Survey results: Who will be your next tailor?

[erasmus]

I'd like to thank everyone who filled out the bespoke survey that I posted earlier this year. One of the questions I asked was essentially - who will be your next tailor?

Without further ado, here's the wish list of tailors that the survey has generated so far:

Ranking / Tailor (% of Respondents)
(n=109)
1 Anderson & Sheppard (31%)
2 Rubinacci (25%)
3 Thomas Mahon (9%)
4 Henry Poole (8%)
5 Huntsman (7%)
6 Caraceni (6%)
6 Raphael (6%)
7 Dege & Skinner (5%)
7 Any Savile Row tailor (5%)
8 Chris Despos (4%)
8 Gennaro Solito (4%)
8 Steed (4%)
8 Leonard Logsdail (4%)

Further interpretation of the results are posted here: http://sleevehead.blogspot.com/2008/12/ ... -next.html.

[Frog in Suit]

May we learn a bit more about the respondents, in particular the nationalities represented?

Frog in Suit

[erasmus]

I did a quick eyeball of the data and it looks like most of the respondents are from North America and Europe (perhaps slightly tilted toward the US) with the rest from Russia, Asia, the Middle East and Australia.

[Frog in Suit]

I did a quick eyeball of the data and it looks like most of the respondents are from North America and Europe (perhaps slightly tilted toward the US) with the rest from Russia, Asia, the Middle East and Australia.

Erasmus,

Thank you.

Frog in Suit

[uppercase]

I'm really surprised to see AS at the top of the list as, on the net, there cannot be a more vilified tailoring house .

What is the interpretation here?

[masterfred]

^^"Some people swear by us, others at us."

[Frog in Suit]

I'm really surprised to see AS at the top of the list as, on the net, there cannot be a more vilified tailoring house .

What is the interpretation here?

They have always been good at promoting themselves, without appearing to do so.

Frog in Suit

[alden]

A few comments:

It is virtually the LL Certified Artisans roster.

Over 80 % of the tailors make "soft" clothes.

73% of the tailors are English.

I am not surprised about A&S. Tom Ford and Ralph Lifschitz sell dodgy goods so they can afford to have their clothes made by them.

With his sales skills, Mariano Rubinacci would be a Wall Street billionaire if he could get away from the clothes biz.

[alden]

Erasmus

I thought your commentary quite good.

Maybe some historical information on Naples would be of interest. A decade or so ago most Neapolitan tailors were sitting on their thumbs and not sewing with them. The lucky ones had good clients from the North of Italy, mainly Milan, and a few well heeled local customers. But the pickings were scarce and many craftsmen gave up or retired. It was in this context of real concern about the future of these arts that the LL was formed a few years later. In the meantime, starting about eight years ago, due to the success of Kiton and others in the RTW world, the bespoke tailors of Naples were first discovered by the Japanese.

In a matter of no time, tailors who were searching to make ends meet had full books with clients from the East thanks to a few well placed ads, articles and good sales agents. The Naples boom was on.

My sense of Rubinacci twelve years ago, as related to me by the local cognoscenti, was that London House had evolved from Neapolitan bespoke institution to a retail shop focused largely on RTW and the tourist trade. Firstly, LH had by far and away the most luxurious premises, location and the strongest retail traffic for both locals and tourists. Its foreign clients, buying mostly RTW goods, were well heeled English and American visitors headed towards Capri or Positano. And it also boasted a large contingent of visitors from Milan and Turin as well.

At that time the local experts favored the hidden artisans tucked away in small ateliers far from the prestigious Via dei Mille. And finding these artisans was nothing short of an adventure, but the Japanese journalists found some of them and made the “salto” of Naples famous and sought after. And for some reason, the more hidden they were, the more sought after they became. Since London House was not hidden at all, it got looked over at the time. It simply was not in the Japanese press book on Naples.

I have the feeling Mariano saw other tailors in town making hay in bespoke and turned his ship back onto the bespoke route full speed ahead. And then a funny thing happened, the Japanese realized that having great “saltos” was not enough because they needed great cloth as well and great cloth was no longer being woven.

I can remember one of my first trips to London House when the craze for Rubinacci’s stock of vintage cloth exploded. It was rumored at the time that the Japanese had purchased most of the stock, but somehow Rubinacci always had a way to replenish it, so either there was a huge warehouse full of the stuff or the master was buying new “vintage” to supply it. In this regards, the news of LBD selling their stock of old cloth to an unknown buyer in Naples rang a few bells. I remember being told that in the past every time a client ordered a suit of clothes, Rubinacci’s father bought a full piece of the cloth. And that these pieces had collected over the decades. Whether this is fact or fiction really doesn’t matter, it was a stroke of marketing genius.

