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 refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers, and similar garments, usually of wool, linen, or silk.
The term refers to a set of specific hand and machine sewing and pressing techniques that are unique to the construction of traditional jackets. Retailers of tailored suits often take their services internationally, traveling to various cities, allowing the client to be measured locally.
Traditional tailoring is called bespoke tailoring in the United Kingdom, where the heart of the trade is in London's Savile Row, and custom tailoring in the United States and Hong Kong. This is unlike made to measure which uses pre-existing patterns. A bespoke garment or suit is completely original and unique to each customer.
Famous fictional tailors include the tailor in The Emperor's New Clothes and Brave Little Tailor. A more recent title is John le Carré's The Tailor of Panama.
Read more about Tailor: Types of Tailoring, Related Terms, Tailor As A Surname
Famous quotes containing the word tailor:
“As the saddle makes the horse, so the tailor makes the man.”
—Chinese proverb.
“He is in the tailor mending my pantsuit.
He is in Boston, raised up by the skyscrapers.
He is in the bird, that shameless flyer.
He is in the potter who makes clay into a kiss.
Heaven replies:
Not so! Not so!”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“A tailor can adapt to any medium, be it poetry, be it criticism. As a poet, he can mend, and with the scissors of criticism he can divide.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)