Myth & reality - tailoring 2006

[Gruto]

I feel there is story about decay when we talk about bespoke tailoring: massproduction is colonizing craft, art, quality etcetera. On the other hand, I have the impression that tailoring is better today than 100 years ago. In short, have there ever been better shirtmakers and tailors?

[Mark Seitelman]

The conventional wisdom is that the level of craft has declined as the number of tailors and shirtmakers have declined.

However, Alan Bennett is in the dissent. According to Mr. Bennett, craftsmanship is better than it was in the Duke of Windsor's time. Mr. Bennett's firm, Davies & Son, owns a couple of the Duke's suits, and it was one of the Duke's tailors. Mr. Bennett has had the opportunity to inspect some of these suits including some from the fabled tailor, Scholte.

However, there is no dispute that there are fewer craftsmen and a lower demand for craft. Where and what will Savile Row and bespoke tailored clothing be in the future is a big question.

[lancepryor]

I believe what we are seeing is a consequence of the increasing relative cost of hand-made goods. Unfortunately, the (ever) increasing cost of bespoke is the logical and natural result of the laws of economics (see Baumol's Cost Disease). Because of the increasing prices of bespoke, these goods have become 'luxury' goods, and they therefore carry with them certain expectations of quality and service. Plus, of course, improved communication and media technologies have created a more demanding customer. So, you have fewer items being sold, but higher expectations from the customers who remain, so the quality of the product must be higher to satisfy those customers.

If you went back say 50 or 70 years, I think you would find the number of tailors and the 'market share' of custom garments were much higher, but I think many/most of these clothes would not be up to today's standards of bespoke; of course, most of the customers were buying what they no doubt simply saw as utilitarian garments, rather than some rarefied product that should be the best in the world.

[Costi]

… and still they fitted better than today RTW, they looked better in terms of style and used to be cut in the better cloths that were more widely manufactured back then. Yes, bespoke WAS popular and with many more degrees of quality than today - which means that even the utilitarian garments that even the poor bought used to be at any rate better than today RTW. Ergo, on average people were better dressed. Plus using a tailor’s services required some degree of sartorial culture and taste (choosing cloth, choosing a style - even choosing a tailor!), so people were on average more knowledgeable about clothes, too; they could tell more easily a good suit from a bad one, even if they didn’t always wear the very best.

[Leonard Logsdail]

Alan is 99% correct about the quality of tailoring now as opposed to 50 years ago. But with an exception or two.

Back then, the lightest weight fabric worked on was about 16oz and most were heavier. An elephant could make a good job on that weight cloth. Try the same tailors now on a 7oz super 150 and it would be a disaster. Tailors really have to "feel" the cloth in their fingers and know exactly what to do in order to get perfect. And it has to be perfect as there is no forgiveness in this weight fabric. Hence the higher standard of workmanship.

Now, that said, I used to own (stolen, I'm afraid) a beatiful pair of Huntsman's white buck-skin riding breeches. The workmanship on these were magnificant. The edges were drawn together, edge to edge, by hand. It must have been the hardest of things to make, yet, whoever did it, did not cheat on a single sticth.

So, there were great tailors back then, but work was so plentiful I expect churning them out was more of importance that the quality in most cases.

Leonard

[Lord Byron]

In my humble opinion, Naples, with its tradition of craftsmanship, is the one place in the world where quality and value have remained constant.