This post has been inspired by an email I received today from a student who asked should they continue to subscribe as they have made all the notes they need. I believe this statement is link to the phenomenon created by video sharing websites like YouTube and Instagram. We see something, we watch it and rewatch to gain the knowledge of how it is done, but if we never actually do it, do we really know how it’s done? I say, without putting it into action and gaining the experience our knowledge is only superficial. Making this video series has made it easier for you to learn the skills it took me seven years to accumulate and master. Don’t underestimate how long it will take you to do the same. When I returned to Ireland I joined the local football team (Gaelic football), I had passed the Army Reserve fitness test and felt good, fitter than I had ever been in my life. I knew the theory behind the game, kick pass, fist pass, drop kick, block etc. Every training night was like being taught in a classroom, no one on one training just instructions to the masses. My skills slowly improved but I didn’t have the time and commitment needed to truly prefect the skills I had the knowing of. The skills never passed from my head to my hands. I never made it off the bench. I am not so old that I have forgotten the arrogance of my youth, the confidence I had in what I knew and the total mystery of what I didn’t. There’s a certain blind pride to ones own work, a failure to look at it critically and understand how to make it better. You are at the start of your journey, one that will have its peaks and it’s troughs. Making one coat doesn’t make you a coat maker, making a coat and not having to think about it does. As a teacher when I would enter a classroom I could tell how much work was actually being done. If their lips were moving their hands weren’t. It wasn’t until I had finished my apprenticeship that I could hold a conversation and still get my work done that I was really confident that I knew what I was doing. Today I will make a coat and I will most likely watch a movie when I am doing it. By the end of the coat I will still be able to give a summary of the film I watched because the knowledge and experience of tailoring has passed from my head and into my hands. Doing something without thinking about it, is true knowledge.
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I had a teacher, an older man who had been born in Italy, who would say, "Work! Work! Don't talk!"
My old master use to say ‘either talk or sew, but don’t stop working’.
I am confident that following this video series will led you to a full understanding of how to make a savile row coat. After I left my first apprentice I use to imagine my master on his board carrying out the task I was attempting. I use to close my eye and picture him there doing whatever stage of the garment I was at. I could hear his voice in my head explaining the importance of the task and the reason behind each step. I set up a small production team with former students. Some of whom have been with me since the start, those who have trained in Coats others in Trousers but all in pattern drafting. They all watch the video series, they even subscribe like you all here. We have a trouser making series, the quality of shooting isn’t good enough to offer on subscription but one can follow it to learn the system. They all tell me how they follow each episode. Whenever they start a new project they go back to the beginning and start again. Some have even said they watch it everyday. If I had a video series showing me how to make bespoke garments I don’t think it would have taken me seven years to accumulate all this knowledge. My old master Paul used to say it’s ‘repetition’. Doing the same thing over and over again until you learn it. He never found it boring even after 50 years, more like 60 now. Every new job was a different cloth, different details and he seems to still really enjoy his work. I marvel at it, I like switching between coats and trousers and waistcoats and overcoats, but he enjoyed just making the same garment day in and day out. I do feel like we are revolutionising the trade here. Striping away the need for five years apprenticeships. Showing the world that with the basic skills and the order of assembly, anyone, anywhere can become a Savile Row tailor. You only need to be trained by a Savile Row tailor to be a Savile Row tailor. Many of you may never work there but that doesn’t mean you have any less claim to the title. It’s an idea more than anything else. A commitment to making garments using Handcraft techniques.
I had a lesson on the importance of repetition and experience in another field. I rarely cook, but it was Christmas Day, so I decided to make an omelette. I've made them before, but wanting to prepare something special, I turned on a YouTube video by Jacques Pépin, a French chef who I believe used to have a column in the New York Times.
He did note at the start that making an omelette is not that easy. In fact, when he meets a new chef, he asks him or her to make an omelette in order to assess the chef's level of technique. I skipped over a demonstration of a country omelette which is similar to the kind I've made in the past. I wanted to make a classic French omelette, which involves constant stirring and and shaking of the pan. The resulting omelette is smooth without curds and more pale than the country omelette.
I watched the short video twice. The steps themselves were not complicated. Then I tried it myself. I ended up with scrambled eggs.
I think the problem was that the pan was too hot. Pépin said that it should be hot, but not as hot as the pan should be for the country omelette. Pan heat is not something I know how to measure unless there's an additional instruction like "a drop of water sizzles when it hits the pan." I assume he wasn't too specific because viewers are using different ranges and pans. Or maybe he thought it was obvious. I suspected my pan might be too hot so I cooled it down. But it wasn't enough.
In any event, I followed the instructions to the letter but had a less-than-desirable result because I lacked experience. I considered making several more omelettes until I got it right but I don't like eggs that much.