Tailoring as an art form

It was bitterly cold in London yesterday and the (sorry excuse) for snow began to fall we decided to seek comfort in Claire de Rouen Books and I'm glad we did! As well as being able to flick through all the fashion and photography books that I wish I could have on my coffee table (if I even had a coffee table that is) I came across the artwork of Hormazd Narielwalla within EXIT Gallery's "A Fairytale About Fashion" exhibition. Narielwalla's Dead Man’s Patterns is a design story, beneath the trappings of menswear into the book, the man, the pattern. It quite beautifully exposes the secret every tailor has with his clients, the pattern and the journey to the finished suit. I've always seen tailoring as an art form but the below illustrations take this a step further.

The world of tailoring has always been somewhat secretive. Measurements are kept close and patterns preserved long after a client’s death. In Dead Man’s Patterns Narielwalla unwraps some of the mysteries of the trade. Hidden beneath bespoke menswear, there is a secret… Everyone sees the suit, yet few are privy to that private dialogue which assesses, measures, and catalogues the subtle details which make up one single man.

These wonderful images and reading the inspiration behind them only intensify my own desire to enter the wonderful world of bespoke...to begin my own secret...