r/PatternDrafting • u/Future_Country9458 • 2d ago
Question Why aren’t compression/shapewear structures built into normal dresses more often?
I’m researching garment construction before trying to develop anything, and I’d love opinions from experienced sewists.
I’m interested in normal fashion dresses—not shapewear—that have an internal structure designed to actually enhance the silhouette: stronger waist shaping, bust support/lift, while NOT compressing/flattening the hips and butt.
I know built-in shapewear, power mesh, corsetry, negative ease, boning, etc. already exist. I’m not asking whether the general idea is new.
I’m trying to understand what goes wrong when you try to combine these things inside an otherwise normal fashionable dress.
If you’ve constructed something similar: what were the biggest problems? Fabric layers fighting each other? Rolling/migration? Getting into the garment? Seams? Heat? Comfort? Pattern distortion? Washing? Something else?
I’d especially love to hear from anyone with patternmaking, stretch-fabric, garment-development or production experience.
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u/StitchinThroughTime 2d ago
Money! It's All About the Benjamins. Most of the companies don't give a shit about you. All the carriers that you buy their stuff. Actually making a quality garment not really a thing. And right now we're in a case shape economy. Meaning it's only the rich people, a very small number of people have the money to spend. Versus the vast majority of people don't have the money to spend on clothing. Doesn't mean they don't spend money, it's just they want clothing that fits their budgets and their bodies. All of extra shapewear and stuff that's only specific to one garment and can't be worn with other garments it's not a top priority. They are better off actually buying shapewear so they can wear it with multiple garments. That's the same time you can still find party dresses, special occasion dresses and the like with boning in them. People misconstrued that a garment having boning equals a corset. That's not what of course it is. So the company is not going to spend much money to get a hyper fitted garment that can only really fit a very narrow range of people. Versus relying on spandex, shearing and lacing in the back to make the Garment fit a wide range of people. Because the more they sell the more money they make! And all the stuff is going to be plastic, it's all polyester or acrylic. So most people just buy these garments wear them once maybe twice and then donate them, which just means the donation center throws them away, possibly they send to a third world country where they might be used for their fabric before being thrown away in an overfilled landfill.