The Garment Project after (mens suit coat)

Remember way back when I started the Garment Project? The trench outcome was perfection and I am just as pleased with how the mens suit coat turned out as well. It took a long time to get the gathered padded shoulders correct. The extreme reshape of the jacket was tough because we started with a garment that was way too big for me. There are limitation as to what can be changed versus what has to be kept in an original design. Or so my tailor explained to me.

We've been too busy for me to enlist my husband to snap a few photos of me wearing the jacket so I could post a before and after shot of the project. In the end someone else snapped a photo for me. It was the strangest thing.

It was date night and after debating over whether to go to a movie or dinner Justin and I decided to scarf some pizza at home and catch a movie after the girls went to sleep. I traded my stay-at-home-mom attire for my new jacket. I didn't bother with anything else and we ran out of the house. I insisted on gelato after we bought our tickets and I had a mouth full of chocolate peanut butter goodness when two little Filipinos stopped me after I exited the escalator. One had a camera and told me I had been selected as one of their sartorial picks of the evening for the mall's promotional Sartorial Fridays; and could they please take my photo. I was both proud of my awesome jacket being noticed and mortified that I had not spent one ounce of attention on the rest of my appearance that night. I was really regretting not blow drying my hair (yes, it was totally that same day-talk about ironic). Anyway, I tried to look pretty on the inside and smiled for the camera. The Filipino gave me a free movie pass and told me to check the mall's facebook page for my photo.Funny enough, I'm a big fan of the original sartorialist, Scott Schuman and found it perfectly fitting that Power Plant Mall in the Philippines was trying to "knock-off" the fashion-of-the-streets photography that has made The Sartorialist a powerful fashion influence. I found myself hoping that, as Scott Schuman often does, this skinny little Filipino guy might ask me some details about my outfit. I could have then spouted off about how nothing I was wearing was from over-priced designers or shops located at their mall; it's all vintage second hand pieces that cost me next nothing.

Anyway, my jacket played more than an aesthetic role that night. When we got to our assigned seats (assigned movie seating in the Philippines-no kidding) I immediately almost lost my gelato all over the floor. Had someone rubbed their filthy body all over our chairs? Oh no, it was just the folks sitting in front of us. I think it was a cultural thing if I can say so without being too un-PC. I was cursing Degree for not reaching all corners of the earth and trying to focus on the words Shia Labeouf was saying (my new crush-what a cutie-although I think I'm way too old for him). The only thing that saved the movie for me was being able to pull my jacket up over my mouth and nose so I could breath in peace.

It's a multi-purpose jacket really.