Where do you learn to be a tailor?

[Matt Deckard]

you can learn to sew clothes together in the US... though where do you go to learn how to make a suit, you know, the jacket and all its inner workings, those measurements and details of shape and how to create the chest. Menswear in the US doesn't heave a school for tailoring as far as I have found out. there are fashion schools though nowhere in the US to properly learn how to make a suit jacket. Italy and England have a few schools and apprenticeships open. South America has more custom shops than the US can shake a stick at. Where are the ones designing the US suits like those at Oxxford and Southwick and Hickey Freeman from? where were they trained? How do they know American.

Anywho... just a few questions.

 

[RondoHatton]

Los Angeles Trade Technical College?

Not an apprenticeship, and seems rather short at 6 hour labs each (?), but how's this for a start:
Los Angeles Trade Technical College
400 West Washington Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90015
Phone (213) 763-7000
Fall 07 Schedule of Credit Classes

226 Tailoring and Design I
Laboratory, 6 Hours
Training of offered in hand stitching, operation of the steam pressing machine, use of the tailor iron, and in distinguishing material, trimmings, and kinds of thread.

227 Tailoring and Design II
Laboratory, 6 Hours
The student receives training in the making of trousers, vests, skirts, cuffs, pleats, pockets, seams, waistbands, flies, facings, linings, basting, joining, trimming and pressing.

228 Tailoring and Design III
Laboratory, 6 Hours
This is a course in the making of ladies' or men's coats and overcoats. The student learns to prepare front parts, all type of pockets, coat canvasses, sleeves, lining and facings. Instruction includes basting linings and taping edges.

29 Tailoring and Design IV
Laboratory, 6 Hours
This course offers training in the construction operations which require the highest degree of skill and knowledge of the tailoring craft such as putting on shoulders and collars; setting in sleeves; shaping fronts, lapels and collars; fitting and remodeling. Students make complete garments.

233 Men's Custom Pattern Drafting and Design I
Laboratory, 6 Hours
Instruction is given in the proper use of the tailor's square and curved ruler. Training is given in basic pattern drafting of slacks and vests, manipulating of patterns, and taking of measurements.

234 Men's Custom Pattern Drafting and Design II
Laboratory, 6 Hours
This course continues training in the pattern drafting of single or double breasted suits, coats, semi-drape and full drape model top coats, tuxedos, overcoats, raglan coats, manipulating of patterns, and taking of measurements.

TAILORING - 185 Directed Study
TAILORING - 285 Directed Study
TAILORING - 385 Directed Study

A pal took the LATTC building trades course circa early 70s and has since worked for the late John Lautner as well as restoring/repairing FLLW houses - enough to fool a UCLA prof visiting!
(A doctor can bury his mistakes but and architect can only advise his client to plant vines. - Frank Lloyd Wright_

 

[BegintheBeguine]

As an autodidact I tend to look down on anyone who had to learn anything in a school. Ah, it's a moot point anyway, Matt Deckard, for when I applied at the employment office for a tailoring job at what I assume was Hickey-Freeman(the name of the factory wasn't specified), they looked at me as if I were from Mars. Obviously they didn't hire small young white American girls and I was steered toward a much lower-paying job selling lingerie. So, no, I don't know of any tailoring schools here and I don't know where the Turkish and Italian older guys learned how to tailor but I'm sure it's the same place I did, at home, yet somehow they got the jobs. (That bra job lasted exactly one day. I quit to run my mom's antique shop. Hah!) Five years later I had my own tailoring business, double hah!

 

[Matt Deckard]

i spoke to Jorge Avalos in Long Beach and he explained that the classes don't really cover alot of the construction information you learn from the old tailoring books. Anywho i have a few friends that have been dabling with cutting and creating and they are looking for formal training.

 

[Matt Deckard]

As an autodidact I tend to look down on anyone who had to learn anything in a school. Ah, it's a moot point anyway, Matt Deckard, for when I applied at the employment office for a tailoring job at what I assume was Hickey-Freeman(the name of the factory wasn't specified), they looked at me as if I were from Mars. Obviously they didn't hire small young white American girls and I was steered toward a much lower-paying job selling lingerie. So, no, I don't know of any tailoring schools here and I don't know where the Turkish and Italian older guys learned how to tailor but I'm sure it's the same place I did, at home, yet somehow they got the jobs. (That bra job lasted exactly one day. I quit to run my mom's antique shop. Hah!) Five years later I had my own tailoring business, double hah!

People don't believe in Autodidacts nowadays. I hired plenty when I got rid of an economy major and a business major (one from Harvard and the other from UCLA). Some things you just have skills for and some people can't learn those skills. Then again, some people can't teach those skills. How do you get accredited for teaching tailoring?

We don't have a school in LA committed to tailoring. It's more of a trade that requires more than assembly instructions... ask the LA tailors !

I've been told I tend to be an automath when it comes to skills -- don't tell anyone.

 

[Fletch]

This is not a trade you can learn by yourself or in a school. This is an old-line guild trade. You're going to have to go thru an apprenticeship, which means a lot of bull and gruntwork and very little learning. It's a men's club, like any other: the dues are higher than they need to be, and you need to put up with it all or you won't be taken seriously no matter how much passion and ability you have.

The reason you can't learn men's clothing construction in a trade school is because the guild ethic is stronger, and protects the knowledge more fully. You don't stay late sweeping up for months at a time because it teaches you the craft: you do it so you may be allowed to learn the craft.

This isn't the time or the place to get into the guild and craft ethics, but there's a good bit of reading you can do to learn about them. They come from a very old place, before the Enlightenment or humanism or the free market, and a lot of those values still hold sway under the surface of modern life.

 

[PADDY]

Getting people into the 'trade'...

Okay, this is UK related.

A few Saville Row tailors and a college in London have teamed up to run an introductory apprenticeship scheme of about a year for people who want to enter the professsion. Work placement with a tailor on Saville Row.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Get into a small - or not so small - local tailor and volunteer on weekends. Books, as i've found, will not teach one the best ways to do things. This (the various "expert" ways to do things) can only be picked up from a master. Without recourse to a proper training from a master tailor, clothing will look . . . well, home made. (yes, this is a derogatory statement)

If you're in London get into the Savile Row bespoke pre-apprenticeship program. Free if you're under 24, 600 GBP per semester if you're 24 or over. Runs Tuesday to Thursday 10:00-17:00.

bk

 

[MK]

.

I had lunch with Andrew from Maurice Sedwell last week. He will be teaching in his back room. One would be hard pressed to find someone more skilled, more gifted or more passionate about tailoring.

 

[Matt Deckard]

I had lunch with Andrew from Maurice Sedwell last week. He will be teaching in his back room. One would be hard pressed to find someone more skilled, more gifted or more passionate about tailoring.

Of the tailors I met in London... he was the one I thought had the most skill. Not a native of London... It's nice to see he's showing the Brits a thing or two about style.