In a word legacy.
When I started The Handcraft Tailor Academy I did so with a vision that would see scores of tailors starting their tailoring houses in every country across the globe.
An ambitious vision to say the least. My hope is a lasting legacy and in years to come the roots of many houses would lead back to the doors of The HTA.
The heart of this vision is of course the video series. What better to reach a large audience, than with low cost, affordable, 'how to' videos. I wish the same was available to me when I started my training. But it was not so and I had to climb the greasy poll and learn it all the hard way.
Repetition, Repetition, Repetition
As my master used to say. The only way to learn it then was to memories every step, and the only way to achieve that was to do it multiple times.
I couldn't just hit rewind and watch it over, I had to search through my minds eye and envision my master doing it. Hearing his words.
Everyone who has ever started their own clothing business whether they be tailor, designer or draper, the main issue has always been production.
Since I was a master tailor, in the beginning I just made it all myself and trained a team as I needed them. I was fortunate enough to meet other experienced coat makers and trouser makers who could make to my standard and that allowed me to grow my business.
But someone living in Rome Georgia, or Reykjavík
Iceland, can't be expected to have a local industry to call on.
With that in mind I began the labouring task of training an overseas workshop. Back in 2012 while consulting for a custom tailor in NYC I was introduced to a workshop in Shenzhen China.
I know I have spoken of this workshop on here before, but I thought 'what harm would a reminder do'. If you search for the earlier posts you will find contact details as well as order forms.
James the owner was very impressed by my knowledge and skills. Not only could I teach his staff garment making techniques but I could show him and his cutter how patterns were created. I taught him figuration and pattern making for corpulent clients among other things.
Even when I returned to the US, I didn't loose contact with James. I sent him my free video series 'The Making of a Coat', which he watch with earnest. James couldn't understand why I would give away all my secrets, no one in all of China would be that foolish.
When James opened his retail shop in 2015, he fly me over for the grand opening. He told me how he following everything I had taught him. Which came as no surprise, as the guy who picked me up wore a suit that reflected my silhouette perfectly.
Since then we have kept in good contact. I have sent James all the video series I have made, the coat, ladies jacket, waistcoat and the trousers. I plan to provide him with a translated copy of the pattern drafting book as well as the videos behind it.
I have even gone so far as to draft him a complete set of coat patterns based off of my system.
Why?
So that my students (you) can use him for production.
Since James follows our system of making and pattern cutting you can be confident in the product he can produce for you.
There are some slight differences. They don't make the trouser waistband from lining but rather uses a striped cotton pocketing with rubber shirts grip. I liked it so much its how we make all our trousers for our client in Ireland.
James also incorporates a band of lining linking the to side vents together. This was requested by the custom tailor in NYC. They had issues with their back balance length and included the band to get around the issue. I am not against it, it does help with the hang of the coat.
When I first met James his handmade buttonholes were exceptional. My only mistake was asking why he didn't do a 'half & half', since he had two buttonhole machines. Of course he asked what is a 'half & half'. I replied it was half machine and top stitched by hand.
I wish I never said anything, James loved it. It made making buttons twice as fast and half as skilled. They still make nice buttons. Their Milanese lapel hole is second to none and comes as standard on all their suits.
Having a great production facility is a huge plus so we went even further a develop an order form system. It's multiple choice with the mandarin translation. You can select any style you wish, whether its coat styles, pocket details, fly details etc.
The only down side is that James doesn't speak English. This isn't as big an issue as one might think. I communicate with him through WeChat. It has a built in translation function and once you keep the conversion simple it's easy to converse.
If any of you would like to have something made by James, he really can't be beat in price! For the cost of a cheap RTW suit you can have the finest suit made for about the same, excluding shipping of course.
All you need do is reach out to me and we'll get you introduced and set up on WeChat.
Even if you can't draft it yourself, leave that to James and I am sure you'll be happy with the result.
It all starts with that first suit. Maybe for yourself, a friend or a family member your goals are closer than you realise.