The Architecture of Drape

Cutting on the bias is often described as a softening gesture. In our atelier it is the opposite: it is the most structural decision available to a pattern cutter.

When cloth is turned forty-five degrees against its own grain, it stops behaving like a flat plane and starts behaving like a suspension system. Weight travels differently. A hem finds its own line.

The consequence is that a bias garment cannot be corrected on a hanger. It must be fitted on a body, left to hang for seventy-two hours, and cut again. Three of our pieces this season required a fourth cut.