So THAT'S What It Feels Like!

We had some new cotton shirt material come in and one particular pattern caught my eye: a criss-cross pattern dotted at the junctions. I like! Naturally, I treated myself to a sweet custom-made shirt.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm a real lazy dresser. And it might amuse you that I'm also a bad but very lucky cook.

As much as I like dressing people, I tend to go for the kind of outfits that require little or no effort to put together. Since I work in an environment where image is pretty important (Superficial? I know.), I usually just stick to the basics and add an accessory here or there to spruce up a bland outfit.

A few days ago, I had an urge to blog before closing up--purely because I was wearing my super awesome one-of-kind polk-a-dot shirt.. Since I was the only one left at the store, I had to ask for assistance with this post...


I'm sure most of you have been approached by a stranger on the street at one point or another as you're happily walking to work, to meet friends, to get to class, to get home, to the grocery store or to wherever. He or she would've have asked you for one of the following: directions, assistance, money, a signature ( because we're all secretly rockstars), food, your business, your phone number (oh, you lucky thangs) and so forth.

Most often, the approachees (not sure if that's a word), would politely decline by shaking their heads or by smiling as they do the hybrid run-walk to dodge further interactions with the approacher.

I wanted to get pictures of my new dotted shirt. So I walked out, stood outside the store and scanned the street for a lucky photographer:

Candidate A: A young girl carrying a trombone, waiting to cross the street.
Candidate B: An old shaky couple holding onto each other for warmth and support.
Candidate C: A bearded man storming down the side walk with a tool box and a ladder.
Candidate D: A boy walking alongside a girl who was pushing her bike, quietly chatting away.

In my mind:

Girl with trombone? Nope. She  needs to get somewhere. Probably to catch the bus which is fast approaching.

Shaky couple? Nope. Too shaky. My pictures would turn out blurry.

Bearded man? Nope. He's got his hands full and he looks a bit intimidating.

Boy and girl with bike? OKAY!

I stood there, waiting for them to walk pass me and locked eyes with the boy. Eye contact is important especially when you're asking for help ...and so I thought. The boy looked a little uneasy. I could see he wanted to look at me and wanted to avoid my eyes at the same time. As soon as he got near enough, I stepped forward: "Hey, how's it g-...?"

Before I could finish my sentence, the boy did a big detour around me...around the dog that was tied to the tree...around the lamp post that was next to the tree...

What the...?

He thought I was a solicitor (especially when I was dressed the way I was dressed).When I realized what was happening, I quickly blurted out everything I wanted to say in 5 seconds flat:

"Hi, I need someone to take my pictures. It's for a fashion blog and I need your help. It won't take long. I promise. Can you help me please? All you have to do is press this button."

Yes, 5 seconds. You try.

The girl pushing the bike smiled at me. "I like fashion blogs. I read them all the time. Here, let me help you."


Yay! I found my photographer!

So here I am, awkwardly posing for strangers in my super awesome polk-a-dot shirt. When I say lazy dresser, I meant it. White shirt, jeans, boots. Everyone has those right?  Slap on a tie and VOILA! I'm a professional style consultant. ;)

Here's a close-up of my shirt so you can see the pattern on it. Notice the collar is white? I'm a fan of white collars and white cuffs. They make a shirt look so fancy ;)

I Love Thank You Notes!

I was so incredibly touched when one of our brides came in to thank us for our service. Linda  and her husband personally delivered to us a Thank-you card with a photo of her and her husband on it. I probably would've cried if she'd walked out sooner :P But I had to gulp down that little lump you get in your throat when you're about to cry. ;)

Let's Add Another One To Our Bag O'Skills

Oh look! We fix scarves that dogs get into too!

I'm immensely proud of who we are and what we can do. We are highly recommended by many retail stores around Vancouver. 

If you're a first time reader and is wondering what Balsam Custom Tailors offer, read on and be amazed at what we're capable of. Or simply go through our many blog posts to learn about the exciting services that are available!

Our Services Include:

*Made-To-Measure Luxury Wool Suits (Alternatives: Linen/Blended Wools/Cotton/Synthetics)

*Custom-Made Dresses, Shirts, Pants, COSTUMES, Jackets

*Expert Custom Tailoring on Ready-Made Garments such as Topcoats, Ski Jackets, Down Jackets, Leather Jackets, Motorcycle Suits, Evening Dresses, Wedding Dresses, Casual Knits, Jeans, ANYTHING BASICALLY (because we're that good!)

*Alterations or Finishing Touches on Drapery, Cushions and Beddings (We also make them too!)

