Bespoke Tailoring: Then & Now

A huge percentage of men today usually wear ready-to-wear clothes produced on a large scale in factories for the retail market. A small minority of the rest of the gentleman prefers to dress in bespoke clothes custom-tailored for their bodies and get a custom suit made. However, if we begin to look at clothing from 200 years ago, each garment was made by hand, not at factories.

Now handmade clothing has gone from being a product of everyday use and a low price to something extremely exclusive and expensive, especially the bespoke suits NYC.

The Brief History of Bespoke Tailoring

Medieval Age to 18th Century

Before the 18th Century - the time before the advent of sewing machines, all clothing was hand-cut and sewn - very similar to the way bespoke tailoring works currently. The only difference was that the desired fit was met in a very different way than today. Up from the Medieval Age to the end of the 18th Century - tailors had the tendency to hide their trade secrets and never share it with an apprentice until the ownership of the business was handed over to someone else. A countless number of fittings were required to get the right fit for the dress. This enabled them to get the perfect measure of handiwork and fitting. 

19th Century Bespoke Tailoring

The 19th Century London seemed like one big tailor shop that catered to the needs of all the gentlemen in the entire Empire. It was crawling with bespoke tailors, cloth merchants, shirt-pant-coat & vest makers that worked their expertise to provide for the poorest and the richest. At that time, London was known as the capital of the first world, and the clothes produced there were known to showcase and affluence, and it was also considered as the height of elegance according to international standards.

They catered to every price customer, but somehow the poorest could not afford the custom clothing and thus depended on the secondhand sale of clothes. Rich men often handed down clothes to their workers and valets in the form of incentives for the splendid workmanship they provided.

Sewing Machines and Mass production of Ready-to-Wear Clothing

In the 18th Century, in order to stop with the multiple numbers of fittings required and to mass produce the clothes being worn and to make it more time and cost-efficient as well as to accommodate the use of the production of sewing machines, tailors started to create cutting systems. That’s when the mass production of clothing began. This mass production of factory clothing started first in France. Thus started the ready-to-wear clothing. 

Bespoke Tailoring: Today 

With the influx of too many clothing companies and lines, bespoke tailoring has rapidly declined. At the same time, there is a small clique of high-end tailors could manage to hold their bespoke tailoring business like bespoke tailor NYC. It was almost thought that this business would not survive past the 1980s. Today, however, dressing classy has found a new voice, and those interested in these handmade custom made clothing invest in the kind of wardrobe that they prefer.