Tailor

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 properly refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers, and similar garments, commonly of wool, linen, or silk.
The term so used thus refers to a set of specific hand and machine sewing and pressing techniques that are unique to the construction of traditional jackets. Small and medium size retail tailors often provide their services internationally, with individual tailors and cutters travelling to various cities, allowing the customers to be met locally, measured on one trip, fitted on another and thereafter supplied with (a) garment(s) without the inconvenience of themselves travelling overseas. Even small tailoring businesses without an international following will sometimes travel from one city to another within their home country, and quite a number will visit customers at the customers' places of work or homes.
Traditional tailoring is called "bespoke tailoring" in the United Kingdom, where the heart of the trade is London's Savile Row tailoring, and "custom tailoring" in the United States and Hong Kong. This is unlike made to measure which starts by using pre-existing patterns within which relatively few individual style preferences can be satisfied. A true bespoke garment or suit is completely original and unique to each customer. However, the term 'bespoke' is widely used by makers of garments not within the strict original definition of the term and the legal battle to prevent what was once regarded as a misuse of the description has now been lost.
Famous fictional tailors include the tailor in "The Tailor of Gloucester", "The Emperor's New Clothes " and "The Valiant Little Tailor". A more recent example is John le Carré's "The Tailor of Panama".
Types.
As the tailoring trade has evolved, so too have the methods of tailoring. There are a number of distinctive business models which modern tailors may practise. While some may practise many, there are others who will practise only one or two. Moreover, many tailoring houses, particularly in parts of Western Europe (including the UK) have distinctive individual styles for which they are well known by the better informed users of tailoring services.
Local tailoring.
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. Hong Kong Tailors and London are the most famous for high quality bespoke tailoring. It typically takes some two or three fittings and about 50 to 70 working hours to handmake one suit. However, in England (as in Italy and France), the best of bespoke suits may involve a wait of several weeks from first fitting to final supply, whereas the process in the Far East is often very much faster.
Distance tailoring.
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.
Online tailors sometimes offer to pay for needed alterations at a local tailor. Another new option is the concept where a free suit mock-up is made to the provided measurements and shipped to the customer first. The suit mock-up can be tried on and worn to see where any adjustments are wanted. The final suit is then tailored to the new specifications provided by the suit mock-up fitting.
Traveling tailor.
Unlike tailors who do distance tailoring, traveling tailors provide a more personal service to their customers and give the customers an opportunity to see the fabric samples and meet the tailor in person. Traveling tailors travel between cities and station in a local luxury hotel for a short period of time to meet and provide the same tailoring services they would provide in their local store. In the hotel, the customer will be able to select the fabric from samples and the tailor will take the measurements himself. The order then will be shipped to the customer within 3–4 weeks. Unlike local tailoring, if further alterations are required the garment must be shipped. Today, most traveling tailors are from Hong Kong, traveling to the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia and Japan.
=Economics=
There are many gradations within the tailoring industry. The prices charged for genuine bespoke tailoring by Savile Row tailors, like those charged by leading haute couturiers in Paris, are well beyond the budget of most ordinary working people, even those from rich countries. Fortunately, mass-produced factory made 'tailored' clothing, while of inferior quality to such artisanal masterpieces, is invariably priced to be within the budget of many more modest wearers.
Related terms.
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:
="Tailor" as a surname=
The craft's denomination, "Tailor", is a common surname in many languages: "Taylor" (English), "Couturier" (French), "Schroeder", "Schneider", and "Schneiderman" (German), "Sarti" (Italian), "Siuvejas" (Lithuanian), "Szabó" (Hungarian), "Croitor" (Romanian), "Sastre" (Spanish), "Krawiec" ("Kravitz") (Polish), "Portnov, Kravtsov" (Russian), "Krejčí" (Czech), "Darzi" (Hindi/Urdu), "Snijder", "Kleermaker(s)" (Dutch), "Alfaiate" (Portuguese), "Khayat" / خياط (Arabic), "Chait" / חייט (Hebrew), "Raftis" /Ράφτης (Greek), "Kravets", "Kravchuk", and "Kravchenko" (Ukrainian), "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.