Whatever the source or provenance, the vintages at Rubinacci are chosen with the taste the Rubinacci family embodies in all their works. It is admirable. When you see a fine coat on display, you are seeing Mariano’s taste because he styles virtually every coat. You are not paying for tailors work when you go to Via dei Mille, you are buying Mariano.

So my hat is doffed in the direction of Naples every time I see a nice coat displayed and always interested in the quality of Mariano’s eye. Rubinacci , like most tailors in Naples, fits small men best. Mafoofan is a very good example. On taller men, the low button point, 3 roll to 2, high notch starts elongating the figure too much for my taste.

The advent of the internet interest in Naples and tailoring has had an impact on the business there as it has on Savile Row. I can’t really tell you why this is or publish proof of the claim, so you’ll just have to believe me.

Cheers

M Alden

[mafoofan]

^^^ Extremely interesting, Michael. Thanks for the compliment, too. For what it's worth, a tailor friend in Naples told me that he thought Rubinacci still made the best quality product in the city, but was far from the best value. Of course, he might have felt inclined to say something nice about what I was wearing.

[Cary Grant]

Could anybody post ballpark costs for teh top five? Say, for a typical 2pc, SB, nothing fancy.

[erasmus]

A few comments:
I am not surprised about A&S. Tom Ford and Ralph Lifschitz sell dodgy goods so they can afford to have their clothes made by them.

With his sales skills, Mariano Rubinacci would be a Wall Street billionaire if he could get away from the clothes biz.

I agree on A&S - I'm not surprised about how well they did either. At least among Americans, the Force is strong with that firm.

It is indeed intriguing to mention Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren and Mariano Rubinacci in the same breath. What is interesting is that RL has already done what MR has yet to accomplish - becoming a billionaire by selling products people want.

Although RL's not well received here, I give him quite a bit of credit for doing what even MR may not be capable of doing, namely, becoming a billionaire by selling clothes. Very difficult to do and so far achieved only with RTW. Only about 20 or so of the world's 1000+ billionaires are in apparel - even fewer are self-made and even fewer in high-end apparel.

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/10/bil ... 5Rank.html

Unfortunately for MR (and other tailors), there is no easily scalable business model for bespoke clothing that I am aware of.

[Frog in Suit]

Unfortunately for MR (and other tailors), there is no easily scalable business model for bespoke clothing that I am aware of.

...but isn't that precisely why we like bespoke, at least in part? And isn't it the very nature of bespoke that makes it incompatible with an "easily scalable business model"?

I would go as far as to suggest that A & S's practices (reliance on the American market, no baste fitting -- I am only repeating what I have read here and elsewhere, as I have no direct experience) may be as close to a "business model" as SR is likely to get.

Bespoke maniacs are romantics at heart

Frog in Suit.

[ML]

[T]he bespoke tailors of Naples were first discovered by the Japanese...

In a matter of no time, tailors who were searching to make ends meet had full books with clients from the East thanks to a few well placed ads, articles and good sales agents. The Naples boom was on.

There is a Japanese comic set in Napoli named "Sarto Finito,"

a finalist in 2006's Osamu Tezuka Culture Award.


In the first 5 out of 21 current running issues, it has discussed

Spalla Camicia, Pancerina, and more importantly Sprezzatura.

It also mentioned Carl Freudenberg in one episode regarding shoes.


Noted on the dust jacket,

the artist met with Antonio Panico and Anna Matuozzo for reference

[garu]

There is a Japanese comic set in Napoli named "Sarto Finito,"

a finalist in 2006's Osamu Tezuka Culture Award.


In the first 5 out of 21 current running issues, it has discussed

Spalla Camicia, Pancerina, and more importantly Sprezzatura.

It also mentioned Carl Freudenberg in one episode regarding shoes.


Noted on the dust jacket,

the artist met with Antonio Panico and Anna Matuozzo for reference

Personally, speaking as a long-time resident of Japan, I do not have much time for manga - I accept it for what it is, but I refuse to get caught up in the hype of making it something that it is not.

Aside from that, the notable thing about a manga that uses special Italian vocabulary unique to the clothing/tailoring trade isn't that it is used in a Japanese manga - it is that the general population here understands it. One can see dozens of different styles of dress in Japan, but when a well-dressed man walks down the street, or into a meeting, or into his place of business, terms like "sebiro" [背広] ("Savile Row") or "dandy" are used not as terms of mocking ridicule, but as a compliment.

Regardless of one's style of dress, people in Japan dress up. If a man doesn't make an effort to look good when he goes on a date with his girlfriend, she will ask him why he looks like a fool.

Quality sells in Japan. My tailor, thanks to his family business history and connections, has some incredible vintage cloth, the price of which will make you sink to your knees...and he has no trouble selling it.

As for the list, I take it with a grain of salt, considering that the respondents were mostly European and North American. That suits me (pun intended): some secrets are best kept...secrets.

Matta!