Hello,
Men in Great Britain definitely prefer traditional sewing than suits by Hugo Boss. Tailoring and visits to the tailor are quite popular there. This applies to all social groups, regardless of how much money they have in their wallet, as the British know that a good suit can last their whole life. They find tradition important, that is, the entire process they go through to get a tailor-made suit: finding the right tailor, choosing the fabric, a few fittings often over a few weeks – all this is the ritual that the English gentleman takes in his stride.
In the light of this celebration often shrouded in legend, buying even the best brand suit has little in common with the traditionalism created by premium quality tailors. This is why tailors in the British Isles have definitely much more work and orders than ours.
Is this merely a custom? There is no one unequivocal answer. In pre-war Poland, men also bought tailor-made suits, jackets and trousers. After the war as well, or maybe primarily in that period (as there was a shortage of shops and goods), craftsmen, including tailors, were overloaded with work.
So what caused the decreased interest in tailoring in Poland? Certainly the expansion of our national clothing companies, popping up like mushrooms across the country in the post-war years, had an effect.
Let me begin with Zakłady Odzieżowe [The Clothing Company] from Bytom (1945) that initiated menswear sewing. Their range has always included suits and jackets from top quality wool – both plain and with various checkered patterns. They also sew classic men’s trousers made from thin wool, and wool with the blend of polyester fiber – elana. The range for men is very rich. In that period of prosperity not only did they sew in Bytom, but they also had branches in Tarnowskie Góry and Radzionków. The then elite, both those in power, and other people appearing on the covers of magazines, visited Bytom to buy clothes there.
Then came the era of Vistula. From the very beginning, the company’s priority was the good quality of their items. They had production in Krakow, Myślenice, Przeworsk, Łańcut and Staszów.
Staszów specialized in trousers, and they enjoyed great popularity until they were superseded by cotton trousers – chinos. Unfortunately, comfort and practicality prevailed. It is a pity, as men could use those nice flannel grey trousers to conjure up original sets with jackets, for example dark blue club blazers, and create future-proof classic.
It is impossible to list all the companies that were established and produced men’s clothes at that time. In Bielsko-Biała, Bielkon made clothes under license from Pierre Cardin.
In Wielkopolska region, Sunset Suits also had their time of prosperity as they dressed Polish Olympians and TV celebrities. The clothing industry developed in Łódź, Zgierz, Warsaw and many other Polish cities. It was mass production, the shops offered a wide range of items, and the prices varied to make the goods available to all customers.
This is why the tailoring of men’s clothes started to disappear. For most people tailoring was no longer attractive. It became important where a given item of clothing was bought, what its brand, label and emblem were. The exodus of a demonstrative display of labels began.
Fortunately, this period of vanity is over. What matters now is the right cut and good quality fabric, which is why some people have started appreciating the advantages of tailoring, as not every man has a sense of style and they do not want to risk buying the wrong suit in a shop. When we choose tailoring, we create clothes that meet our needs and standards. A reliable and honest tailor will provide the best fabric possible and a high quality of workmanship, without a high margin. They will also tell us which cut highlights the advantages of our figure, and which elements to avoid. Jackets and suits won’t be cheap, but it won’t be a prohibitive price either.
Cheers…
Mariszka
I invite you to read the next post on the advantages of tailoring.