A hem that looks finished on carpet can kiss wet concrete by dinner. In Orlando the mark is a climate mark: humidity that lets cloth relax, an afternoon storm that leaves the sidewalk slick, and rooms that do not agree with each other. Hotel carpet hides a long skirt. Marble shows every extra inch.
In the shoes you will wear
Heel height changes where the skirt falls. A half-inch on the shoe is a different conversation than a flat for after dinner. Bring the pair that stays on for the photograph and the walking, and say so if a second pair comes out after the meal. We mark with those shoes on. Socks on carpet are a different garment.
Walk in the marked hem before anyone cuts. Standing length is not seated length. If the night includes a dinner, sit once in the fitting so the front does not climb and the back does not puddle.
Wet sidewalks after a storm
From June into early fall a short hard rain often arrives between mid-afternoon and evening. Brick downtown, concrete on International Drive, and park paths hold water after the sky opens. Crepe, chiffon, and unlined satin that cleared tile in dry air can drag once the cloth has sat in that weather. Humidity lets some fabrics lengthen; wet pavement grabs a hem that carpet would have hidden.
If you will walk from a car to a hotel door, or from a shuttle to a courtyard, that walk is part of the length. Name it. A hem planned only for the ballroom will meet the storm on the way in.
Hotel carpet versus the ballroom
Hotel carpet is kind to a long skirt. It hides a hem that would catch on a sidewalk. Ballroom marble and a foyer floor are not kind in the same way. They show the line, and the room is often cold after a warm walk, so the hem springs. If the night starts on a terrace or a hotel lawn and ends on marble, the length that looked right in one room will be wrong in the other.
We mark for the surface you will stand on longest, then check the hang after a walk in the shoes. “Brick at six, ballroom at eight, a wet walk between the two” is the sentence that helps.
What to write
Length, fabric if you know it, the rooms, and the shoes. If you have a date, put it in the message. Messages go to sales@tabaconda.com. You can name Hem family on the catalog first.
Climate and the second look after the stitch live in Alterations in Orlando. The night itself, hotel balls, park-week evenings, downtown, lives under Event. Pack the fitting kit so the mark survives wet grass; hem vs straps if the shoulder is failing too.
Publisher: Orlando Dress Fitters and Tabaconda LLC.