Extreme Tailoring

Nothing says 'pro' like a 3-hour hem job knocked out in 45 minutes.

Erin Hogan-Braker’s resume is sprinkled with names you usually see in glossy fashion magazine ads: Ralph Lauren, Brooks Brothers, American Eagle, Victoria’s Secret, Proenza Schouler, and Carolina Herrera, to name a few. However, she knows much more about these top global brands and designers than your average fashionista. As a professional tailor, Erin has literally seen their creations from the inside out.

Sewing is not just a passion for Erin. It’s her career, and one she’s pursued with thought, determination and a carefully mapped education. Her mother taught her to sew when she was a toddler, by letting her draw on fabric with soap slivers, and stitching the lines on a mechanical BERNINA. And yes, she has made quilts. Things started to get real, though, when she attended the University of Wisconsin-Stout, and earned a Bachelor of Science in Apparel Design & Development.

That school’s program is among the best in the country, she says, but that was just the beginning of a stitching journey that has taken her into alterations for top-tier department stores, pattern-making workrooms of top designers, behind the scenes at runway fashion shows and even to the Paris American Academy, where she studied draping from famed expert Madame Gres.

One of her first fashion internships was with Alexandre Plokhov, for his very underground, very Goth mens wear line. For six months, she did nothing but sew on buttons and run errands to New York City’s garment district. The buttons . They had to have 3/16ths inch shanks—no more, no less. It was nerve-wracking.

“He has the eye. He could just tell,” she recalls.