off everything from basic, freehand tracksuit design to historied silhouettes like the Chanel suit, that seamless Balenciaga dress of Cristóbal lore or the best blanks suppliers.
How to know which fabric to choose
Niklas, the Cologne-based sewist behind YouTube account Vintagebursche is a die-hard traditionalist, favouring natural fibres over anything chemically tainted. Nonetheless, he does a fine job in distinguishing the make-up of your contemporary polyester and viscose from the age-old favourites like linen, wool (woolen and worsted) and cotton. Undoubtedly, for anyone – designer, tailor or streetwear entrepreneur – this explainer provides savvy hints regarding which fabric might be best for a garment. Want to design with wool, but keep it cool? Try fresco, a thick, tightly spun yet, due to its coarseness, breezy wool suitable for Spring suiting. As for tweed, Niklas is clear: opt for protected or trusted mills, such as Harris, Lovat and Abraham Moon and Sons.
How to get perfect seams
Guest couturier, Barbara Pesendorfer, joins costume and fashion history expert Bernadette Banner for an instalment focused on meticulously pressed garments. Guiding viewers through the protocol basics, she punctuates her tutorial with experience-gleaned details that take a jacket, blazer or corset from amateur to professional. This might be, say, her choice of fabric for a pressing cloth – silk organza for delicates, linen for wools and cottons – or simply some damage control, such as incorporating a cloth brush into one’s workflow to soften any garment fibres that have become shiny. Go against and with the pile, she advises.