Hey, first post after lurking for awhile.
I'm 21 and have been learning the tailoring trade from my grandfather for almost 4 years now. He's over 70 now (still in good shape) and I know he wants to retire but he's sticking around to teach me.
Our trade is dying. I don't even want to mention the city I live in, because you'd be able to narrow down exactly who I am, there are that few left. We were talking to one of our material suppliers a few months ago, and asked approx how many tailors were left doing their thing in this town. We figured 100 or so, give or take. The man said "No way. Try less than 20." Less than 20 legitimate tailors in a city >1 million people.
To echo some of the comments in this thread, you're almost better off watching YouTube videos and attempting the alterations yourself, than taking them to a cleaner. Often times, it's the wife/mother/aunt/sister of the cleaner operator that picked up a few sewing skills over the years. You should see some of the disasters I've had to fix. One guy had to throw out the suit jacket because they fucked up the shoulders so badly it couldn't be saved. Even the simple alterations, I'm astonished how many bad shortening jobs I've come across.
I know tailors are more expensive than cleaners to have work done, and there is a reason for that. We spend years learning how to do everything. That experience has a price. And also, there is a guarantee it will be done correctly. Every time you take your stuff to a cleaner or amateur, there is a risk you won't be able to wear your stuff, or you'll have to come to me and have it corrected and paying twice (initial poor job + correction).
Timoteo, I read that article this week as well. It's very informative and casts a grim light on the state of our industry. In the past, the imported suits coming from China, India, EE, etc, were absolute shit. Terrible fusing (everything glued inside. Two trips to the cleaners and it falls apart), poor craftsmanship, low quality materials, you name it. As time moved on, the quality of the imports have improved. The average person doesn't wear suits anymore (most of our long time customers who used to buy 3-4 suits per year buy maybe one now.), if anything they have one suit they use for weddings and funerals.
Most people think "If I only need to wear it once or twice per year, I can't justify spending $1000, $2000, $5000 on a nice suit when I can get one for $300."
It's a bit of a "perfect storm", to use the cliche. Lower demand for quality garments, rise in casual wear acceptance (my grandfather told me, the introduction of casual Friday was the beginning of the end) so people don't dress up anymore, widespread availability of super cheap, low to mid range imports, and higher cost of living/materials/supplies, really hurt the viability of the industry.
This post is getting pretty lengthy, probably deserves another entire thread.
The article in question has forced me to take a step back and asses the path I'm currently on. Less and less I want to learn the entire jacket making process. I can do almost every alteration at this point, been doing most of them for 3 years, only the really really complicated stuff is out of my league. Realistically, it will be at least an additional 3-4 years of apprenticeship before I can comfortably build a suit from scratch. Not sure if it's worth learning at this point as I watch the market for quality custom suits evaporate with my dying (from old age) client base.
Anyways, here is my introductory post to the forums. Hello everyone.
I'm 21 and have been learning the tailoring trade from my grandfather for almost 4 years now. He's over 70 now (still in good shape) and I know he wants to retire but he's sticking around to teach me.
Our trade is dying. I don't even want to mention the city I live in, because you'd be able to narrow down exactly who I am, there are that few left. We were talking to one of our material suppliers a few months ago, and asked approx how many tailors were left doing their thing in this town. We figured 100 or so, give or take. The man said "No way. Try less than 20." Less than 20 legitimate tailors in a city >1 million people.
To echo some of the comments in this thread, you're almost better off watching YouTube videos and attempting the alterations yourself, than taking them to a cleaner. Often times, it's the wife/mother/aunt/sister of the cleaner operator that picked up a few sewing skills over the years. You should see some of the disasters I've had to fix. One guy had to throw out the suit jacket because they fucked up the shoulders so badly it couldn't be saved. Even the simple alterations, I'm astonished how many bad shortening jobs I've come across.
I know tailors are more expensive than cleaners to have work done, and there is a reason for that. We spend years learning how to do everything. That experience has a price. And also, there is a guarantee it will be done correctly. Every time you take your stuff to a cleaner or amateur, there is a risk you won't be able to wear your stuff, or you'll have to come to me and have it corrected and paying twice (initial poor job + correction).
Timoteo, I read that article this week as well. It's very informative and casts a grim light on the state of our industry. In the past, the imported suits coming from China, India, EE, etc, were absolute shit. Terrible fusing (everything glued inside. Two trips to the cleaners and it falls apart), poor craftsmanship, low quality materials, you name it. As time moved on, the quality of the imports have improved. The average person doesn't wear suits anymore (most of our long time customers who used to buy 3-4 suits per year buy maybe one now.), if anything they have one suit they use for weddings and funerals.
Most people think "If I only need to wear it once or twice per year, I can't justify spending $1000, $2000, $5000 on a nice suit when I can get one for $300."
It's a bit of a "perfect storm", to use the cliche. Lower demand for quality garments, rise in casual wear acceptance (my grandfather told me, the introduction of casual Friday was the beginning of the end) so people don't dress up anymore, widespread availability of super cheap, low to mid range imports, and higher cost of living/materials/supplies, really hurt the viability of the industry.
This post is getting pretty lengthy, probably deserves another entire thread.
The article in question has forced me to take a step back and asses the path I'm currently on. Less and less I want to learn the entire jacket making process. I can do almost every alteration at this point, been doing most of them for 3 years, only the really really complicated stuff is out of my league. Realistically, it will be at least an additional 3-4 years of apprenticeship before I can comfortably build a suit from scratch. Not sure if it's worth learning at this point as I watch the market for quality custom suits evaporate with my dying (from old age) client base.
Anyways, here is my introductory post to the forums. Hello everyone.