the fabric was folded and seemed over her left collar bone. the "shirt" didn't cover her navel. but, ran down, in the back, to her knees.
"You want me to make what?" "OK, it's sort of a combination of a swallowtail coat and a sheath dress." "That makes no sense." "OK, start with a swallowtail coat." "Fine." "Take the sleeves off entirely, and angle the cut a little toward the neck, so you see lots of shoulder. All sheath dress vibe here." "Um...OK, fine." "No lapel--instead, there's an Asian-style raised collar." "Fine." "And it's sort of double-breasted." "That would have been easier to picture if you'd started with a double-breasted swallowtail coat, but, OK, fine." "The outer part of the two double-breasted layers angles down--imagine a line that starts around the midle of the right shoulder, and then angles all the way down to just below the left hip--exposing some of the abdomen." "Um...Yeah. What about the inner layer?" "It's doing the same thing from the opposite direction. So there's a little pointy-angled bit of abdomen showing." "Yeah..." "Then below the hip you just have the swallowtail, er, tail, in the back." "I need a drawing." "Yeah, I was afraid of that."
I learned this word today -- cheongsam I knew the swallowtail would fit into the description somewhere but I'm used to seeing certain suit tails described that way. This is almost the same thing but in the front.