Made-to-order is couture for the everywoman
Made-to-order fashion is picking up steam with Australian designers driven by sustainable good intentions and a shared desire to give their customers a more personalised, custom service.
Haute couture, of which the latest showcase kicks off in Paris next week, occupies a rarefied place in fashion culture.
Every part of it – from the revered minds at the helm of the French maisons, to the many petites-mains making light work of intricate beading and knife-sharp pleats, all the way to the 1 per cent who walk through the doors of Parisian couture houses to have one-of-a-kind designs moulded to their bodies – is a kind of parallel reality to the one in which most of us live. The essential practice of couture, of having a custom piece specifically tailored to your specifications and measurements, is not one many will ever experience.
But now, a small cadre of Australian brands is bringing a different form of the age-old tradition of made-to-order to the everywoman.
Melbourne-born ready-to-wear label Arnsdorf has recently quietly introduced a made-to-order option. Client service was at the heart of Jade Sarita Arnott’s decision to expand into this arena.
“It is really nice to be able to offer our clients that extra service and to develop a deeper relationship,” Arnott says.
“There’s a trust and intimacy that comes with giving that level of attention to detail with a customer’s garments, with the pinning and measuring and getting the fit just right for them.”
She wanted her customers to have everyday pieces that felt as special and well fitted “as a wedding dress”.
Arnott has also found a compromise for customers who don’t want to go the entirely custom route: Arnsdorf offers an alteration and tailoring service in store for customers who want an individual look, or amended sizing, but for the most part are satisfied with a ready-to-wear design. It allows for a similar level of customer satisfaction, says Arnott, without asking the customer to commit to a fully custom piece, and is “a really wonderful middle ground that works best for our brand and potentially others too”.
Meanwhile, Patrick Johnson has been creating custom suits and tailored separates for its clients – both men and women – for years, but has noticed the current climate has, perhaps surprisingly, encouraged renewed interest in the P Johnson made-to-order pieces.
Demand is steadily increasing, and the production of made-to-measure and ready-to-wear is now evenly split at his womenswear brand P Johnson Femme. “After periods of hardship people seem to reinvest in better or more special things, perhaps things that reflect stability and a sense of tradition,” says founder and creative director Johnson. Customers wanting the quality and individual tailoring of P Johnson’s pieces are drawn by a “thirst for things of greater lasting value”.
In many ways, he sees the desire for occasion and formality as a push back against the tyranny of casual wear over recent years, “replacing what might have been athleisure as a daily option with something more elegant”.
Suits tend to start around $1600 but vary greatly with fabric choice.
“Benefits start with very diverse cloth and design choices, and fit of course, but the greatest benefit is in the consultative nature of the process (and it is fun),” adds Johnson.
While tailoring seems like the natural arena for made-to-order to flourish, the practice also translates into more casual, youthful pieces.
Melbourne label Par Moi’s seasonless, breezy aesthetic – linen beach sets, oversized seersucker blouses, flirty minidresses – couldn’t be further from the fuss and frills of a heritage atelier, but in defiance of the fast fashion model designer Ashiya Omundsen has been making pieces to measure for her customers since 2019.
While her garments follow basic standard sizing and designs, she will also make alterations according to a customer’s needs, such as changing the hem length of shorts or blouses, or making a piece featured online in a fabric of a customer’s choosing.
Omundsen also estimates half of her customers are returning ones – a much higher quotient than an ordinary retail online outfit.
Sustainability is at the heart of her practice. The made-to-order model is inherently less wasteful than a traditional retail one, given production starts only after pieces are already in demand.
Omundsen’s approach was informed by her experience in fashion before starting the brand, where she observed the ways in which the industry was contributing to the problem. “After seeing how fast and wasteful the industry was, I wanted to take a more considered approach. Making to order was a part of that.”
For Emily Nolan, of made-to-wear suiting label E Nolan, the shift in the general consciousness about the role of made-to-order clothing has been seismic.
“There’s been a noticeable change in what my clients are coming in for the first instance,” she says.
“When I started, the majority of my clients would come to me looking for a suit for a very specific occasion or need … which was almost always work-related.
“Now, my clients are coming to me and asking me to make them a suit they can wear across the various modes of their life. Blazers that can be thrown on with jeans and sneakers. Trousers that feel easy enough for weekend wear.”
This is partly, Nolan says, because of a more holistic approach to clothing.
“I think Covid has changed how we think about our wardrobes,” she continues. “There are so few rules anymore. I want clients to be wearing E Nolan every day, the seat belt items in the wardrobe, the garments you can depend on. Gone are the days of work and life separation of garments.”
Nolan’s customers are also discovering “made-to-measure doesn’t need to be an intimidating or prohibitively expensive exercise”. Her studio is bright and welcoming. It is a space where everyone – including people who have traditionally been left poorly catered for by traditional sizing – can find something for them.
“Made-to-measure ensures that no one feels ostracised from sizing conventions,” she says.
But is it a model that every business could adapt?
Client-facing services at their heart are not scalable to the extent of digitisable ones – and it also requires a unique attention to detail, specifications of sizes, pattern-making, client service training and an overhaul of the production process.
Still, Nolan is hopeful: “I really hope and believe that more made-to-measure businesses will capture the market – it is the answer to flippant add-to-cart purchasing, overconsumption and wasteful manufacturing.”
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