We present a novel approach to mesh deformation that enables simple context sensitive manipulation of 3D geometry. The method is based on locally anisotropic transformations and is extended to global control directions. This allows intuitive directional modeling within an easy to implement framework. The proposed method complements current sculpting paradigms by providing further possibilities for intuitive surface-based editing without the need for additional host geometries. We show the anisotropic deformation to be seamlessly transferable to free boundary parameterization methods, which allows us to solve the hard problem of flattening compression garments in the domain of apparel design.