I had a conversation with Joe Hemrajani of MyTailor about laser measuring for shirts and tailored clothing the other day, and it raised an interesting if somewhat obscure point in my mind. Now by this we are not talking about the in-store booths at Levi Strauss and others that scan you to tell what ready to wear models will best fit someone with your waistline, chest and inseam. Some of those programs also offer made for the individual clothing with customized features, but the product is clearly not bespoke.
There is however another level to this technology, where a man strips to his underwear and is scanned for up to a hundred individual measurements (which is ten times as many data points as are taken by the typical bespoke tailor). The measurements are entered into a computer-aided design program that - and here is the heart of the matter - creates an individual pattern for the shirt, jacket or other garment in question. And that individual pattern, my friends has historically been the thing that differentiates between bespoke and made to measure clothing.
There can be process differences of course. The bespoke tailor takes fewer measurements expecting to modify his pattern and the garment over the course of several fittings. Most scanner users hope to dispense with fittings altogether by virtue of the laser's increased accuracy, but to me the question arises when a tailor takes the garment produced by that scan and makes any required adjustments. That is of course the bespoke process to a metaphorical tee.
Scanning technology is probably better suited for shirtmaking than it is to tailored clothing at this time, shirts being considerably simpler than jackets. But the principal cost in the bespoke process is the usually very well paid man who makes the pattern, and the advancing age of many of those men is the principal reason that bespoke tailoring is becoming rarer every year.
There is another element to this of course, which is that someone has to design the garment to be made in the first place. An Anderson & Sheppard pattern has to be different than one from Huntsman if it is to accommodate that house's style. But once designed, perhaps by a specialist, the pattern could be converted into garments indefinitely without the aid of a traditional cutter.
Is it bespoke? Sure sounds like it to me.
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I've long thought that this will be the eventual direction for custom clothing. Where it seems even more applicable is for shoes. It would kill off last making, but it would be a perfect application of CAD-CAM.
I think just scanning a body and getting measurements is only a small part of the bespoke process. It takes out a lot of intervention that good tailors do by assessing silhouette, proportion and balance. If a computer measured me and gave me a glove shaped how I am I would look rather fat hipped, knocked knees, and sunken chest. The human touch and eye can sculpt around the crucial spots that are paramount to "fit" to create a silhouette much more flattering to the eye than the human body itself.
While a tailor may take only 20 or so physical measurements, he will also take note, either written or mentally of posture, prominent areas like shoulder blades, drop shoulders on one side, etc. that go into how he will cut the garment.
Balance is not something that can be achieved by electronic measurements alone, I would imagine, although programming the computer could deal with some of it. Such as cutting the back longer for prominent shoulder blades and a hollow lower back, but there would have to be a master tailor involved with the programmers going over every possibility. Otherwise there might be a lot of recutting.
This same question has arisen within the realm of bespoke firearms. Much the same problem occurred, the aging workforce of experts. So what turned out to be the replacement for the experienced old man with a file? An expensive program and a CNC mill. Today Holland & Holland, Boss and all the rest of the great names in shotguns save the handwork for those finishing touches where it really counts. Certainly it makes neither economic nor human resource good sense to have a man with forty years experience hog out a steel block into a finished action by hand. Let the machines come within a hairsbreath of final in an hour or less and then the Master can smoke and file until the fit is perfect. Could the machine cut everything to a hundred thousandth of an inch? Of course, but that isn't the point. The proper opening and closing of a double gun is not a question of measurement alone but of feel. For that you need a smith. My guess is that the same will apply in bespoke clothing and I, for one, can hardly wait.
I think the essential difference is whether or not this is essentially a better ruler, a tool for the cutter/tailor to better deliver their service; or a cookie cutter designer that spits out shirts based on a program. The first is most certainly bespoke, the latter... I'd say it's more the evolution of MTM than bespoke since they are in place of their "default pattern," they just have a default algorithm that decides what things look like.
