The more you know...

[alden]

This thread makes me understand why bespoke has become such a dinosaur. Techocrats combine one off pictures and wild assumptions to develop a hypothesis that is a far stretch from reality.

Whnay

I just finished filming a three part show with Huntsman, working with their GM and head cutter. It was a lot of fun. They have their own vision of style, it has its own identity and is very appealing. I didn’t feel any dogma from them, as I did not from Mr. Hitchcock, rather a sort of easy going pride in what they do, something that makes sense to the degree it pleases their clients.

Like A&S, Huntsman’s business is way up and heading further up. Maybe SR is a kind of “Jurassic Park” where the animals are reborn. And increasingly, young men are coming to visit the park in a reaction against the vagaries of modern fashion and its annoying marketing. I think today and in the future, the biggest problem with bespoke will not be creating the demand, but fulfilling the demand. And in this regards, I am secure in my prediction that the cost of bespoke in the near future will surpass that of high end RTW fashion and surpass it by a very wide margin. So get your clothes made now.

I found the visit very positive and upbeat. My next stop is Edward Sexton and I am curious to see what they are about. I also plan on trying to contact Tom Ford when I visit New York. Word is he is a charming man and if so, he should grant an interview. We shall see.

I agree that a technocratic approach to tailoring (that I rarely tolerate) leads a client nowhere. It might be fun for “real” tailors amongst themselves but it fails to deliver palpable content to many of us, and nothing that would lead one to choose bespoke. And you are very right, pictures are traitors and if used out of context for other than instructive purposes, they will be removed from the LL(case in point.)

Cheers

Michael

[schneidergott]

[alden]

SG

That may all be true. I think its more your tone and edge that seems technocratic and out of balance.

Listen to these words by one of your colleagues published on the LL yesterday:

"I don't feel that I can articulate in so many words, the sensation that great cloth gives. As I often say, "my hands know good goods more than I." Frank Shattuck

Can you hear the difference?

Cheers

Michael

[alden]

Folk here sometimes forget that 'eternal style' and 'elegance' are just subjective terms we apply to what they like, and that everything clothing is really... fashion, or at least once was.

The ends justify the means in the creation of attractive style, something that is pleasing and seductive. It doesn’t matter a whit the provenance of the clothes. It matters that they ring true and create presence. It’s either there or it is not. There is not even an ounce of ambiguity about it. Brando in leather or Dean in jeans had more presence than a hundred fops. If it’s Tom Ford, A&S, or overalls and a corn cob pipe, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that it is.

The creation of a personal style is the subject of this video:

http://dresswithstyle.com/2009/12/07/dr ... own-style/

The marketing around fashion has always externalized things in a dream factory approach. The current Tom Ford website is a good example. The front page features a flirtatious, middle aged, but, attractive and buxom, naked woman, tending to the locks of a doltish young man. “Buy Ford, and this is what you can expect even if you are otherwise a dolt.” The message is as clear as it is calculated and must be irresistible to the young and hormone charged seeking a miracle change in their lives.

But more times than not, the fashion messages like most marketing messages fail to deliver, “in practice”, for obvious reasons. If life were only so easy….(it would be such a boring place.)

GBS said, “Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

Pull from the variety of style to create a picture that pleases, one that emanates from your own style, one that rings true. That is what I like to say.

Cheers

M Alden

[schneidergott]

[alden]

Please excuse if that was edgy again!

SG

I suppose it is to be expected to the degree you are writing about your occupation while we all are writing about our frivolities.

I have to try and keep myself from being serious all the time. There comes a point in a man’s life when it becomes a matter of self-preservation to do so. Look, there I go being serious again.

Have fun, enjoy, tell us what you like to do, what floats your boat. Forget about the others, their failures, real or imagined…what interests us is you.

Frank Shattuck graced our pages with a line that borders on poetry, humble, calm, self effacing, and nearly beautiful. It’s a good model.

Cheers

Michael

[mmkn2]

These two photos bring to mind a conversation I had with my bespoke maker at one fitting, about the difference between the feminine [RTW, former photo, what sells] and masculine [bespoke, latter photo, what is created] aesthetics for men's clothes.

Men's RTW/Retail field are dominated by either gay designers [sometimes pejoratively described as the "gay mafia"] or women designers [e.g., Véronique Nichanian for Hermès].

In many ways it is difficult to mix the two in conversation or in real life [as in Mr. Ford and A&S], and that men's bespoke is better thought of in the light of women's haute couture - that is, a garment created specifically for one person by the maker.

- M

[zeitgeist]

...and that men's bespoke is better thought of in the light of women's haute couture - that is, a garment created specifically for one person by the maker.

- M

Not quite. I concede that the craft aspect of haute couture is similar to that of bespoke (or what we like to think is bespoke craftsmanship), but if my mother's experiences are anything to go by, in women's haute couture the process is more akin to MTM. Measurements are taken, and the preexisting example is then reproduced with the necessary alterations to fit the customer.

Once in a while the designer may concede a change of fabric or trim as per the customer's wishes, but to alter the 'cut' or overall silhouette is AFAIK uncommon.

[alden]

These two photos bring to mind

a quote from Beau Brummel, "If John Bull turns to look after you," the Beau once observed, "you are not well-dressed, but either too stiff, too tight, or too fashionable."

Cheers

[alden]

women's haute couture the process is more akin to MTM. Measurements are taken, and the preexisting example is then reproduced with the necessary alterations to fit the customer.

ZG

Yes that is my impression as well. Woman's couture is basically high end MTM. Maybe only a handful of VIP clients get anything close to what we think of as a bespoke service. That being said, I remember seeing some of the work coming out of the old YSL atelier many years ago, and the handwork was stunning. I suspect that is gone these days.

Michael

[shredder]

In womenswear, there is a difference between haute couture and couture even though, like 'bespoke', haute couture / couture is subject to much abuse and misuse. The latter is analogous to MTM in menswear, but there are some in this camp that represent themselves as being an haute couture house. The media is also partly to blame for this. The former is analogous to bespoke in menswear.

[schneidergott]

.

[alden]

SG

The gods are long gone.

I think the thing you are missing is that when it comes to style there are few absolutes. One man’s sloppiness is another man’s nonchalance. One man’s orderliness is another’s lack of wit. What a man envies in his neighbor’s dress might be considered a defect by the admired one. One man’s improvement might be a step backwards to another. One man’s deficiency might be the thing we love him for the most.

Most of what we call “art” describes in many forms, with many sounds and colors, the texture of our failures and weaknesses. There is little said, or to be said, about the cold, white light of perfection.

For some reason, you feel to be in direct contact with the divine source of style. You might do well to reconsider the veracity of that connection. It might steal some of the thunder and make your thoughts sound and feel more human.

Speaking for myself, to paraphrase a song by Jean Gabin, the only thing I know for sure about style, after a lifetime’s study and observation, is that I know nothing at all about it. It’s one of life’s mysteries that fascinates because we cannot ever really master it.


Sincerely

Michael Alden

[shredder]

Well put, Michael.

[mmkn2]

some of the work coming out of the old YSL atelier many years ago, and the handwork was stunning.
Michael

Speaking of YSL, this Haute Couture treatment of Dame Deneuve is what I analogized to men's bespoke [except that most men do not get more than one tailor and more than one stylist at their fittings].

Has anyone tried Lanvin bespoke in their heyday? Something similar?

- M