Ruched tops, dresses, and jackets are everywhere – and lucky for us. Ruching is a flattering design element that allows us to accentuate the positive in our figures and disguise the rest.
You’ll find a dozen definitions, even after eliminating those that apply to knitting, quilting, and footwear.
What Is Ruching?
Let’s look at what ruching is and how to choose figure-flattering trendy women’s clothes that incorporate this fashion detail.
For example, an easy definition is: ruched – with tight elastic folds.
Ruching is A detail created by taking fabric and sewing in lines of elastic to the back in neat rows so that the fabric puckers to create a stretchy, gathered look.
Another source states: ruched – A type of detailing characterized by gathering or pleated material with stitching accents.
Ruching is a strip of pleated or gathered fabric that trims an item of clothing.
How to Use Ruching to Flatter Your Figure
Many ruched tops use pleated accents.
Ruching may appear at a shoulder, and this is a good look if you have narrow shoulders.
Athletic gals with broad shoulders should avoid ruched shoulders.
Many figures are flattered by ruching that draws the eye toward the center of the body.
Pleats or folders that radiate out from a center are like stars shining the gaze on feminine curves.
Too Much Pleating May Make Your Figure Look Bulky
Gathering and folds may look lumpy at the bustline of ruched tops.
This flatters women who need it, and it does not flatter women who are amply endowed.
Instead, use folds, draping, and details to draw the eye toward the narrow part of the body.
Ruching that creates elegant folds conceals figure details behind the gracefully draped fabric.
Neckline Frill Can Frame Your Face
Ruching may be used to create a frame for a delicately featured or pretty face.
This definition is useful for understanding how: Shirring or gathering for a textured effect. Pronounced “roo-shing.”
- A narrow gathered/pleated strip of decorative fabric.
- Fabric that has been gathered and stitched at a center point to create a rippled appearance.
- A French word that means to plait [braid]. Ancient sewing technique where a strip of fabric is gathered in a repeat pattern
In summary, we find that ruching creates a textured and fancy effect using shirring, gathering, or folding the fabric.
Ruching May Soften Edges of Pintucks
Some definitions reveal the ancient origins of ruched details.
A strip of pleated or frilled ribbon, lace, etc., used as a hat trim or worn around the neck like a small ruff as in the 16th century.
This site goes through the word’s derivations. In the 19th Century, ruching came from French, literally: beehive, and farther back, from Medieval Latin rusca bark of a tree, of Celtic origin.
Ruching may even decorate a leather or fabric shoe. The subtle folds add texture.
Delicate ruching may form a neck frill around a high neckline or cuffs.
Ruching may soften the edges of pintucks. Pintucks are tiny pleats, usually down the front of a woman’s blouse or a man’s formal tuxedo shirt.
Ruching can make a nice blouse even nicer by adding a special, handmade touch.
Ruched Flowers Are Used as Appliques Even on Shoes
Ruching may create shirred flowers that can be used as appliques and decorations on garments, shoes, and handbags.
Ruching is a technique used to draw up fabric or ribbons. It is then formed into a flower or other design and appliqued to a background fabric.
Ruched: Fabric that is gathered into a ruffle or pleats.
Ruching can create a focal point and interesting drape for a tunic top.
In summary, even though ruching is an ancient technique, passed down from the days when fashionable women wore intricate neck frills, lace cuffs, and fancy hats, today ruching adds a contemporary detail to trendy women’s clothes.
A ruched waistline enhances a feminine silhouette. Draped fabric may flare from a star or flower that creates a focus point at the waist.
The ruching also may create a shirred natural of empire waistline.
Ruched tops may feature elegant neck frills, pin-tucked plackets, or shoulder pleats.
There are ruched-tops, dresses, and jackets to flatter every figure type.