Tailor

Custom Fit as an Occupation

The tailor's occupation rests on one commitment: clothes made for an individual body rather than for an average size. A tailor sews clothes custom-fit to individuals, and also repairs clothes, so the same hands that construct a garment can extend its life by mending and adjustment. In some documents tailor also means adjust, and tailoring means adjust or mend, which captures the second half of the trade exactly. Fit is not a single measurement. A suit, coat or pair of trousers must sit correctly at the shoulder, chest, waist and seat, hang to the intended length, and allow the wearer to move, all at once. Working in wool, linen or silk, the tailor cuts and sews so those demands are met together, and then refines the garment on the wearer rather than assuming the first construction is final.

The word has a long history before its modern precision. The term dates to the thirteenth century, but tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, when it came to refer to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers and similar garments. That late eighteenth century sense still describes the trade: structured garments, made individually, in cloth such as wool, linen or silk.

Bespoke, Custom and Tailored

Traditional made-to-measure tailoring is called bespoke tailoring in the United Kingdom, where the heart of the trade is in London's Savile Row, and custom tailoring in the United States and Hong Kong. The two names describe the same core transaction across different tailoring cultures: a garment commissioned by one customer, made to that customer's measurements and choices, rather than selected finished from stock. Savile Row's place in the definition is geographical as much as technical, marking where the British bespoke trade concentrated and where its standards became widely referenced.

The tailor's influence extends into ready-made language. A tailor-made is a woman's suit consisting of a usually woollen or tweed coat and skirt, a name that arose during the Edwardian period. As an adjective, tailor-made, from the second half of the twentieth century usually simplified to tailored, refers to clothing made by or in the style of clothes made by a tailor, characterized by simplicity of cut and trim and fine, often hand, finishing. As a women's clothing style, tailored is opposed to dressmaker, setting the crisp, structured tailor's manner against the dressmaker's softer one. At the opposite extreme of decoration stands the rodeo tailor, a creator of the flamboyant costumes typical of country and western musicians, characterized by extensive hand embroidery, an abundance of rhinestones, and cowboy details such as pearl snaps and arrowhead pockets. Both extremes use the same underlying skill, cutting and sewing a garment to fit one person; what differs is how plainly or elaborately the finished surface speaks. Even fiction keeps the figure familiar: famous fictional tailors include the tailor in The Emperor's New Clothes, Hans Christian Andersen's tale of weavers who promise an emperor a suit invisible to those unfit for their positions, a story translated into over 100 languages.