Halfway update

Dear all,

As of now and a few weeks back, I have initiated my empirical study. The plan is to look at the suit jacket from a product development point of view, but through a teardown of its construction. Since I’ve been assisting a pattern constructor since my start, I have learned that the average RTW-jacket on the market normally consist of 65-70 separate pieces, and besides the formation of these individual pieces, a vast amount of choices can be made that will have an immediate visual impact on the finished garment.

The “evaluation framework” of the suit jacket will have its start in the different choices of construction that are represented to a large extent in the market, and will move forward in incremental steps and further discuss the different choices that can be made in the designing-process of the jacket. To exemplify this, there are six different basic variations of buttoning arrangements that can be made for the breast, and in total approximately 16 reasonable variations that can be made in the pocket arrangements.   

Once this framework is completed, the thought is that it will serve as guide on several levels. For instance, it may be used in the designing process of a jacket/suit to make sure that every detail is considered to convey the end purpose in an as accurate way as possible. The consumer may also use it, firstly to get acquainted with the vast variations that exist, but also to make an as aware purchase as possible. Lastly and most likely mainly, the thought is that the framework will make it possible to make a coherent comparison between jackets and suits through out history. This is mainly possible since the framework will only look upon the above-mentioned choices in details from its existence, and not its style. To further clarify, the pockets will be presented based on its occurrence on the garment, and not e.g. on the level of formality or shape of lids that it’s represented today.

I hope you all enjoyed the national holiday this weekend, and perhaps just like in my case the celebration is still reminding itself, completely ignoring the embankment of this new week ahead of us.

Once again, best regards, 
J.M Alfredsson