The London Lounge

Alias's wonderful exercise with his Korean tailor coincides with some wonderful posts n Style Forum. I have always thought this is an under-explored subject, tailors in the developing world. Low cost tailoring in low cost labor countries has a lot of virtues. Many of these tailors are talented and some harbor forgotten traditions or tradtions translated for taste. Vietnam, India, Korea, Hong Kong, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Czech Republic, Romania (Dracula-land to the worldly RJMan), all have demonstrated tailors with untapped talents.

Thoughts?

It's hard telling the true tailors from the tourist trappers. One important clue is price. It's entirely possible to get a Super 150's wool/cashmere two-piece suit for $300. Unfortunately the fabric is merely ok, the lapels are fused and the shoulders are stuffed with padding.

I've personally found that in order to get great quality one must pay at least $1,000 in South Korea. That price does not include fabrics. The domestic firm Cheil makes some wonderful fabrics with imported wool, although their characteristics are more Italian than English. Actual foreign fabrics are subject to high taxes, and the selection is limited.

Most reputable tailors are centered around the "ritzy" districts, particularly around expensive hotels. Most of the tourist-trappy ones do business in the "fashion" districts and in popular tourist areas.

The Roman silhouette is popular. No one does the Drape cut, although I'm going to start trying with my current one.

I haven't found any great shoe or shirt makers in Korea.

Actually, I would consider Romania to be "Bresch-sylvania".

Some of the most interesting posts that I have read here were submitted by Costi and described his experiences with Romanian tailors and shirtmakers. He and the craftsmen he worked with had to think long and hard about almost every decision and aspect of the garments because they were either reviving a tradition that was somewhat lost or pushing bespoke skills in directions they had not had the opportunity to develop.

Edited: Because my original post was written in purple.

I am sure that is how the Romanians feel about me!

I completely agree with you Dopey.

There is the marketing approach to explain the differences between Eastern- and Western-European bespoke tailoring: demand for bespoke clothing was seriously affected (in terms of quality and size) by 50 years of comunism and 17 more of “post-comunism” (capitalism would be too grand a word), which caused supply (artisans’ skills) to stray from the best of practices.
Then there is the evolutionist approach: separated from the rest of the world, Eastern-European artisans developed their own system of bespoke tailoring. This different new species may prove reluctant to revert to its origins or make up for a one-generation lag overnight.
The fact remains that those few good artisans left (most of whom are old now) are (still) capable of meeting an exacting demand and, provided they’re paid adequately (which has never been an issue in the western world, has it?) can perform as expected. It is deffinitely not as easy as walking into Rubinacci in NY or A&S in London, choosing from hundreds of cloths available on the premises and ordering a suit without worrying much that it might not be what you expect. At any rate, I am glad I am able to have this experience here, complex as it is, and that I can share it with others who find it interesting (because it IS different).
Dr. Bresch, I hope you will sigh with relief to know that mr. Negrila, to whom I ordered a pair of linen trousers last week (I wanted to meet him and see how he works) remembered you not without pleasure and certainly as a good (as opposed to difficult) client. I’ll keep you posted on the progress, if you wish.
Dopey, purple would have better fit your post: it does stand out as a concise and quite accurate intuition of the truth. I wish I could be bring myself together to be as concise as you are

I am not sure, given our august company here in the Lounge, whether my being thought of as an easy client is a good thing or a bad one!

Rest assured Dr Bresch, it is a good one.

I recently sent Negrila another package of fabrics. Two are to make trousers that will go better with the London Lounge POW issue, I stil do not have pants that go great with it and this time I brought the jacket to Rosenthal's to match. I also sent that fabric intended for Trabalza that I touted a while back.

I can't say that Negrila is magic, but his work is very nice and careful/. I can imagine someone with a better command of sartorial possibilities creating some nice jackets with him. One good thing about Romanians is that they are very respectful, maybe too respectful, of foreign influence. So my requests to Negrila never met with the kind of pride that a well-established tailor in the West mught evince.

Costi wrote:. . .. It is deffinitely not as easy as walking into Rubinacci in NY . . .

It would be easier, I should think, as Rubinacci does not [yet] exist in NY

Thank you for your kind comment, but I can assure you that my prior post would have embarrassed even Bulwer-Lytton.

We are as we are, dr. Bresch - whether in Negrila’s backroom or in the company of the better learned LL members - aren't we? I can’t be sure what mr. Negrila meant, we only chatted for a few minutes - it was our first encounter - and your name was mentioned “en passant”. However, I am inclined to regard him as not guilty of lese-majeste and I should think TVD is right you oughtn't worry much: a client who doesn’t know what he wants but is not happy with anything the tailor does, either, is considered “difficult”; on the contrary, a client who knows what he wants and expresses it clearly gives the artisan the possibility to accommodate his wishes and is therefore a “good” client. After all, you don't want him to think of you as a tyrant, do you? And if I may, “accommodating” is the term I feel better describes Romanian tailors’ attitude, rather than “respectful of foreign influences”; they do strive to please the client, offering their advice but without imposing anything. From my experience, most of them do know what looks good and what is elegant, but unfortunately many of their customers don’t and they must comply with the client’s requests or lose the commissions. The more illustrious western tailors can AFFORD to lose a client whose wishes disagree with what they think is right, while poor Romanian tailors can’t afford that luxury.
Thanks, dopey, for clarifying this “sartorial geography” issue for me - thank God it’s not THAT hard to work with Romanian tailors!