The finicky and fastidious on the subject of fashion and style, elegance, beauty and refinement should please come closer. Kindly take a seat and accompany me on this short sartorial trip.
Wherever your feet find firm foothold on the rung of the ladder of style, you should take more than a fleeting interest in your tailors. You should choose your tailors with similar metrics you adopt in selecting your doctor, architect, or auditor (and any professional or artisan who makes your life more enjoyable and worthwhile): with utmost care and consideration regarding their experience and pedigree, qualification and success rate. Of course, with affordability in mind (in congruence with your means)!
Because whatever they do impacts your life indelibly! They make you healthier and happier, contented with the beautiful spaces you call home and office and keep you out of financial worries and woes. They make life more meaningful and merrier.
Your tailors perform similar roles: they ensure you look good, elegant, confident and comfortable…with wardrobes filled with objects that make bosoms warm and glow. That make hearts flutter with joy.
So, your tailors should have a deep understanding of forms and shapes, fabrics and drapes, design and style and all the elements that elevate clothes to objects of fascination and odes.
Their eyelids flicker when they talk about clothes and tailors and designers. Their faces are plastered with infectious smiles once the subject is the industry and pioneers and game changers disrupting the peace and making a huge difference.
They touch fabrics and accessories lovingly, carefully and tenderly as their eyes glint with excitement. You can tell that they are in a sizzling dalliance with the craft.
For critical metrics you should consider when picking tailors? Here are some:
- they are patient (in understanding and interpreting your designs, taking the right measurements, guiding and telling you what works, willing to correct and alter until everyone is happy)
- they pay attention to details (high-end fabrics and accessories, clean and elegant lines, matching threads)
- they are meticulous and methodical (in the mode they start and finish garments, keep records)
- they don’t fancy short-cuts (and think certain steps are unimportant and can be circumvented)
*they rarely disappoint (and deliver at agreed dates)
*they are busy, but not overwhelmed (which is a sign that they are good)
*they have tools that simplify the process and make garments pristine and undamaged
*they move from the machine to the ironing table constantly (because ironing makes all the difference) which is evident in the neatness and cleanliness of the garment inside and out
*they dress well (how else can you tell a serious tailor? They must be on top of the game)
*they are not cheap (good things come at a premium, and you get what you pay for)
If you have been asked many times ‘who is your tailor?’ by those who have more than a passing fancy in dressing well, then you are doing something right.
Most people can tell a wonderfully made outfit at second or third glance. They notice the lines and design, the fit and all the details that separate ‘the dressed from the well-dressed’ (a slogan once adopted by Bally of Switzerland).
Once they look long enough, compliments follow. And those who are keen style students and leaders, who want to raise their game usually ask, ‘who is your tailor?’
And the more you get asked this question, know that you are on a smooth sartorial journey.
-Kunle Bakare for Omoluwabi by KB (04.04.2024)