Many here have noted how their tailors are close to retirement age. One of my tailors has retired once before - early - but was so bored he opened another store. They all tell me they have not passed on their skills to the next generation. My main tailor's son has an IT degree and has no interest in taking up his father's trade.
The question that dogs me sometimes is what on earth I will do when my tailor retires. Do these thoughts worry anyone else here? What are you doing about it?
Lady Dorothy Nevill reminisced on the dress of the latter half of the 19th century:
In my early childhood there were still men living , who had not abandoned the eighteenth century fashion of wearing a wig. This custom, indeed, did not entirely die out with the coming of the nineteenth century, some old-fashioned people continuing to wear these head coverings as late as the early thirties. The last man to wear a pigtail is said to have been one of the Cambridge dons, who retained it as late as the year 1835.
If the London Lounge had existed in the 1830s would there have been threads on "what will you do when your wig maker retires"?
What Will You Do When Your Tailor Retires?
Search a new one 
Oh, dear Sator, I had had a wonderful weekend until I read your gloomy and half rhetorical question...
Since they all seem to be lacking apprentices, we just might find ourselves in the most unusual situation where we, as clients, relying on years of high quality "customer's apprenticeship", shall have to "train" younger tailors who know a thing or two about the trade, to the standards we are used to. Strange thought!
Since they all seem to be lacking apprentices, we just might find ourselves in the most unusual situation where we, as clients, relying on years of high quality "customer's apprenticeship", shall have to "train" younger tailors who know a thing or two about the trade, to the standards we are used to. Strange thought!
Sorry to be the messenger of doom. But the Day approacheth, and it is a reality many of us will soon have to face.
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HappyStroller
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I didn't realize it, but perhaps my practice of providing a local tailor an actual SR specimen of the particular kind of garment I wish to make may become the norm for future LL members who have and will no longer have access to living SR tailors.
To do that, I have been accumulating quite a bit of actual classic/vintage SR bespoke clothing at prices considerably much cheaper than current prices for new SR bespoke.
It's surprising the SR community allows others to easily have access to second-hand SR bespoke clothing for that purpose. One would have thought they would have formed a cartel to scoop up all available vintage SR bespoke garments to preserve their turf.
Of course, mere copies of SR bespoke do not an SR garment make.
To do that, I have been accumulating quite a bit of actual classic/vintage SR bespoke clothing at prices considerably much cheaper than current prices for new SR bespoke.
It's surprising the SR community allows others to easily have access to second-hand SR bespoke clothing for that purpose. One would have thought they would have formed a cartel to scoop up all available vintage SR bespoke garments to preserve their turf.
Of course, mere copies of SR bespoke do not an SR garment make.
Will he be sixty, seventy or eighty years old?Richard3 wrote:Search a new one
+1Richard3 wrote:Search a new one
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luk-cha
while it is not this best of situations but i always think it would be idea to have 2 makers for everything,
1 being local and the other being remote or having different Tailors for different commisions biz wear, summer wear etc
1 being local and the other being remote or having different Tailors for different commisions biz wear, summer wear etc
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culverwood
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Sator
How do tailors score on the Australian immigration system. I have heard a number of London tailors talk about moving out to Australia. Now if you can persuade the government that bespoke tailors should get a decent number of points you problem may be solved.
How do tailors score on the Australian immigration system. I have heard a number of London tailors talk about moving out to Australia. Now if you can persuade the government that bespoke tailors should get a decent number of points you problem may be solved.
culverwood wrote:Sator
How do tailors score on the Australian immigration system. I have heard a number of London tailors talk about moving out to Australia. Now if you can persuade the government that bespoke tailors should get a decent number of points you problem may be solved.
Very good idea
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The Doctor
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I'm hoping I'll be around for a little longer but my son recently asked if I could "show him the ropes" as it were. I'm thrilled that he did and I'm also hoping to take on an apprentice for my coat maker in the near future.
but my son recently asked if I could "show him the ropes" as it were. I'm thrilled that he did and I'm also hoping to take on an apprentice for my coat maker in the near future.-
HappyStroller
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I hope you will teach your son all about formal dress such as frock coats, morning cutaways, strollers, evening tailcoats, dinner jackets, waistcoats to go with them, and also single stripe and double stripe trousers for evening wear, and even house jackets and smoking jackets. Of course, there are also blazers and various types of sports jackets which he can learn how to tailor. I suppose you have your own ideas on what to teach him already. May I wish him all the best!
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The Doctor
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Thank you, I'll do my best and I'm sure the members of the forum will keep him in toe.HappyStroller wrote:I hope you will teach your son all about formal dress such as frock coats, morning cutaways, strollers, evening tailcoats, dinner jackets, waistcoats to go with them, and also single stripe and double stripe trousers for evening wear, and even house jackets and smoking jackets. Of course, there are also blazers and various types of sports jackets which he can learn how to tailor. I suppose you have your own ideas on what to teach him already. May I wish him all the best!
Well, there are now two competing "academies" associated with Savile Row, along with apprenticeships at the principal houses, so the London succession looks not so bleak; there are the existing younger independents (Merrion, Hitchcock, Mahon, etc.), and Joseph Centofanti in Philadelphia now has an apprentice. Don't know what the situation is in Italy; perhaps Alden can advise.
HS, much can be learned by examining finished garments, but only so much. I'm sure our tailors can comment further, but I suspect the most crucial parts of an apprenticeship involve learning how to draft patterns, cut, and use the iron to shape the cloth in three dimensions--all to accommodate specific figure variations on individual clients, while maintaining elegant proportions. This does not require understanding construction techniques so much as developing an eye for analyzing body conformation and acquiring a huge store of knowledge of alternative ways to manipulate multiple factors to reach the best result for each client.
A ready-to-wear suit built to a stock pattern may be constructed to the highest standard but will look terrible on anyone who does not exactly conform to the stock pattern block. And even then it will not look as good as a well-tailored suit because RTW garments generally involve less shaping of the cloth. A young tailor who works with a great cutter and/or coatmaker to solve the specific problems presented by hundreds of individual clients of all shapes and sizes will develop skill that no amount of "reverse engineering" of finished garments will provide, because without knowing anything about the client for whom a garment was made, it's nearly impossible to evaluate why it was cut, built, and fitted the way it was.
HS, much can be learned by examining finished garments, but only so much. I'm sure our tailors can comment further, but I suspect the most crucial parts of an apprenticeship involve learning how to draft patterns, cut, and use the iron to shape the cloth in three dimensions--all to accommodate specific figure variations on individual clients, while maintaining elegant proportions. This does not require understanding construction techniques so much as developing an eye for analyzing body conformation and acquiring a huge store of knowledge of alternative ways to manipulate multiple factors to reach the best result for each client.
A ready-to-wear suit built to a stock pattern may be constructed to the highest standard but will look terrible on anyone who does not exactly conform to the stock pattern block. And even then it will not look as good as a well-tailored suit because RTW garments generally involve less shaping of the cloth. A young tailor who works with a great cutter and/or coatmaker to solve the specific problems presented by hundreds of individual clients of all shapes and sizes will develop skill that no amount of "reverse engineering" of finished garments will provide, because without knowing anything about the client for whom a garment was made, it's nearly impossible to evaluate why it was cut, built, and fitted the way it was.
I shall be most disappointed as I haven't yet met him. Bespoke is a new endeavor for me and I've just started looking.Sator wrote: What Will You Do When Your Tailor Retires?
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