Thirty years in the fitting room

2026-09-28 · Margot Ellery

The most common thing I've heard in a fitting room is "nothing ever fits me". It's almost never true. What's true is that almost nothing fits anyone off the rack.

A good hem, a taken-in waist, a shortened sleeve: small alterations that cost less than a new shirt, and change everything about how a garment looks. Once you know which flaws are easy to fix and which aren't, shopping gets much simpler, especially secondhand.

That's why my tape measure lives in my handbag. And it's why I wrote Thrift Like a Tailor.