What is "tailoring"

Tailoring is often misunderstood. People say “a tailored suit, a tailored fit, a tailored style,” but tailoring isn’t about the fit, cut, or style—it’s the very foundation of the garment, much like a basement is to a house. Building a house and crafting a garment both call for care and thoughtful planning from the very beginning. In construction, you learn a trade to build, and with sewing, you master the craft of tailoring.

So, where is this tailoring? When done right, it’s invisible! It often takes the most time during garment construction. Fine tailoring involves plenty of hand stitching—tiny stitches that hold the fabric and interfacing together, allowing the sewer to shape the material like clay. It’s done with a few goals in mind: making the garment durable and long-lasting, giving it shape or smoothness, and reinforcing stress points. Fine tailoring is the key to a professional, polished finish.

A tailored suit is made with multiple layers of interfacing beneath the fabric to give it structure and smoothness. For instance, the roll line of a lapel (the front part of a jacket that folds over as part of the collar) has tape underneath, pulled tight and hand-stitched to help it roll naturally. The surface of the lapel is then hand-stitched in diagonal rows to shape it. Before attaching it to the collar, the lapel is steamed over a seam roll to set the curve permanently. Crafting the lapel can take several hours, and in this case, step 32 of 84 in basic jacket tailoring is complete.

When it comes to tailoring a collar, I’ll spare you the nitty-gritty! Every garment I make gets tailored in some way, and they all have interfacing you’ll never see. Sometimes it’s just an extra layer of the same fabric, other times it’s fused or hand-sewn with padding stitches to give it shape.

I spent ten years training with a master tailor and fiber teacher in Missoula, Montana. She once brought into class a couture gown being made for President Reagan’s Inaugural Ball, laid out in separate pieces. Each piece was so well-crafted it could almost stand alone. Like in fashion shows, the dress didn’t take on its full three-dimensional form until the final fitting. Numerous muslin versions were created and fitted before the final fabric was ever cut and sewn. That’s tailoring—meticulous pre-planning and preparation before a single stitch is made on the actual garment.

This is just the beginning of explaining what “tailoring” or a “tailor” means. Simply put, tailoring is the process of making a garment easier to wear, more comfortable, durable, long-lasting, and refined.

The title of tailor is earned through hard work, dedication, and years of experience and education. Whenever I’m tempted to call myself one, I think of the skill and expertise of the tailors on Savile Row in London and humbly place myself back in the category of seamstress, where I belong.

Tailoring is an art form, one I hope will continue to be shared and passed down to future generations. Clothing should never be disposable.

P.S. I’ll settle for apprentice tailor if a title is necessary.