Is this not like asking about the honesty of Congress?  The usual answer is they're all born liars...except my guy.  He's straight with me.

Des is a pleasant guy and he's intellectually generous. I've had several pleasant email exchanges with him. Perhaps I'm biased because he has also worked in factories. I keep insisting that bench tailors could learn so much about efficiency and turn-around if they took the time to understand how factories *really* worked.

For all outward appearances (I haven't walked his shop), Des appears to embody similar work values to my own. I'm about 80% on the RTW side, currently. But, Des uses his factory background to keep a dutiful eye on his bespoke shop (i.e. efficient processes, sufficient tools, quality construction and most of all: turn-around(!)).

I didn't read the whole article until just now.

It was a good read but I wonder how useful this is? It seems that making clothes gets a scrutiny that other industries or professions don't get. The part about being up front whether someone is a tailor or not makes me wonder. What exactly is a tailor? Is there a registrational or legal definition?

Maybe a lawyer at a big firm should be required to tell clients that he might only pretend to do the work and that most of it will be passed on to clueless, overworked and abused associates who are not only quite unqualified but shouldnt even be made responsible for the level and cost of legal work being done?

Or maybe when you go to a restaurant they should tell you where the beef is really from, who killed and packaged it, its entire bill of lading from start to finish and the qualifications of who is actually cooking the food. They could attach the cooking staff's resume to the menu, which should excite the cork sniffers out there.

Do any of you ask members who comment about cloths ask if theyve ever gotten a suit made from it and worn it? If someone can give advice on what to buy or not buy merely by rubbing something with their fingertips without any first hand experience then why wouldnt a person who has seen thousands of suits made up and cloths used qualify as a tailor?

Also why does sending something out  need disclosure? There is this presumption I get from people posting about clothes that inhouse is superior to out... well you know. Might this not confuse the customer? I see posters obsessed with clothing getting the terms wrong all the time, imagine a one time or first time ordinary man getting his suit made and trying to understand why he is being subjected to outsourcing. Plus most tailors arent renowned for their powers of verbal or written description, which we all know is far more important than the fit or the finished goods.

My tailor calls the price you pay using your own fabric a CMT (Cut make and trim). But that isnt accurate because you get fittings too and the majority of CMT involves never laying eyes on the customer. Nino uses it as shorthand but I dont think that it should be used against him and it certainly doesnt convey the extra details coming the customers way. Should a real bench tailor like Nino require everyone to sit through an hour long instructional and disclaimer about everything he is going to get with the purchase of a suit?

As far as i know, Nino's experience with large production lines makes him more efficient but everyone he employs is guiding the process by hand and in house and yet he has buttonholes for the sleeves done by hand by a lady who refuses to work from anywhere but home, which he actually tells people if they care to listen but should there be a feeling of obligation to relate this as a disclaimer before you buy a suit?

And I have seen the work of tailors who do everything themselves which lacks fit and style. The English houses always seem to have taste directors to maintain a current and traditional taste level acceptable to the world of the men buying the suits and not just those making them. Nino was fortunate that he worked in Brooks Brothers custom department and saw what the Old Brooks and its American gentry liked as suits which he married to his Italian/Neapolitan sense of artistic beauty and details. He is succesful because Americans like British style suits without the dramatic hour glass shape and they aprpeciate the Italian attention to exquisite touches in the finish of the garment.


I suppose there is always the back and forth on cost but does what one do really matter as long as the suit makes you look good and lasts with minimal care? Maybe the client shoould sign a disclaimer to treat the suit in a certain manner or hold the tailor non liable for damage and wear?


It just seems like tailors or people who need to be defrocked as non tailors get beaten like the proverbial rented mule. A better question might be how honest is the middleman here selling the cloth or how honest is your government placing tariffs on the imported fabric?

Clever Trevor cuts my jackets in his Giant vibrator and I can always tell if he's had a fry up when it's time to pick up my new clothes.
He swears he hasn't, but I know better.
Who can you trust?