A coat does not begin with cloth.
It begins with a pattern –
and with the decision to test it.
I drafted the coat first.
Not to finalize anything, but to see what it might become.
From there, I cut a toile in coarse cotton.
Every line marked clearly.
Every proportion left visible.
The toile is not made to impress.
It is made to answer questions.
The sleeves are assembled early.
They carry more information than they appear to.
There is always a moment where the structure starts to reveal itself –
not as a finished form, but as resistance, tension, imbalance.
That is where the work actually begins.
I write as I go.
Not instructions, but observations.
What moves.
What holds.
What needs to be left alone.
The collar is built in reverse of tradition here.
A small shift, but enough to change how the coat behaves.
The body follows –
panels joined, balance adjusted, shoulders eased into place.
Nothing is fixed yet.
Everything is still negotiable.
Before the real cloth is cut,
the coat has to pass through this stage –
where it is allowed to be uncertain.
That is part of the process.
And part of the point.
