Comments gleaned from Twitter and posted by CC (thank you!) to the entry “Dress Shirts That Fit” get quickly to the bosom of dapperQ shirt quandaries:
@Jake: I think the problem is that most places in the world won’t understand why a woman would even want a “men’s” shirt. Women aren’t going to automatically get tailored service, not even here in NYC (although of course it is easier than other places).
@Steven: What needs to make a men’s shirt fit a dapper Q is understanding that many women’s bodies have breasts, wider waists, narrower shoulders and shorter torsos. Although there are women’s tailored shirts, they often have little pockets, or lace, or a tapered cut that it supposed to fit the contours of a woman’s body. But dapper Qs (women, transmen, and the whole transmasculine gamut) don’t want their clothes to fit like this. They want their clothes to fit like this: Looser, longer lines, wider shoulders. That’s my two bits, coming from a femme who understands her girlfriend’s needs!
While there is likely to be as wide a range of ideal looks as there are body types drawn to dapperQ, we haven’t gotten too far without systematically sharing our knowledge with one another and tapping allies who can innovate on our behalf.
That’s why I am thrilled to announce that motozulli, a frequent commenter in the month since dapperQ launched, has agreed to launch a regular column on tailoring for the dapperQ. I won’t steal too much of her thunder (hope to have something from her posted later this week), but according to the bio on her gorgeous blog, Chloe and Olivia: Lesbian Findings from History and the Arts, she is “a full-time dressmaker and part-time costume historian” whose “… current passions are for gender-bending fashion, queer history, and sewing techniques.”
To be fair, motozulli will admit that many of the questions for which we want answers don’t yet exist. (If they do, we are hopeful that our generous readers will be providing them in response to the tailoring challenges which she addresses each week.) She is going to have to make up many of those answers, and we hope you all will test them out with us.
When she was explaining to me what would be required to get rid of all the material from men’s shirts that gather around our arm pits (making cardigans over them almost impossible), she began outlining the differences between tailoring a shirt for someone wearing a bra and for someone wearing a sports bra. motozulli gets it! Help is coming.
Welcome motozulli and all who seek your wisdom.
P.S. Do sports bras make your stomach look like that, too?
Glad you found my comment helpful. I’d like to also quickly add that every person’s body is different, no matter what your gender is. What we really need is clothes for all kinds of bodies! We all deserve to feel beautiful, sexy, attractive, and stylish.