Maison Martin Margiela, Couture, AW11, Paris.

There is an incredible process involved in building the structure of a bespoke tailored jacket, and for the Autumn-Winter 2011 Couture collection from the Margiela team the structure was on display, sandwiched between layers of sheer fabrics and completely visible from the outside of the garment.

There are varying thicknesses of canvas that are used to create the shape of the chest section, lapel and front of a traditional tailored jacket and these materials can be spotted in the images above and below by their beige tones. There were also large amounts of handsewing on show that give you a real feel for the different stitches that are used by tailors.

Hand sewing in tailoring is a tool kit all of it’s own, with different stitches used for different purposes – to temporarily secure, to shape the roll of the canvas, to join dart edges of the canvas flush (with no seam allowance) or to hold the hem edge, each section of the jacket has specific stitches that are used. And those are just a few stitches for the internal structure – a whole other range of stitches are used for pockets, attaching collars, buttonholes, buttons etc.

Catwalk images from Vogue.co.uk»