Lapel shapes create personality to the jacket. They are inspired by design.
Lapel widths must balance the overall jacket silhouette proportion. Too wide for a person with narrow shoulders and they look like wings. Too narrow on a barrel chested person and they look like miniatures.
A well-made jacket urges you to touch the lapel.
A hint to the beauty of a patternmaker’s skill starts at the top button where the lapel roll begins. Capture the roll between one’s fingers and glide up the lapel as if running your hand across a keyboard. Every nuance of fabric, layers and stitching are as smooth as easy listening jazz. A properly made lapel roll cups in one’s hand as if caressing a whiskey goblet.
My fingertips are accustomed to a perfect sensation hidden beneath the lapel roll. On a hanger or a person, the sight and feel, simply put is music to my ears.
So when I come across lapels with staccato stitching, stiffness to the inside or lapel edges that turn upward rather than flat against the jacket, it feels as if someone is off-key.
