A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.
Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers, and similar garments, usually of wool, linen, or silk.
The term refers to a set of specific hand and machine sewing and pressing techniques that are unique to the construction of traditional jackets. Retailers of tailored suits often take their services internationally, traveling to various cities, allowing the client to be measured locally.
Traditional tailoring is called bespoke tailoring in the United Kingdom, where the heart of the trade is in London's Savile Row, and custom tailoring in the United States and Hong Kong. This is unlike made to measure which uses pre-existing patterns. A bespoke garment or suit is completely original and unique to each customer.
Famous fictional tailors include the tailor in The Emperor's New Clothes and Brave Little Tailor. A more recent title is John le Carré's The Tailor of Panama.
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As the tailoring profession has evolved, so too have the methods of tailoring. There are a number of distinctive business models which modern tailors may practice. While some may practice many, there are others who will practice only one or two.
Local tailoring is as the name implies. Typically the tailor is met locally and the garment produced locally. This method enables the tailor to take professional measurements, assess posture and body shape to make unique modifications to the garment. Local tailors will typically have a showroom or shopfront allowing clients to choose fabrics from samples or return the garment easily should it require further modification. This is the most traditional form of tailoring. Sometimes local tailoring can attract a global clientele, Sam's Tailor of Hong Kong being a notable example of this.
Distance tailoring involves ordering a garment from an out-of-town tailor enabling cheaper labour to be used. In practice this can now be done on a global scale via e-commerce websites. Unlike local tailoring, customers must take their own measurements, fabric selection must be made from a photo and if further alterations are required the garment must be shipped. Today, the most common platform for distance tailoring is via online tailors. Examples of this include Australian based InStitchu [1]
Traveling Tailors are an attempt to blend the best of local and distance tailoring. Commonly these tailors will operate out of areas which have a strong tailoring trade or low labour costs but spend much of their time traveling to major cities to meet with clients. On their visits they take measurements and showcase physical fabric samples, once the client places an order, the garment is manufactured elsewhere and delivered via courier or mail. This method has the advantage of allowing tailors to meet with their clients and make a professional assessment of the fit with the lower labour costs of distance tailoring. Often though, there will not be a store front so in the event further alterations are needed the garment must still be shipped away. Some examples of Hong Kong based high-quality tailors who operate in the way include Ying Tai Tailor.[2], ANS Fashions and Raja Fashions.[3]
Sewing professional is the most general term for those who make their living by sewing, teaching, writing about sewing, or retailing sewing supplies. They may work out of their home, a studio, or retail shop, and may work part-time or full-time. They may be any or all or the following sub-specialties:
The profession's denomination, Tailor, is a common surname in many languages: Taylor (English), Schneider (German), Siuvejas (Lithuanian), Szabó (Hungarian), Croitoru (Romanian), Sastre (Spanish), Krawiec (Kravitz) (Polish), Portnoy (Russian), Krejčí (Czech), Darzi (Hindi/Urdu), Kleermaker(s) (Dutch), Alfaiate (Portuguese), Al-Khayyat / الخياط (Arabic), Chait / חייט (Hebrew), Raftis /Ράφτης (Greek), "Terzi" (Turkish)
In the movie Meeting Venus (written and directed by István Szabó), many of the characters have the cognates ("blood relative") of the surname Tailor from different languages.
Though unrelated to the procedure of tailoring, the similar sounding name Tyler was derived from the tiler profession.
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