Clients sometimes ask why a gown needs three fittings when a good tailor in Balogun market can make a dress in a week. The honest answer is that a week is enough for a dress that fits standing still. Couture has to fit while you walk, sit, dance and hug your aunties.
The first fitting: the body
We take thirty-two measurements and then put the tape away. Measurements tell us size; they do not tell us that your right shoulder sits a little lower, or that you stand with your weight on one hip. We cut a toile in calico and fit it on you, pinning and marking until the lines sit true.
A measurement is a number. A fitting is a conversation with the body.
The second fitting: the cloth
Silk faille behaves nothing like calico. It is stiffer at the hem and softer at the bias. At the second fitting the gown is basted in your real cloth so we can see how it falls, and we adjust again. This is where most of the magic happens and where most of the unpicking happens too.
The third fitting: movement
For the last fitting we ask you to bring your shoes and to move. Sit down. Raise your arms as if to hug someone. Walk across the studio. Anything that pulls or lifts gets one last adjustment before the handwork is finished.
Why it is worth it
Three fittings add about four weeks to the process. In return you get a garment that never needs tugging back into place, which is the single best reason to choose couture over anything else.