Problem I have With the Tailoring Trade

[Hendrick]

With more and more services and products becoming less unique and more "standard" if you want, visual identity is more important than ever. I notice a growing interest in corporate wear in the Benelux and Germany...

[Greger]

Here is an interesting article
https://savilerow-style.com/profiles/edward-sexton-return-of-the-wizard-with-the-scissors/
The problem with tailoring today is that there are so few of them. We hear about England and Italy. Not much information. The British think that they are the only ones. Italians think they are pretty hot. In the past every country had tailors- lots of them. Each culture has their own continuing  opinions of clothes. Today there is practically nothing. So to say, brain dead. Even when I was way younger there were many tailors. In the US the CTDA was all custom tailors. In England they called it bespoke. Even that has changed, because of idiots. In the past there was no mass production. All clothes were made by tailors. Even when I was way younger you could buy a reasonably priced garment by a local tailor. Some of these guys could make anything. One of my peers in 6th grade went to a tailor to have a simple school coat made. If this child was middle class it was on the low end. Saville Row made for wealthy people. So there prices are high. They made for kings lords dukes and other kinds of that sort. If that is the image you want, then that is where you go. In England there were thousands of tailors who made for other English people. The bigger the city marketing is very important. Which generally means you specialize in certain garments. If you live in a smaller community you need a broader range of skills. Saville Row is not a good example of tailoring as a whole,  because they don't make everything, and shouldn't make everything. When you look at old journals, books, pictures about clothes made by tailors people clearly had different opinions than today. The hippie generation basically ended the continuation of this on going thinking. Younger people are reinventing the wheel. The article above is about Saville Row. Henry Poole himself had three different shops. Saville Row for the wealthiest. Another one for fashion minded. The last one was for the middle class. Even as a boy I was told if I make different clothes to have separate doors to keep the customers separated. You don't want high class style people mixing with the young pursuing fashion. And there are other groups to keep separated. If you look through history what Tommy Nutter did is not new. And you have to remember that the writer is writing so that the readers think,"Oh! Wow!" (The author is trying to earn his bread and butter.) One of the first things I learned about tailoring is that it is art. Not mass produced type of art. It is fine art. There is some mention of structure, which changes according to the need of the art. Art is not about the structure. The structure is to make it possible to make the art. Sexton is merely telling what artist,  of the tailoring sort, have been doing for hundreds of years. Today I was thinking about how to teach a child how to make a shirt Pattern with a strip of paper (measurements on it) and thumb measurements. In the old days they didn't have rulers with numbers. Brilliance was used in a different way. For example, in Europe, the roofs, the carpenters would put two chalk marks on a square and cut the proper lengths and angles and hand up each piece without another cut necessary. There is so much ingenious history. I guess what I'm saying, is that, in today's world of tailoring, the thinking is not broad enough.

[Gerry]

Henry Poole himself had three different shops. Saville Row for the wealthiest. Another one for fashion minded. The last one was for the middle class. Even as a boy I was told if I make different clothes to have separate doors to keep the customers separated. You don't want high class style people mixing with the young pursuing fashion. And there are other groups to keep separated.

This used to be true of ready-to-wear too. In the 50s and 60s Cecil Gee had various outlets around London that catered to different income brackets. A shop for the Chelsea set, others for the less well off. John Stephen, "The King of Carnaby Street", had multiple stores along that strip. Again, catering to different income brackets, or the different sexes. Even Quant had a budget range - affordable stockings and lipstick, so that anyone could have a piece of her name.

That generation of designers/retailers was largely responsible for weaning customers off tailored/couture clothing (though the trend had started earlier in the US). By mass producing garments in relatively small numbers, they gave people the illusion of exclusivity. That's why fashion changed so much in the 60s. Every few weeks (rather than seasons) they'd introduce a new line of clothing.

It's not all bad in our modern world. It's clear from the interview linked below, that there's still a place for tailoring. Technology hasn't yet caught up with what some tailors can do. So there's still a future for the humble tailor. They/we just have to specialise and produce stuff that can only be done by hand. Providing it's better looking, and/or stronger, done that way. Amongst bespoke tailors there's a lot of hand sewing for the sake of it. Sometimes a machine is just better? "Hey, I can afford to pay someone to make parts of this suit look like my Grandmother sewed it! Cool!".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a1oq3Vurpk

[SO_tailor]

Sorry for not responding soon! This is a very interesting view on the subject.

[SO_tailor]

The hippie generation basically ended the continuation of this on going thinking. Younger people are reinventing the wheel ... I guess what I'm saying, is that, in today's world of tailoring, the thinking is not broad enough.

This is such a good point Gregor! This is exactly what I felt was the biggest problem with the trade, they seem to have lost the creative aspect. In my opinion, I think tailors often confuse 'suits' with "suits" if you know what I mean. I'm surprised the trade hasn't dug into other garments for outdoor and country attire. Like I mentioned earlier the trade seems to be very reliant on corporate attire, not trying new cuts on garments. Very "Green eggs and ham" if you'd ask me.