Old tailors, old cloth

[alden]

Yesterday I met a 75 year old Italian tailor who thinks he is an English one.

When I walked into the door of the atelier and saw the stacks of great cloth I knew I was on to something. “I am passionate about fabrics and I prefer to use vintage English cloth I have collected since the 1960s”, the tailor said. And there it was before my eyes, old 21 ozs Reid & Taylor worsteds (the "Bronze Eagle") from that era, old heavyweight Sportex, thick flannels and assorted traditional cloth from UK mills long since closed down. It was a textile gold mine and museum. “Inferior cloth or even standard cloth will melt under my iron. It doesn't hold up to the work I give it”, he continued, as we went into his atelier and I lifted the heaviest damn iron I have ever seen! "Now you see why I like heavy English cloth! Italian cloth fades away, except for some by Zegna."

The retired tailor makes for a short list of older clients. "I worked most of my life in Milan and studied with many Italian masters, but I think of myself as being an English tailor. The English cutting style I learned as a boy is superior to any other, including our own Italian system", he added. "Of course I can make any kind of clothes, but I prefer to make clothes without any shoulder padding or structure whatsoever.It is much harder to do well and you have to know how to cut it right, but the clothes that result are so very comfortable and elegant." And then I felt a few coats in my hand an frankly have to confess they were naturally inviting. Neapolitan clothing suddenly felt like clunky armor. A coat made for a well known Italian male model was almost my size and I gave the heavy shetland gun club a try on. Nice.

The spalla camicia on display on various coats was the most simple and unaffected I have seen and the quality of the handwork was excellent. "I make the shirt shoulder mainly for odd coats in linen or cotton, and I make a open seam shoulder for suits and formal wear."

To say the least, yesterdays surprise visit was a very pleasant surprise.

Cheers

Michael Alden

[Rowly]

Michael, It sounds like you had a very pleasant day. I'm sure it was nice also for the old Gentleman to show his work and share his experiences with someone with a true appreciation and regard for his skills. It is nice for us, also, to be allowed to look over your shoulder, as it were, by reading your entertaining account.....thanks..

[alden]

Always nice to hear that tailors like this are still out there.

Yes and that is good news. There are many excellent craftsmen to be found. The tailor infomercial threads on other forums give a very narrow view of the sartorial reality in Italy. There are tailors who can sew circles around the big commercial names and can do so at substantial savings. But you have to have your own mind to seek them out.

Cheers

Michael

[alden]

I'm sure it was nice also for the old Gentleman to show his work and share his experiences with someone with a true appreciation and regard for his skills.

It a coincidence you should say so because the tailor said that his remaining book of clients were experienced cognoscenti and he preferred to work exclusively with these kinds of clients.

Cheers

Michael

[Costi]

They don't do cloth like that anymore...
They don't do tailoring like that anymore...
They don't do customers like that anymore...

[alden]

They don't do cloth like that anymore...
They don't do tailoring like that anymore...
They don't do customers like that anymore...

Ha, those were exactly the words of Mr Frank Shattuck, who knows a great deal about old Sicilian tailors, when he read this report.

Cheers

Michael

[zaki]

Great stuff Michael. I love old tailors and their stories.

[cathach]

I'm incredibly jealous! When I went to my tailor there to pick up my suit we got talking and he reminisced about one of his clients who was the first to understand really good cloth and insisted on Reid & Taylor only. Its a real pity guys of my generation will likely not get a chance to get a suit made of such material. Even what stock there is is with older tailors with established client lists close to retirement.

[Rowly]

What would be the closest equivalent to

old 21 ozs Reid & Taylor worsteds (the "Bronze Eagle")

today? Silver Gander from Scabal?...any suggestions?..

[alden]

The Silver Gander made by Reid &Taylor for Scabal is a lighter weight relative of the Bronze Eagle and other classics. Dormeuil makes a new lightweight Sportex but it is not the legendary cloth. Sadly there is not much left.

Michael

[ay329]

What is the tailor's name and his contact phone/address?

[Costi]

Sicily, on the left?

[alden]

I just recalled another interesting moment during the visit with this old tailor. When he was taking my measures, he took a long string with a lead weight or plummet attached to it and plumb bobbed first from the front and then from the back. When he was done, he looked at me and said, “you need at least 3 cms more in back to achieve proper balance given your prominent blades and curved back.” He was exactly right. It was the first time I had ever seen a tailor use such a technique, but it was effective.

In Italian we refer to the balance of the coat, how it falls as its piombo, that is its lead (as in Pb, plumbum.) Now you know the rest of the story..

Cheers

Michael

[Costi]

He saw yours was a matter of build, so he borrowed the adequate instruments from a brotherly guild
Lapidum incisores did a lot of good work for the Sicilian baroque...

[alden]

Well it was when one of the stonemasons who plumb bobbed the wall of my house the other day that sparked my memory of being measured myself.