Susan passed me a link to The English Cut, another sewing related blog. Your host is Thomas Mahon, bespoke tailor on Savile Row London [his blog is much nicer than mine and the RSS feed on his site works!] His most recent posting is “how to cut a pattern” and my inner-autie compells me to mention that Mahon uses the word “block” -not sloper- too. Nice photography illustrates his posts; cut here! shows a nice chalk-out on fabric of a man’s suit; the patterning of which facilitated by the vertical stripe.
In another vein, On Tailoring As a Model for Open Source business models (via gapingvoid) James Govenor writes:
Tailors dont need proprietary designs to create beautiful expensive suits for their clients. They might cut a pocket slightly differently, or add a button. But its the tailoring that creates the value. That is, a tailor competes on the basis of implementation, brand and credibility. The same is going to be true of many businesses building around open source, including RedMonk.
This quote is yet another reiteration that the sewn products industry is not “open source”. Access to information is the greatest barrier; having practical and technical information readily available is the only thing that will lead to a level playing field, or at least a entry level, level playing field. People should not have to compete for access to information. Rather, make it readily available and let’s see who does what with what -in other words- how well the information is implemented. That’s the only way I can see consumers gaining an edge towards meaningful apparel choices. The latter is a partial explanation of why I’m boycotting my own industry.
In keeping with today’s topic of tailoring, Eric sent links to MyCustomTailor , a wonderfully comprehensive site for anyone interested in tailoring. Nice photographs illustrate the company’s manufacturing standards such as full vents (sleeve vents too), rolled lapels, inside pockets etc. Mycustomtailor has an extensive articles archive as well. You can find the archives by scrolling through to the bottom of this article.
Mycusttailor are definitely no good!! I had a mastor tailor coming to London to measure me up. He also wanted to sell me more shirts which were supposed to be slim fit and another jacket.
Needless to say the overcoat that I bought didn’t look like anything that was advetised on their site. The sleaves were also so short i couldn’t even lift my arms. The shirts that were supposed to be slim fit looked like a dress. The work done on the material also was of poor quality. For the same price I can get a lot better in London.
Also, forget about getting your money back. Even when they say they’ll refund you the money after a lot of complaints, the next time you get your post you’ll find they’ve altered the order just so they don’t to give the money back.
Mycustomtailor is really not worth the effort and its because they are in Thailand where you have no consumer rights and so can get away with poor service.They’ll never get any business from me or anyone I know!