SHTOICA

Monday, March 2, 2015

Bridal diary

Hi everyone,

I'm bringing blogging back and that's final :) Actually this is one of my New Year's resolution and it was time I moved to action: picking up the blog from where I left it and start sharing with the world ideas, work and this great challenge of responsibility and sustainability in fashion.

First post for this year it had to be about a dear project from last year. A lot of people are asking me if I do brides dresses and I say "I DO" :P , but where can we see pictures?! where, where...well not on facebook, not of this project at least. Facebook already knows too much :) So last May a delicate wedding dress left the atelier and accompagned a beautiful bride in the beggining of her joyful journey in two.
Photos: http://www.dan-ephoto.fr/

And this little bride was like a breeze of warm wind, filled with dandelion puff and some birds echo. And so was her dress...
This story spoke of innocence, transparency, open heart, love, whispered shine.

The entire dress was made of silk tulle, a pleasure to work with this fabric, so soft and luxurious and subtle... The bust was pleated, hand pleated that is, and the skirt was generous. The live effect is a light mousse and you had to be there to see it to get the feeling.

The Chantilly lace band was hand beaded:

The bolero was also made of Chantilly lace, hemmed by hand:

-The story just begins-

M.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Silk poetry

Hello everyone!

Long time no writting here, I know! All those SHTOICA social networks are far more active, but some things deserve more space, more words and more privacy...

It's the case of the latest SHTOICA dress, based on the Purling Dress. Of course, unique, made from handpainted silk, locally handpainted silk by an amazing artist in Hyères (Christine Heitzler) that creates poetry especially for SHTOICA. And then we play and match as we can best in a fair trade and sustainable way and offer you your bespoke silk story to wear.

Because I believe that
UNIQUE IS THE NEW LUXURY.

This dress tells the story of a summer evening in Avignon, where sun, nature and heart become one. All this could not happen without the driving of the main female character, to whom we thank for choosing SHTOICA.

Dare to create your SHTOICA dress ! (Our selection of unique silks is available by request)

M.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Sizing, ease & fitting when shopping online

Hello everyone!

I've decided to write an article about sizes, ease, fitting and shopping (on the internet). Although every body is unique in terms of shape and proportions, there are some basic rules to be followed. This is a guide to help you better buy clothes online, where you cannot try them and see how they fit, but where variety knows no limit :)

Sometimes you just see the sizes (8US, 38EUR, S etc.), sometimes you get the body measurments and sometimes you get the garment measurments and what do we do with all these? How do we corelate our body to these pieces of information? So let's see...

A very important thing while shopping online is to ALWAYS CHECK MEASURMENTS! Don't rely only on US10 or EUR12 or M symbols, because they vary so much from one brand to another, so you'll be surprised that US8 at one brand might correspond to EUR36 at another and to EUR38 at another and so on. Again, ALWAYS CHECK MEASURMENTS! :) The best way is to know both standard body measurments for sizes and also the measurments of the garment, and corelate them. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME! Wait, it's not that complicated....

So, why aren't they the same?
Because of EASE. Your body needs to breathe, to move, to hug, to stretch, to kick asses sometimes :), so it needs a bit of space. We all do, don't we? :) And every part of the body needs a particular ease, for its particular movements. Aaaaa, now the light is closer.

Here is the chart that we use at SHTOICA for body measurments and sizes and a guide for ease.
So, for a 168 cm height woman, we have the following BODY MEASURMENTS:

Size

Inches

Bust

31.5

33.1

34.6

36.2

37.8

100

39.4

104

110

43.3

Waist

24.4

27.6

29.1

30.7

32.3

33.9

36.2

Hip

33.9

35.4

38.6

102

40.2

106

41.7

110

43.3

116

45.7

Chose the size that corresponds the most with your own values. Have in mind that depending on the type of garment, one measurment is more important: for shirts, dresses, jackets- the bust, for skirts and pants- the hip.

As for ease, this is our WEARING EASE chart (considered for the full body measurments), meaning the ease needed for the normal body motions. Add these values to your body measusurments:

Garment

Fitted

Semi-fitted

Loose

Bust

Waist

Hip

Bust

Waist

Hip

Bust

Waist

Hip

Inches

Skirt

1-1.5

0.4-

0.6

1.5-3

0.6-1.2

1.5-3

0.6-

1.2

3-5

1.2-

>1.2

>2.4

Dress

4-8

1.6-

3.2

2-5

0.8-

4-7

1.6-

2.8

8-12

3.2-

4.7

6-10

2.4-

7-12

2.8-4.7

>4.7

Pants

1-2

0.4-

0.8

2-4

0.8-

1.6

2-3

0.8-

1.2

4-6

1.6-

2.4

3-4

1.2-

1.6

10-16

6.3

Jacket

6-10

2.4-

4-6

1.6-

2.4

6-8

2.4-

3.2

10-16

6.3

6-8

2.4-

3.2

10-14

5.5

>6.3

>;3.2

>5.5

Besides wearing ease, a garment also might have style ease, but that's specific for the overall silhouette and design. Another thing to remember is that these values are smaller or zero for stretch fabrics. Very stretch fabrics like jerseys, swimwear knits have even negative ease, so that's another story. Very fitted evening wear with corsets or strapless etc is also a special case with negative ease.

So when checking an article online, is recommended to compare your body+ ease measurments with the garment's and observe if you'll be able to breathe or not.

I hope this didn't get you more confused :) That would be funny...

PS: feel free to try these tips here :)

Hugs my dears,

Mihaela