- A fashion designer creates a specific look of a garment by making choices about the shape, color fabric, trimmings and other aspects of the whole.

Fashion designers hold a special place in the world, their contributions have changed our lives, affected our choices and influenced what we wear every day.

Today, we take a closer look at fabrics, and how they should be chosen to complement our pattern choices, all today on Fit 2 Stitch.

(upbeat music) - [Instructor] Fit 2 Stich is made possible by, Kai Scissors, (upbeat music) Bennos Buttons.

(upbeat music) OC Sewing, Orange County.

(upbeat music) Vogue Fabrics.

(upbeat music) Pendleton.

(Upbeat music) Imitation of Life.

(upbeat music) And Clutch Nails.

- I often make the analogy of creating a garment to constructing a building, building construction involves the work of three vital people, you have your architect, you have your engineer who takes the ideas, and then you have the builder who pulls it all together.

Creating a garment requires very similar roles, the fashion designer is the architect, the pattern maker is the engineer, and the seamstress again is the one who pulls together all the ideas and actually creates the garment.

Each of these roles is critical to the finished project and can each make their own mark on the project, In this series we will get to know, some highly regarded international designers, and their influence on the fashion industry, and in turn how the fashion industry, affects all of us in our sewing endeavors.

Fashion designers are visionaries, do you visualize your garment before you sew?

As you open the pattern can you see yourself in that garment?

You are the visionary of every design you create, visualization is the cornerstone of many different fields, consider Ansel Adams, and his famous photograph Moonrise over Hernandez, Adams visualized what the photograph would look like before taking the photograph.

He nervously held the negative on his lap, while driving all the way back from New Mexico to California intuitively he knew he had taken one of the best photographs of his life.

The print cost just $300 in 1974, today a print sells for a hundred thousand.

visualization was the key, and of course, visualization is a powerful attribute.

Many people have tried to duplicate Ansel's Moonrise photograph, but none have been able to do so, in every field the end user decides how closely to follow a fashion designers final sketch, that's the beauty of being the seamstress.

Most of the time we are the one who makes the final decisions.

Let's think of two dresses, what's the difference?

This one costs 200, this one costs 2000, What are those differences?

The difference is in cost, fabric, is it notions, is it buttons, what is it, is it from a renowned designer, what's the name or logo worth on our clothing?

When we learn what's important to us, we can then choose the differences we want in our dress, in our garment, do we wanna pay the higher price, do we wanna sew it ourselves, should we keep it simpler, change the fabric.

We'll learn about fabric, style, principles, buttons, and bias from the experience of designers.

Often a visionary is not practical, and may need technical assistance.

The series will help you with methods of construction to achieve your vision.

Today we travel to New York to visit professionals who have purchased fabrics from mills around the world.

Let's see what Liz and Ari have to say about fabrics.

- See I shop for colors.

- Liz shops colors.

- Ari shops.

- I shop.

- This stock.

- You shop quality and value.

- Quality.

As long as it's from a good house and the quality.

- So that's why That's when a business marriage works terrific because you're both looking at different things, and they're both important and they're both good.

- Yes.

- So you get the best of both of you.

- And we don't step on each others foot because we're both doing individually different things.

- That's why you're still together after 30 years, right?

- Yeah I think so.

This is the wall of silks, then that's the wall of wool.

I love this colors, but that's will be the Latin in me, I would think.

- [Peggy] With love, which color?

- [ Ari] Bright colors.

- [Peggy] No, I love that, and there's no Latin in me but I Love it.

- [Liz] That will be the southerner in you.

- Yes, there you go, you're right, that's a good point, those bright colors.

- And that's not a hundred percent wool that's a mixture of wool.

- [Liz] The width is beautiful, it's double faced and it's got.

- Very heavy.

- Weight.

- Night density too, so that's a beautiful, It's a wool blend?

- Yes - So that's a really practical fabric sometimes it's nice to have that, because wool, sometimes it's harder to.

- Yeah and what they do.

- Care for.

- They put sometimes, you know, let's say nylon or polyester, for the wool to stand up better.

- Ease of care.

- Yes.

- And longevity, because.

- Yeah.

- If you have a hundred percent wool item in your closet, it will get eaten by moth.

But when you put the nylon in there.

- Mouth don't like that nylon.

- No, no.

