What is Wednesday.
This weekly Wednesday post is aimed at answering some of the more basic and critical aspects of tailoring and the terminology we use to describe them. It stems from realizing that I’m constantly throwing out different terms with my clients and quite often they’re unsure as to what I exactly mean. The goal of this section then is to alleviate this terminology gap and provide you with some know-how to talk tailoring with a little more ease.
What is…the difference between a natural and unstructured shoulder?
This is a nice follow-up to last week’s post on the natural shoulder line. As a quick reminder a natural shoulder line is one that is cut to mirror the wearers actual shoulders as much as possible.
With that in mind an unstructured shoulder always has a natural shoulder line. It is devoid of all internal padding and structure hence the natural shape of the wearers shoulders and body in general is expressed through the jacket.
A natural shoulder is slightly different though as it will always have a certain amount of internal padding and structure. It is a minimal amount but it is done to create subtle shape over the chest and collarbone area without altering the natural appearance of the shoulders.
Still with me? Put simply both have a natural shoulder line but one has padding and structure (natural) while the other has none (unstructured). As you can see in the images below the visual difference is often be difficult to see. A give away is that the unstructured sleeve often falls downwards right at the shoulder seam – this being due to the fact that in unstructured jackets a sleeve head is usually avoided. The main difference though is how the jacket “feels” on the body – you simply have to try them on the get a sense.
As always I’d love to hear your opinions on this or any sartorial subject for that matter. Better yet book a free appointment and we can banter in person and see if we might be a good fit to work together. You can also come by and try on an unstructured jacket if you want!
Take care – Michael
info@martinfishertailors.com
