Handmade Tailored Clothing—Try it, we think you’ll like it
Today the computer has enabled buying and selling on a heretofore unimagined scale. We, the public, are both beneficiaries and victims: We can buy almost anything online, but our buying habits are the most valuable thing about us according to Amazon, Facebook, et alia. And, sadly, those companies sell off the info they capture from us to any one who's buying.
We use faceless machines to churn out nearly everything we buy including clothing. Since we now order so many of our daily needs online and have them delivered to directly to our homes, we also avoid any human contact in the process. While that may make our shopping more efficient, in the long run is it a good thing? After all, we are supposed to be social animals who need some interaction with other people, so what are we to do?
One thing we suggest is that when you want to buy tailored clothing (suits, coats, pants), you consider buying a handmade garment. The process requires some patience since it can't be done overnight and then delivered yesterday, but the rewards are great:
an experienced tailor will make your garment fit beautifully, and well-fitting clothes are far more comfortable and flattering than ill-fitting ones
you can pick a style that suits you especially well, choose from a huge range of fabrics and colors, then specify linings, buttons and details to make it yours alone
devotees of handmade clothing swear, too, that the handwork involved makes each garment stretchier than its machine-made counterpart so that it fits almost like a second skin
what's more, you won't be talking to a machine, but a real person. This is a one-on-one learning experience shared with craftspeople who are highly skilled, very experienced, proud of what they do and happy to talk about it. In many cases these folks are the 2nd or 3rd generation of a family to work in a particular workshop at jobs that require years of apprenticeship, training and practice. Some have worked with certain clients long enough to have outfitted father, son and grandson. In short, many of these craftspeople are irreplaceable and we can learn a lot from them.
As you see, there are plenty of reasons to support the tradition and process of handmaking and wearing tailored clothing. We love everything that tradition and process have to offer and we would like to share our enthusiasm with you.
Now that we live in a world where taste is no longer considered an individual and personal attribute but simply the result of a cleverly designed algorithm, perhaps the best reason to seek out the handmade experience is because it provides us with an increasingly rare opportunity to enjoy a meaningful human connection.