- Maybe not, I don't know.

(laughing) - And it just makes the natural fiber last longer.

- Sure.

- It does, I mean I've noticed that just with garments that I've made that are a hundred percent anything they're just so delicate sometimes, that they just don't really have the longevity of a little bit of that.

But you do get that natural feel you know.

- Take a hundred percent wool, I can rip it easily, it doesn't matter how heavy it is.

- [Peggy] You own all these fabrics, how much fun this could be.

- [Liz] I love fashion, the fashion part of it, but then again it is a business so you need to sell it.

- Sure.

- [Ari] That's why we have so much fabric because you know, we want everything fresh.

But it doesn't, you know.

- Doesn't go.

- But they cannot take everything.

Yes.

- But that's okay.

- I know the customer, I know the ladies and I know they're going to want something that calls out to their eyes, they just see blue they go, ah, I could get navy any place, while you see a beautiful, bold print, you go ooh, that's beautiful, I don't know if I will wear it but that's beautiful, and that's what you just need, you need, first just to grab their attention at the beginning.

- I think the kimahara they call it.

- He calls it kimahra, which is just grab the attention.

- Come here.

- I like that.

So talk to me about how you all got started, how did this all start?

Ari was in it first?

- Many, many years ago, yes.

- Many,many years ago, okay, and tell me what.

- About 40 years I would think.

- 40 years?

So do you think any kind of fabric that you see, you know what it is immediately?

- Yes.

- Most of the time, yes.

- Okay, that's a great skill to have but it came through obviously practice, can anybody learn?

- It could be learned.

- Yes, that could be learned, today it is much harder because there is a very big variety of all different fabrics, you know years ago, this was a little bit easier, and today they come with all different, combination of fabric.

- It has got much more complex - Complex.

- Much more.

- I was also using.

- And how did you come in, how many years have you being doing this?

- In the industry about 30 years, with fabrics or basically developing that love for fabric about 20 years ago, when I left the office 'cause I was first bookkeeping for Ari.

- Out of the bookkeeping, you know, I said you got to buy goods.

- Oh, so you tapped in right away that she was... - I send her out I say go and buy.

- Yes, he gave me a large check book.

(laughing) - And when she went and when she came back, and I saw that price I almost fainted.

- She did good.

- [Liz] No, overprice.

- Overprice and she said don't about it I will sell it.

- Did you sell it?

- Yes.

- In no time.

- Yes.

- I no time.

- I had to prove my husband wrong, yes, I sold it.

- Oh, wow.

(Mumbles) Who does most of the buying now?

- I do.

- You buy the basics and you buy the fashion?

- Right - And we divide it like that.

- Right, he buys the basics in large quantities and then I buy the fashion.

- You buy the fun.

- Right, the fun yeah.

- So where are you doing most of your buying out of?

- Italy, right now Italy because most of the designers unfortunately at this point have, just shrunk so much that there isn't enough surplus left for us to shop, so now I go to.

- Here in New York.

- Here in New York.

So now I go to Italy, to the manufacturers actually the weaving mills that have stock goods and I buy their surplus.

- So can we actually buy a Chanel, a Versace, a Givenchy, can we buy those goods?

- Not really.

- Yes and no.

- Yes and no.

There's a yes and no to that.

- Give me the yes and the no.

- Okay, if it has Versace or any of the things written the lab.

- On the goods no.

- Usually they don't sell it.

They don't sell they put it on the side, they destroy it, they do whatever, but you could buy.

- The logo type fabrics.

- The logos no.

If have come across the logo you know it wasn't really sold by them, but you can buy.

- Wait can I stop you.

Sometimes they finish with their fashion and they have their logo they will sell it.

- Very, very rarely.

Extremely rarely.

- Once in a blue moon they would do it.

- But so most of the time, it's out there and it's a logo fabric, it's probably not real especially if I don't know the source.

- Right, no, 'cause very very rarely would they leave their name on the fabrics.

Now you could get, let's say like by Chanel, you could get the beautiful tweeds that yes, if not.

- Not buying them from Chanel and buying them from the mill.

- Buying them from the mill that supplies - From the mill And the people you're buying from we'll say we sold this to Chanel.

- They will mention something similar, you cannot say the identical thing, something is similar.

And the quality is the same, because it's coming from the same mill, so the quality will be the same.

