The End of an Era

Mrs. Webster passed away today. Marie was one of the most stylish, demanding, fashion conscious people any dressmaker could ever sew for. And I like to think she was my friend.
When I took her on as  a client 20 something years ago, it was not without trepidation as her reputation as a fashionista (before the term was invented, mind you) with a keen eye for detail was well known in the sewing circles here.
Marie Webster will forever and always hold a dear place in my heart because she trusted my talent as a dressmaker and I can only hope I lived up to her standards of excellence in the time we shared making her wardrobe. She expected the best and I had to step up my game to the highest level of my sewing abilities and learn what made a garment a piece of art. It's because of Marie that I can make a bound buttonhole that is the envy of any top notch designer and understand how much better a jacket will hang with the proper underlining. And how wonderful the feel of silk charmeuse is against your skin when you slide on that tropic weight wool jacket, that jacket that has a lapel roll in just the right way because it was built in as the garment was cut. She helped me hone my pattern making skills by handing me photos torn out of Town & Country magazines and Neiman Marcus catalogs with a hunk of the finest fabrics available and saying, "This is what I want." I learned more sewing for her than I ever could have had I gone to any design school.
   She was a dressmaker's dream and the angels in heaven had better have the most wonderful, perfect fitting wings ready for Marie Webster. She will wear nothing less.