alden wrote:Guys, your tailor knows his job better than you ever will. You have nothing to convey, or expect, inspire or challenge. He or she has done this job for decades, sometimes generations, and sometimes multiple generations. So just trust your tailor. But really trust them. Because trust is the greatest sign of respect one person can offer another.
I can relate to this totally. I have had to privilege of working 3 outstanding tailors; tops in their profession and could choose the clientele with whom they chose to work. Now, I must say that I spent many years studying, reading, learning and understanding bespoke clothes, cloth and tailoring. However, this was for me personally. To say I, know nothing about cloth and tailoring would be untrue, unless I am in the company of and compared to some of the great master tailors, with whom I have had to privilege to associate. Then, my knowledge would be less then nothing. Maybe, I am a rare bird, but I have never had a “bad” experience with a tailor.
The first tailor; I had read about him in a prominent magazine. One Saturday afternoon, my friend and I were driving on the side of town which his shop was located, we gave him a call and asked if we could stop by. He said he was closing in 30 minutes if we could make it in that time; we did. We, ended up spending over an hour in shop, it was more at his behest then ours. And before we left, he said to me, “let me make you a suit; if you don’t like it, you pay me nothing.” Now, least we think this was some sales ploy; it was not; he did not “need” my business; as previously stated, he was able to choose whom he worked with, and had no shortage of clients. As a matter of fact; he made very little, if any, profit off me; as he never charged me, more than the cost of making the suit; this was upon his insistence. In later years he told me, he had summed me when I walked through the door, he saw all my earthly imperfections, (one shoulder was slightly lower than the other, one leg slightly longer or that I favored onside over the other, etc, etc,) and that this is the picture he had in his mind as he was cutting the cloth. He told me from our initial meeting, that he could tell that I was very discerning gentleman, who knew what he wanted and could appreciate all the work that goes into creating a suit. I trusted him, for several reason, (1) he would never let anything leave out of his shop that he was not 100% satisfied with; he saw thing that I and no one else would have ever seen, he taught me that there is a 1\4 of an inch between good and perfection. (2) His reputation was more important to him then money. He said that most people who came into his shop, did not have an appreciation for his work, they had money, wanted the best and that was it. I told him once, I don’t come to your shop to get a suit, I come for the stories and a suit just happens to come along with it. Every suit that he made me has a story, and he has since past away, but each time i wear one of those suit, it is like I am standing in his shop hearing him tell the story. For one of my commission, he told me; “you made me go back to my old schools books”. He was glad that I was letting him be a tailor. One of his greatest compliments to me, “Thank you for being a gentleman”
The second tailor was retired, he too was from Italy and been tailoring since he was able to walk. He said that he tried retirement, but there was only so much golf he could play, and grand kids lived out of state, so he had to do something to keep himself busy. So, he took on a select group of clientele; and I was privileged to be among them. I would stop by his shop and he would always insist that I have a cup coffee (Italian coffee is strong) and biscuits with him. Along the way he would tell me wonderful stories about Italy; he would show me garments that he was working on and show me all the handwork and explain why it was necessary and I would watch him use these irons, which were older then he was, to bend the cloth into perfect submission to his will, it was a thing to behold. His greatest compliment to me, in perfect broken Italian, "Mr. Gordon, you are not only my number one customer, you are my number one gentleman." The things I learned from these guys were priceless, this breed of tailors is almost totally gone. I was and still am honored, that I had the privilege to know them, work with them and that they took time to share their life experience with me.
These were honest to goodness tailors, they actually sketched their paper patterns, cut their cloth, and made their suits by hand; old world style. They never let me walk out there shop, with anything less than their very best.
I went to each of these tailors for what they could offer me, not for what I could offer them; for in reality what did I have to offer them; money, they didn’t need my money. Knowledge? They had been tailoring longer then I had been alive and had forgotten more about tailoring; then I probably would ever know. But, in the end, I found I did have something to offer them; and I gave it to them abundantly - - RESPECT! And the borrow a line from Robert Frost “And that has made all the difference”
