About
Savile Row Tailoring
Savile Row is synonymous around the world as the centre of excellence in bespoke tailoring. In Japan, the word suit derives from Savile Row. It is believed that Japanese tailors learned their craft from British tailors who followed their empire across the globe and these skills were then in turn taught to the Chinese. In China today, the highest regarded books on tailoring are written in Japanese and the tailors learn their language to further their training.
Savile Row tailoring, though often copied, is rarely ever equalled. The high-end bespoke tailoring field is a lot smaller than the custom suit. Fewer clients can afford to purchase a suit above £6000 than those who spend two or three thousand. Because of this, making techniques are adjusted to eliminate a large part of the hand sewing elements thus bringing down the cost price of manufacturing. To promote their garments, custom clothiers will lay still claim to the Savile Row title to justify their high prices and attempt to break into this market, but for the most part, their product is sub-par to Savile Row.
Savile Row tailoring is revered around the world as the highest possible standard in bespoke tailoring. This notoriety has humbled many in their field. Few would wish to claim such a title. During the years Rory spent there, he like many of his peers, worked hard daily to make themselves worthy of the name. But Savile Row, like anywhere else, struggles with consistency and scalability. Each garment maker creates a unique garment. These garments can be very different from one another when compared side by side. To overcome these variations, clients are paired with a garment maker who remains with this client through their time with the company. The clients of retiring tailors are passed to the apprentice to retain consistency.
In the past ten years, Savile Row tailors like Rory and others have travelled to China to teach the art of Savile Row tailoring. Indeed many of these companies produce a garment indistinguishable from the small tailor shops dotted up and down the famed Mayfair Street. Savile Row hasn’t influenced as much of the Asian culture since the fall of the empire as it does today.
Indeed, even some of the most notable tailors on Savile Row have outsourced some of their manufacturing to Asia for the consistency they offer. In many places rather than offer overseas manufacturing, these garments are mixed into the products made in-house. Despite the attraction of low-cost overseas manufacturing of comparable goods, there are still companies like Henry Poole's who safeguard the old guard by refusing to meddle in such practises and retain all the garment making in-house, but as time wears on, they are the exception rather than the rule.
On Savile Row, the term tailor is a general term used to describe many disciplines offered by the tradespersons they employ. A cutter, coat maker, trouser maker, etc. are all tailors.
These areas are broken into different skills. Rarely, if ever, does one tailor train in each area. In the instance they had, they probably struggled in one field and hoped they could succeed in another.
Just as cloths and interfacings have evolved, so too must the practises of the tailor. Cloth is now carefully cleaned over the canvas it covers. The two must be in harmony with each other and making your own waistcoat is a great way to start perfecting those skills. Indeed in many ways canvassing off a waistcoat can be more difficult than a coat as the canvas is softer and only consists of one layer. However, like the coat, the dart placement is positioned on the canvas over the chest dart in the waistcoat. The canvas is the foundation of the waistcoat and the shape created in its foreparts should be matched in its canvas.
The welted pocket commonly found in a waistcoat is the same pocket used for the out-breast in a coat, but different to the welt found in the trousers. This is a difficult pocket to make as the pocket ends have to be sewn down on the inside of the pocket. Compared to the jetted flap pockets, the welted pocket is a lot trickier to get right. The welt is sewn on an angle and the two seams are sewn at different lengths so that the sides of the welt can be sewn to firm cloth and not over holes created for the pocket facing.
Matching checks and stripes is difficult enough but when you add in the angle of the pocket, careful consideration needs to be taken in order to get them to line up.
Rory always recommends his students start with plain wools in at least a 10oz weight for the first few projects. Like the expression goes: learn to walk before learning to run.
The same hand-stitches are used on both the trousers and coats are used on the waistcoat. True to Savile Row style, the forepart linings are felled to the facing and armhole. A pick stitch is added to the front edge, forepart hem and armhole to stop the edges from swelling. Often this stitch is thought to be decorative but nothing could be further from the truth. No decorative stitching is found in tailoring. It is all functional stitching. If the front edge was left unsewn it would swell, roll and distort over time.
Buttonholes are the bane of most tailors’ existence and Rory’s single breasted waistcoat utilises six of them. The bottom one remains unbuttoned and is there as a show button. It is recommended to put in this one last since you’ll have five chances to make this one the best looking. As Oscar Wilde once said, “A well made buttonhole is the closet link between art and nature”. It is little wonder then why badly made buttonholes are known as a ‘crushed beetle’.