I think the defining factor for bespoke is the complete customization of the experience. Using technology to enhance that experience is quintessentially bespoke. Using it to replace that experience is MTM on steroids.
Shirts made by CAD-CAM are bespoke insofar as an expert (presumably an engineer working with a tailor) has devised a way of making garments that conform to a nontrivial set of measurements.
That application of expertise is a significant part of bespoke -- maybe the largest part -- but it still leaves room for humans to advise customers beforehand and make adjustments afterwards.
The question as I have come to experience it is indeed what will be done with all of the measurements in order to produce a pattern, not how many or accurate those numbers are. A pattern generated by a drafting formula might reach a high level of exactness, but mostly the resulting garment will be exactly off with not so much room for improving the pattern the next time because you would have to beat the index, so to speak. A good cutter can beat himself and does it everytime he succeeds. Maybe we need better engineers, maybe more hands and eyes.
I think it is a step toward providing better fitting clothing to more men, which can never be a bad thing. What's in a word anyway? Bespoke is simply the best known method for a man to get clothing fit to his frame and the eyes of both him and his tailor. I own exactly one bespoke item at the moment, the rest being made-to-measure. I'd reckon this laser measuring method will out-do the made-to-measure stuff any day of the week, and probably for about the same money. Count me in, when I'm due for more shirts!
I would call it "measure to wear" and a great opportunity to improve the fit of most peoples clothing no doubt. For bespoke, the garment is made to the individual's specs--"more room in the shoulders while tighter in the arms", etc. I could see this process being something that could be augmented based on person's feedback about the clothes, essentially adjusting to someone's likes/dislikes over time.
I would argue not-- a big part of what a great bespoke tailor will do is not just make clothes that fit, but clothes that make the wearer look good. Part of this certainly is fit, and fit is a prerequisite. But, as mentioned above, a big part of it as well is cutting the suit that slims one down, broadens the shoulders, etc. so that the end result is more balanced, even if its not clear, exactly why.
It does not sound like bespoke to me. To adjust the pattern to fit is something more towards MTM. The computer program is only as good as its creator. I believe the reason why bespoke takes an experienced cutter is because he could create a garment for you, not simply to adjust the existing pattern. It is his experience and understanding how the particular cloth drapes, what fit would be better for this individual, what makes the garment work best etc that makes bespoke so expencive and exclusive. Maybe I'm just too idealistic and bespoke is leaning more towards MTM today. But even in this case this would note be bespoke.
I'm inclined to agree with Andrey, it doesn't sound like bespoke to me either. 'Computer-aided' is not a terrible idea, but it sounds the death-knell for a traditional craft. It can't completely replace the human input and still be called bespoke.
In stone-masonry there are many stones for building restoration that are now cut by computerised machines. It speeds up the process and reduces costs, but stone-masonry in the traditional sense it is not and you see it in what is produced: cloned pieces with no quirks belonging to the character of the craftsman.
A cutter is not just a cutter, he's a surveyor, a diagnostician, a designer, an artist. Essentially this is the difference that still exists between artificial intelligence and the aesthetic/emotional input into intelligence human beings still uniquely have.
If the end result of using this new tool is a pattern which is unique to the individual, how is it not bespoke? Some of the comments above assume that the result will be cookie-cutter, or that the tailor will simply take the results from the machine. Like any other tool, the results will depend on who uses it and how.
Mr. Hemrajani is planning on having the scanner in use by mid-'13. We shall have to await results. All speculation and opinions aside, the proof, as usual, will be in the pudding.
I've had experience with both the computer scanning (at Brooks Bros) and bespoke (at a few London houses).
The Brooks computer scan produces acceptable results, but it's no substitute for measuring and cutting by a human. The Brooks shirts were fine, and fit perfectly decently, but to my taste they were just OK. I actually prefer my Hong Kong bespoke shirts, which seem better tailored to my unique requirements.
With the older cutters dying off, I fear that computer scanning is the way of the future. I think that the scan can equal decent MTM, but I recommend that the scan needs some manual tweaking and altering to get the best results.
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