Advice wanted: re-building a wardrobe

[old henry]

I cannot find my writing on what a cutter WAS so I'll sketch it out again. A cutter shook your hand and started immediately sizing you up with his extremely well trained eye. He saw you as a flat piece of paper along with darts and splaying the pattern here and possibly a sway back which always goes along with a flat seat. or stooped forward. or high shoulders ,low shoulder ,flat seat ,prominent seat ,bow leg ,knock kneed. Long neck or short neck. stout like Sydney greenstreet. Do you need a chest dart for a pidgeon chest ( English chest dart is more effective than the Italian method in my opinion )And he himself would would, with his extreme skill, make your pattern using old old old gems of knowledge and rock of eye. And he would oversee all fittings. He was the foundation of the establishment. Cutting had nothing to do with going to the basement and chopping cloth. ( and having it assembled in India by "A ROW TAILOR ? seriously guys ? ) It WAS about putting your structure on a flat piece of paper along with the house style. ( Poole house style was my favorite 25 years ago. Stodgy and strong. Perfect for old Lesser 16oz ) He was all about the pattern. It took him years to be the cutter. Years and years under watchful eyes. Anybody can take scissors and cut out a suit. I could show any of you guys to take a pair of scissors and chop out a suit in two days. Cutting has nothing to do with matching plaids or straight of grain or scissors. Anybody can be taught to do that.

[old henry]

I have found my original writing of " cutters and cutting" and I believe I have reposted it on Facebook Tailors and Fans of Tailoring. If not it is on my Facebook

[old henry]

The used Bentley salesman at Poole says that "the machine makes it easier to controls the tension of the stitch to roll the lapel" Rather than a tailors hands. ????
This guy is so full of horseshit and bullshit he needs hip waders. You're better off with Graham.

[alden]

Old Henry

Your original post on "Cutters" is here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2521732 ... 884839469/

Cheers

[Rob O]

One thing that might help at W&S is break-in on the chest. McCabe likes a fair bit of drape, and until the canvas folds over, the armholes can be a bit too big. Reach across your chest to grab and crumple the canvas, and you might see the armscye work its way up. Not a Hitchcock product, but can work very well. Admittedly, my pattern with them started at Dege 25 years ago, so there has been more time to let things settle in.

Notwithstanding Frank's searing commentary I'll give this a go - thanks! I appreciate that outsourcing stitchwork to India constitutes a departure from true bespoke tailoring, however as a single father with two boys in private school I have to watch my personal expenditure.

[Concordia]

Be aware the people have the weirdest definitions of "true bespoke" tailoring-- mostly having to do with how they run their businesses. One member here once insisted that a shirt wasn't bespoke without a paper pattern. Paper. Not mylar, not parchment, not CAD, not the memory of the cutter. Paper.

W&S's deal is that they have two sets of workers. One is downstairs (or elsewhere on the Row, or in Soho or somewhere else in the UK), as is true for pretty much every other shop in London. [Side note-- for some years, the guy who made my jackets at Anderson & Sheppard worked out of his house a hundred miles away or so.] The other, with a much lower payroll, is near Chennai. There are plenty of reasons to prefer one group/arrangement to the other, but there's nothing intrinsically different between handing your stuff to a guy on a bicycle or putting it in a DHL box.

[old henry]

Heat is back on in my shop.

[alden]

Well this has been going on for nearly 15 years now, so why not add another brick to the wall.

You LL members who are:

Lawyers, would laugh if a legal secretary claimed to be a Supreme Court justice.

MDs, would be alarmed if a hospital attendant walked around with a stethoscope seeing patients. You’d call the police if he had a scalpel.

CEOs, would fire an intern claiming to be you.

PhDs, would report any academic with fake online advanced degrees from Indian universities.

Architects, might not be pleased with Home Depot replacing you with internet based building plans.

Michelangelos, would pull a knife on someone selling paint-by-the- number Sistine Chapels.

And yet none of you can understand why a true Benchmade tailor who has spent his entire life learning a craft after decades of very specialized training is miffed when factory workers disguise themselves as him.

I have enough elemental empathy, knowledge relative to the subject and common sense to understand his dismay. And he is not alone. Most if the true artisans and craftsmen I have known are equally offended.

And, guys, no amount of term twisting will ever make your KIA a Rolls Royce, your Beaujolais a Romanee-Conti your canoe a Yacht or the plastic duck floating in your tub a slice of foie-gras. Get over it.

Ready to Wear (RTW) is off the rack.
Benchmade Tailoring is clothing made in traditional artisanal processes.

And Bespoke is anything and everything that is neither RTW nor Benchmade.

And just because you special order your KIA with brown plastic interior instead of black plastic interior does not make it a Rolls Royce.

Cheers

[culverwood]

While I agree with you on every other point there is nothing to stop any Tom Dick or Harriet starting their own company of which the could be the CEO.

All the other positions have a structured professional system and it would be pretty obvious as soon as you put paint to paper that you were no Leonardo, though in today's art market I sometimes doubt this .

[alden]

All the other positions have a structured professional system and it would be pretty obvious as soon as you put paint to paper that you were no Leonardo, though in today's art market I sometimes doubt this .

[aston]

You would have to be particularly challenged if you bought a Kia and thought you were getting a Rolls. But you would be a realist if you recognised that the amount of handwork in a Bentley is way less today than it was 20 years ago.

[andy57]

Update on David Saxby: Oh dear . . . .

I'm not surprised. I found Saxby to be a crook and a liar. I won't go into the details but I'm glad I paid him with Visa and I eventually reported him to Visa for a fraudulent transaction.

[alden]

I'm not surprised. I found Saxby to be a crook and a liar. I won't go into the details but I'm glad I paid him with Visa and I eventually reported him to Visa for a fraudulent transaction.

Well there will likely be few fraudulent transactions for awhile.

[andy57]

I'm not surprised. I found Saxby to be a crook and a liar. I won't go into the details but I'm glad I paid him with Visa and I eventually reported him to Visa for a fraudulent transaction.

Well there will likely be few fraudulent transactions for awhile.

My experience with him was over three years ago.

[belimad]

As promised, some pictures from the GB experience. Looking forward to your comments and suggestions

First fitting (last week)



Second fitting (this week)