If This Is JFK It Must Be Tuesday

The public face of tailoring is the thirty minutes that client and cutter spend together once or twice for each jacket or suit order. The rest of the year may be mostly introvert's work, but part of the cost of bespoke clothing is the measurement and fitting time, when the external face of the tailoring firm has the job of imparting confidence that the client will be getting the professional outcome he's paying for.


A couple weeks on the road twice a year is hard work for travelling tailors. They tend to move about in pairs consisting of a cutter and a sales person or an assistant, which provides companionship for dinner as well as help with the cases of cloth samples and the hundred or more works in progress that must be negotiated through Customs and then carried from city to city.

The lifeline for the firm is usually email these days. New orders are written up electronically and sent to the home office, where cloth and fittings can be ordered before the person who will prepare them for tailoring has had time to check the next stage of his itinerary.

For no sooner are the trunks unpacked than it is time to load everything up and head back to the airport.