Akris Spring 2006, part 1

I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to examine a few
Akris jackets in detail and take photos as well.

First is a really lovely jacket from the Akris Premiere
collection at Bergdorf Goodman. This
jacket retails for $2990.00. The fabric
is an interesting brown and taupe, two-tone woven fabric of linen, viscose, and
polyurethane. The fabric is pretty firm
and stable with a heavy drape, not stiff, but substantial-feeling. The front of the jacket and the sleeves are
lined with bemberg rayon, and there is a half-lining in the back. I am not sure
what kind of interfacing is used in the front of the jacket, there is none in
back. The collars are probably
fused. The fabric has little holes that
allow light through where the gray/taupe thread is woven through the fabric and
I see the lining clearly through the fabric and nothing else. I am confident that the fronts are not
fused. There may be a small piece of
hair canvas between the jacket and the shoulder pads.

The jacket is basically a princess cut. The front princess seam extends down from the
armscye and has a dart at the bust. I have not actually found a lot of patterns
for this style, Simplicity, Marfy, and Butterick each have one pattern in this
style, but the darts are angled up from below the bustline.

This Burda pattern, 8279, seems to be the closest I have found
in the current catalogs.. The basic
shape is similar. The dart looks pretty similar in the sketch (see jacket
details below). One would have to modify
the jacket to close at the center front line as there is no overlap and that
might solve the problem of the collar opening being a little too low on this
jacket. 

Notice the edges on the front, collar, and pockets. This is the same fabric, cut in bias strips,
and wrapped over the edges. The bias
strips are attached to the jacket fabric with a kind of flat-lock or cover
stitch, I’m not really sure which because it is the same on both sides;
possibly it was sewn twice, once from each side, although there may well be
some stitch out there that gives this effect. I do not think it was serged separately and then sewn down, it looks
like one stitch, finishing the edges of the binding and attaching it to the fabric
at once.

Notice the finish on the in-seam pocket as well:

The jacket is closed with two large hooks and eyes, sewn on
the inside of the jacket. They are not
inserted in a seam as there is no seam here. Both hooks are just below the bust
dart, about 2 inches apart

Notice that the dart is horizontal, not angled
up, and how carefully it is placed along the horizontal line of the fabric and
how well the fabric is matched at the seams below the bust dart. It is these
little details that make the jacket special.

The edges are all finished with a simple Hong Kong Finish
where the jacket is not lined.

The hem is interfaced.  My only problem with this jacket is the way it is hemmed.  See how big the stitches are?  I have an uncanny ability to rip hems out of garments while I am wearing them and this hem would not survive.