weeladdie18 wrote:A local dressmaker should be able to do a good job if the customer can clearly define the design requirements in the form of a pattern.
Yes, a qualified dressmaker can indeed do that, but expect there to be some level of cognitive dissonance initially as she (or possibly he) gets her/his brain around the problem. I experienced this first-had a few years ago when I had the hems on a couple of items set to length and then finished by a very nice lady in Leominster, MA/USA who initially could not believe what was happening -- and it was awkward for a little bit. The setting took a few minutes [0] -- and she nailed it perfectly -- and the sewing was done within a week, and when I tried on the finished items for a final check all was smiles, so she was able to grasp the fact that a guy in a skirt can actually look pretty darned good.
Sadly, this seems to be a dying profession. As the economy here continues to crash, expendable income for such luxuries as custom-fitted garments is decreasing fast, and that's driving the folks who do the work out of business; and since it's going to be entirely dead here in another decade, no new blood is filling the places left by those who have retired or have been driven out of business.
There is a new niche opening up in the guise of on-line sellers who do semi-custom work, but those inevitably involve overseas work being done with a corresponding "carbon footprint problem (for those who believe in such things). All we can do is wait and see what emerges. What will emerge, though, will look nothing like what were familiar with.
[0] With me on a pedestal in the glare of spotlights experiencing as much cognitive dissonance as she must have been! I've been in some strange situations before, but that one's in the top five.