- Okay, that puts the record straight as far as, because I see a lot of Chanel out there when I never saw it in Chanel.

But so, that's interesting how it gets mislabeled sometimes.

- Right, because it's coming from a mill that sold to Chanel.

- And also I wanna ask you, like how do I buy good fabric from bad fabric, How do I separate it?

- Well, I really don't think there's good fabrics from fabrics, I think there's good application and bad application.

- Oh so it's us, it's us.

(Laughing) - It's the end-user, is that what you're telling me?

- The end user sometimes will take something and use it, not the way the fabric is telling you to use it.

Let's say this is a beautiful crepe, - Okay, So it's a what, silk crepe?

- No, this one is actually a triacetate, it's from Japan it's a triacetate crepe.

If you hold it up and you could do this, any place you go use, hold up the fabric, you see all the folds, so the fabric is letting you know, you use me in a soft manner, you use me with any soft design.

- A cowl neck.

- A cowl neck.

- A draped overlap.

- You could do pants.

- A soft pant.

- A soft pant.

While Let's just take something, something like this, This is a shear, this is a cotton, but this cotton is stiffer, so whatever you do with it.

- It's much stiffer.

- Yeah.

- [Peggy] So it's saying I don't wanna be.

- I don't want to be draped.

- Help me, help me.

- Help me don't drape me please.

Even if you put it on a bias, 'cause bias help for that drape ability, but even there, it's telling you don't use me that way.

- Oh, I like that, I like that.

- Okay use me what I meant to, as a shirt, it's just a straight.

- Go make a shirt, put embroidery on it.

- embroidery one, that's for embroidery.

- That's perfect.

- Same thing with an organza, that will be on the more structure.

- So again, first name being silk, last name being organza the weave or the whatever's done with that yarn.

- That's a weave, could be organza, could be chiffon, could be crepe, could be knit.

- We have to know what we're asking for, because I think a lot of people go in and say, I wanna see the silks, but that silk is just the fiber, there's just a myriad of weaves, that that silk could be.

This is a?

- A crepe.

- A crepe.

- A crepe.

- I couldn't tell a silk crepe from a poly crepe, from a cotton crepe.

- Really?

- Or could I ?

- You can, but you can, let's say like with this beautiful triacetate crepe and a silk crepe, you could barely tell the difference, if this was cotton, you can cause cotton always has very low sheen, there's no sheen to it so there you could tell, as far as the way they will drape, they will all drape about the same way, maybe cotton a little bit more stiffer.

- So if I'm really wanting that natural fiber this would be a silk.

- [Liz] That's a silk.

- How do I know?

How would I know?

- [Liz] You could test it.

- [Ari] I burn it.

- [Peggy] You burn it.

- You could test it.

- [Peggy] And that's the only way to test it is to burn it?

- To burn it that's the only way you can really test it.

- [Peggy] What if you are in a store?

- Don't set the store on fire.

(laughing) - But if you're in a store, really the only way to trust it is to burn, is to burn it ultimately.

- To burn it.

- Yeah, you could ask for a little swatch, go outside, give it a little burn test.

- And if you smell.

- Feathers.

- I think it's not necessarily even purposeful, but I know I've purchased some fabric that was labeled silk, and I burned it and it's clearly not silk.

- You know why that is now because of the fabrications again the mills are making a polyester, Charmeuse, let's just take a Charmeuse, they are making a polyester Charmeuse, and they make it feel so much like silk, that even the people on the floor can't tell.

- Even I.

- Really?

- Yes.

- Even after 40 years you can't tell.

- Close to 50 years, even I would say, wow, what a nice silk.

- And you would burn it.

- [Liz] Would have to burn it, even me.

- To make sure.

- [Liz] Let's say 20 years ago.

- [Peggy] That's really helpful because.

- 20 years ago I could just touch it and tell you what.

- Only touch and we would tell you exactly what it is.

- But now you have to basically burn, to be able to tell something.

- And again the only reason that it matters, is if you want the silk, or if you don't want the poly for whatever reason.

- [Liz] For allergies or things like that.

- Sure, sure.

Or sometimes for me as a sewer, silk poly just doesn't sew as well, or it takes more work.

- Long.

- It takes.

- Today everything is changed.

- Yes.

- It's really the technology it's.

