Dressmaking & Tailoring
Dressmaking & Tailoring: Mitering
One of the most innovative ways Americans blended dressmaking and tailoring into a single
garment was mitering — joining two pieces of fabric cut at forty-five degree angles. This
dynamic incorporation of striped fabrics
accentuated the use of the bias, resulting
in boldly graphic garments. Mitering was
borrowed from woodworking; its adaptation
to fashion affirms the ingenuity of American
designers.
In the 1930s, Elizabeth Hawes may have been the first American to create mitered dresses,
while during World War II, Gilbert Adrian became the United States’ most prolific and
creative advocate of mitering suits. Although the use of such graphic mitering diminished
after the war, Pauline Trigère created superb mitered pieces in the 1950s and 1960s, as
has Yeohlee in the 2000s.
