Bespoke surfboards

[alden]

In the meantime, another story…..Once upon a time, I was seeking out a bespoke cap maker who had retired and made occasional visits to a tailor shop where she was locked away in a cellar to work. She had a very storied career and had made caps for at least two famous actors I admired, so I intended on meeting her.

To do so, I had to pass through the jaws of a tailor’s shop whose proprietor was also the head of a tailoring school. His clothes did not seem to be made from cloth. They had a very special character about them, they looked like they were constructed from planks of wood and nailed together instead of sewn. But I had to meet the fellow before I could gain access to the cap maker.

I looked at the suits with the Maestro and asked him how much handwork there was in the coat, the scye, shoulder, lapels etc. He replied crisply, “None. No one does that sort of thing anymore.” Well I was speaking to a famous professor so I tried to bite my tongue but my sanguine character intervened when I suggested that all of my coats were almost entirely sewn by hand, to which he replied curtly, “No one does that sort of thing anymore.” Well by this time I was starting to be amused so I took off my coat and attempted to show him the hand work in my garment, but he refused to look, as he mumbled, “No one does that kind of thing anymore.” At that point I knew that one of us was completely out of touch with reality, but I was not sure which of us it might be. It was like being in a Luis Bunuel movie, it was surreal.

I looked inside one of the tailor’s coats. The lining was entirely felled by hand and beautifully done. “Ah, well, look at this”, I said, “there is some nice hand work.” “Yes, the lining is done by hand because it is necessary to do so.” Hmm fascinating stuff when you consider that his surfboards disguised as suits could have really done with a bit of softness that hand work would have provided, and yet in his vision of things this was not necessary but hand felled lining was. So I did ask the inevitable question and was told that hand felling was necessary because clients wanted it done that way.

At that point I politely asked to see the cap maker, alone, slipped her a note with my telephone number and asked her to call me to arrange a lunch as far away from that infernal shop as possible. Well my meeting with her was well worth the fuss. She had lovely stories to tell about her career and the interesting people she worked with.

I think sadly that there are many tailor’s shops these days where you might hear the sad refrain of, “No one does that sort of thing anymore.” Don’t fight it, go with the flow and choose to hang ten in a Waikiki model!

Cheers

M Alden

[Merc]

very funny