- We're going back to the end user.

- Yeah, it takes more work to get it where you want it to be, it takes more pressing.

It takes, it just takes more work to get it there.

- Just be aware of the fabric content and the fabrication, so when you walk in, if you want a silk, don't just say I want silk, you say I wanna silk crepe, remember you're an end use, remember what you're making with it, and that's the application, that's the fabric you buy.

Always have that first name and last name, when you walk into the store, and like that you and the salesperson could communicate better, okay?

Because if you learn your fabrications, the content are easy, you got rayon, you have silk, you have cotton, you have wool.

So, and then you have polyester, but always learn your fabrications, I think that's very important because like this, you know that fabrication is the one that will talk to you and let you know, I want you to do this with me, or I don't want you to do this with me, - It will dictate the drape.

- It will dictate the drape.

- Because it dictates how dense the fibers actually are, and that's what makes the drape.

- Yeah, so my advice will be just learn the fabrications.

- I love that, I love that.

You guys, this was great, thank you so much.

- You are welcome.

- It is always so much fun to learn from Liz and Ari.

In the high-end fashion business, women often rely on stylists, to help them make their clothing choices for special events.

Cheryl our next guest, is who they call.

- [Peggy] What an amazing job, so first off tell us what you do.

- Okay, so I have professional women that call me that really don't want to go shopping by themselves, don't have the time or just someone who's looking for a special dress for an event a special event, and so they would call me, and of course I have a whole list of questions, to get a feel about them, their size, thir price point, it's a lot of fun.

- So how did you even get started in all this?

- Well, I always dressed everybody, my family and friends, and then I went to music and art, high school of music and art for art, and then I went to FIT.

- So even young, very young, you loved clothing?

- I loved clothing.

- Was that because of your environment?

- No I just loved it and I always loved to sketch, at first I thought I would be a designer but then I realized I wanted to go into fashion coordinating.

- So you got into it by others telling you you should do it, or how did you get your first customer, How did that start?

- Well someone approached me, and they said, "I love the way you look, I would love for you to take me shopping."

And I said yes, and she goes, "so why don't you become a personal shopper, and I'll be your first client."

Then one led to many more.

(mumbles) - And she obviously liked all the decisions that you made.

- Yes.

- And so from that initial customer to now so pretend I'm your customer.

- Okay.

- What would you ask me, what would you need to know about me?

- Well, first I would want to know where the event will be, what kind of an event it is, and this would be on the phone, so I would ask you if you are tall or petite, also price point, if there's a color you have to wear, and sometimes I'll shop ahead of meeting up with the client, or other times we'll just get together and spend the day, and have have a lot of fun.

- So you're getting to know them, and really being on a friend, and you would have to almost be friends with your customers on some level.

So you've gotten to meet them, you get to know them, you ask them all these questions about themselves.

- Right.

- And then how does that apply?

- Well, sometimes the dresses I had selected after meeting up with the client are not the right thing, so I switch things around.

- Gotcha.

- And you know, it's very important, the fit, the comfort, and also is this how they wanna look?

Are they comfortable with looking this way for their event?

So I think that takes a bit of a psychologist.

- Yeah, I was gonna say.

I think that almost takes a really special art, to really bring them out, rather than put your look onto them.

- Is that a fair statement?

- Well sometimes they, sometimes it's a little hard, sometimes they're leaning towards something that really is not as flattering, it could look better.

So I have to persuade them.

- Specifically, like... Well, let's say for instance they wanted a strapless dress, and they really not, the figure is not made for.

- Strapless dress anymore.

- A strapless dress.

Exactly.

- Okay.

- So I have to convince them to go with another dress.

- I'm sure that's hard.

- That's hard but it usually works out, and you always have to think, is this how I wanna look?

Besides looking good on the outside, you wanna feel good on the inside, you wanna have confidence when you walk out, to whichever event it is.

And also to accessorize, that's very important, the right shoe, you can kill a dress with the wrong shoe.

- I would absolutely agree with that.

- So again, see, because I've gone shopping with a girlfriend, and I'll say I really liked this, and she'll say, "no, you don't."

Would you take a friend shopping with you, do you think?

Well, a lot of my clients ask if they can bring a friend, and I'll say, okay, but most of the time I would rather not have someone else.