*Mending/Repairs on your Beloved Garments and BAGS (Leather/Synthetics).

So, as you can see, we work with pretty much anything that's made out of fabric or leather. If you're not sure if it can be done, just bring it in for an assessment. You'd be surprised what is possible and what's not ;)

Che Guevara Look-Alike Treks In Tailor-Made Clothes

What's this? I don't write for a month and then BAM! 2 posts in a day?!

Sooo, wondering what this post is about? It is exactly what the title says. Our customer "Andrew" (an alias) wanted to remain anonymous, so I can only give you front & back shots and butt shots of him. He really reminds me of Che.

Andrew is a real character. A young adventurer/explorer with old-school taste living in the modern world. He lives in jungles, paddles up rivers and climbs mountains in beautiful expensive clothes and gets them repaired over and over again as they wear out. He prefers to write about his adventures in his journal instead of recording them with a modern day digital camera like all the rest of us boring folks.

We're making him a  set of  nice wool waistcoat and pant that he will wear for probably the next 10 years...

I have a feeling we'll be doing a lot of mending for him... ;) 

 Standing rigidly for a fitting.

Making the pants leaner.

Unfinished backside of his waistcoat.

This Year, I'm All About LEAN!

One of the perks about working at a custom clothing store is that I HAVE TO wear nice clothes made by us. Haha! For the past two Springs, I was totally into the whole pleated carrot pant look. This year, I've decided that I would slim down the silhouette and sport some leaner, sleeker-looking hip hugging dress pants. But I kid you not, this SPRING, for guys, IT IS ALL ABOUT THE PLEATED PANT LOOK. Let me dig up some samples and show you in my next post. 

It's really cold and windy out today. I had trouble unshrugging my shoulders! But nevermind that. Just look at my pants!!!!

OK, this one's better.

Close up pant shot. I love the checks. And navy is such a great colour. Pair it with a thin brown belt to make it less like office-attire.

Get What You Really Want

Spotted something you like in the magazine? Rip it out, bring it here. Saw something you like online and you're inspired by it? Print it out, bring it here. Dreamed of something you like last night? Jot it down, bring it here.

Whatever it is that you want your body to be clad in, the Balsam crew will be happy to make it into reality.

One of our long time customers was inspired by Princess Di's vacation dress, one she wore in the Carribbean on March 23, 1990. She liked it and requested a similar dress made in white.  I can see her wearing it to a lovely Spring garden party with a wide brim hat and dainty white gloves :)

She hasn't tried on the dress yet since the fitting. I can't wait to see what the finished dress looks like on her!

Stay Warm in a Hot Chocolate Suit

Holy! Wait a minute here. It's January?! I looked outside my window this morning and thought it was still November. Darn rain clouds! It's easy to forget what month we're in considering most of our months are indistinguishable. Fluffy white snow would've been a more welcoming sight.

Us Van City folks are experts in staving off the evil wet winter blues, aren't we? We're world champions of perpetualy cold, dark, drizzly weather.  Vancouver is where you'll see day blend seamlessly into night. So seamlessly, that we can't even tell day from night or night from day. Waking up would be a big confusion if it weren't for those alarm clocks screaming into our ears in the early morning, to remind us to get our little butts out of bed and into work.  We make our fellow Earth mates down in the Southern Hemisphere confused. They wonder why we put ourselves through such needless torment--living up here in the North and all.

Winters are always tough here. It's never truly the ideal white winter that we all dream of. We get mostly the wet stuff in Vancouver. 

Alright, it's not that bad. There are perks to living in this gloomy city: If you wait long enough, say maybe about 9-10 months, you get a wonderful 2-3 months of mild summer. What's not to like about that?!

That's one perk. I'll let you figure out the rest when you warm weather folks come here.

While all you Southern Hemisphere people get to bask in the abundance of sweet sweet sunlight, us Vancouverites have gotten pretty creative when it comes to keeping ourselves toasty. Fuzzy blankets, blazing fireplace, woolie socks, steaming hot cocoa, brawny boyfriends to curl up to, sizzling hot girlfriends to cozy up to, fine tailored suits, and...

YAH, that's right! We have nice suits! And Balsam Tailors make them. TAKE THAT!

Balsam Tailors make scorching hot suits. That's how we roll up on the West Coast. ;)

And George here, is decked out in all Balsam gear. Shirt + Suit.

You've got mad skills George! Hope you're keeping warm in that h-h-hot chocolate suit.

And thanks for sending in this picture!