- Because it's a one-on-one.

- Yes.

I mean I'm the extra pair of eyes.

- I've always wanted that, I always feel confident in myself and yet to have somebody else who really knows what they're talking about, that's just an extra bonus.

Thank you so much for sharing this with us today.

- So welcome.

- Style is in the details, buttons can add that cohesive finishing element that completes your design.

Our final guest today Jerry, knows a lot about buttons.

And Jerry, we're just gonna get right into it, 'cause I just wanna get out everything you use.

When I go to finish a garment, I add the buttons then?

- Best to wait to the end, then you know exactly what you want with it.

- Okay, all right, So if I want a Chanel look, if I want that high-end look I can't get Chanel buttons.

- You cannot buy new Chanel buttons, you can buy them used, on eBay or you know, we sell them on our website also too.

but you have to buy used, you can't buy new ones.

- So the little logos, these are not real Chanel - Chanel, Versace lookalikes, So, the best thing to do when you pick out, when you want to pick your buttons out, make sure you get real metal, You wanna get to, the gold needs to be as rich kind of a reddish looking gold, it looks like actually 14 karat and 18 karat gold, actually, some of this these buttons actually have 18 karat gold plating in them.

- That's interesting.

- So, also you're gonna with, just gold or one with epoxy around the logo, and that gives it a ideal that it's a couture or you know, fashion button.

- So this is something like what we saw over here.

- Yes it is.

- This is a jacket, we changed out the buttons to give the complete designer look, this is a Versace looking button here with the epoxy rich go like, then the chain kind of caps it off, get that Chanel looks okay, it's kind of a mixture - So it's little details.

- It's little details.

- It's exactly the details, look at this, I mean, this is incredible.

This even has like little tiny chain here.

- It has got little chain, It gives it a nice full look, a lot of times you can't tell why it looks expensive, There's a reason why - it's the trim.

- And you, this is that same trim.

- This is the same trim we used.

- 'Cause it's funny, 'cause sometimes when I see it on, I don't know that I would necessarily see this.

- No you don't, but you know something is special, but it's a little heavier looking, this has really a nice touch.

- So let's just say, I don't wanna do a couture look, no I don't wanna do like a brand name look, I just want really super nice buttons.

- Then you go with something like this, these are real glass buttons, they're not plastic, they're real glass.

- This are actual glass.

- They are from Czech Republic, Some of these are also vintage glass, it's a big difference between glass and plastic, this does not look like plastic.

- And this are glass too.

- These are glass also too.

- This are glass, how can you tell, I mean.

- You can tell by the sound.

- You know.

- You could tell by the feel of it in the sound, you can tap it and you have that little sound to it, plastic won't make a sound.

Glass makes it a little higher pitched.

- They look beautiful, are they heavier?

- They're heavier.

- Or they're just more expensive, they're more expensive because they're real glass, you know, and this is when you have a nice garment, you want something really nice plastic won't do it.

- So these for instance, are all glass.

- Glass fired, hand painted a lot of them are hand painted.

- Glass fired, hand painted.

- Yeah, they're fired.

- I mean this is incredible, The detail on these.

- These is beautiful stuff.

- Its just absolutely beautiful.

- Like I said, you can't get plastic look like that.

- Wow, absolutely stunning, and then of course your chain.

- The chain is, part of this dress here with the Chanel buttons, so it's kind of finish it off, but you can always find chain, a button, to just pull everything together, so once you have a plan.

- I love it.

- Right.

- Jerry, thank you for everything you know about buttons, I really appreciate it, Button, button, who's got a button, this is amazing.

- Okay, thank you so much.

- Thank you Jerry, appreciate it.

We're learning more and more about the creative choices designers make, next time we traveled to New York, to meet designer CD Greene, his brilliant designs had been worn by many A-listers, hear his story next time, right here, on Fit 2 Stitch.

(upbeat music) - [Instructor] Fit 2 Stich is made possible by, Kai Scissors, (upbeat music) Bennos Buttons.

(upbeat music) OC Sewing Orange County, (upbeat music) Vogue Fabrics.

(upbeat music) Pendleton.

(upbeat music) Imitation of life.

(upbeat music) And Clutch Nails.

(upbeat music) To order a full DVD set of Fit 2 Stich series nine, please visit our website at www.fit2stitch.com.