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For other uses, see Tailor (disambiguation).
Tailoring first fitting in Italy.

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 London's Savile Row tailoring, 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 Tailor of Gloucester, The Emperor's New Clothes and The Valiant Little Tailor. A more recent example is John le Carré's The Tailor of Panama.

Types of tailoring[edit]

As the tailoring profession has evolved, so too have the methods of tailoring. There are a number of distinctive business models of which modern tailors may practice. While some may practice many, there are others who will practice only one or two.

Local tailoring[edit]

Local tailoring is as the name implies. Typically the tailor is met locally and the garment produced locally. This method enables the tailor to take professional measurements, assess posture and body shape to make unique modifications to the garment. Local tailors will typically have a showroom or shopfront allowing clients to choose fabrics from samples or return the garment easily should it require further modification. This is the most traditional form of tailoring. Hong Kong and London are the most famous for high quality bespoke tailoring, in average it takes about two to three fittings and about three to four days to handmake one suit.

Distance tailoring[edit]

Distance tailoring involves ordering a garment from an out-of-town tailor enabling cheaper labour to be used. In practice this can now be done on a global scale via e-commerce websites. Unlike local tailoring, customers must take their own measurements, fabric selection must be made from a photo, and if further alterations are required the garment must be shipped. Today, the most common platform for distance tailoring is via online tailors.

Online tailors sometimes offer to pay for needed alterations at a local tailor. Another new option is the concept where a free test suit is made to the provided measurements and shipped to the customer first. The test suit can be tried on and worn to see where any adjustments are wanted. The final suit is then tailored to the new specifications provided by the test suit fitting.

Traveling tailor[edit]

Unlike tailors who do distance tailoring, traveling tailors provide a more personal service to their customers and give the customers an opportunity to see the fabric samples and meet the tailor in person. Traveling tailors travel between cities and station in a local luxury hotel for a short period of time to meet and provide the same tailoring services they would provide in their local store. In the hotel, the customer will be able to select the fabric from samples and the tailor will take the measurements himself. The order then will be shipped to the customer within three to four weeks' time. Unlike local tailoring, if further alterations are required the garment must be shipped. Today, most traveling tailors are from Hong Kong, traveling to the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia and Japan.

Related terms[edit]

Vintage tailor's button from Hobart, Tasmania
  • A tailor-made is a man's suit consisting of a (usually) woolen or tweed coat and pants; the name arose during the Edwardian period.
  • As an adjective, tailor-made (from the second half of the twentieth century usually simplified to tailored) refers to clothing made by or in the style of clothes made by a tailor, characterized by simplicity of cut and trim and fine (often hand) finishing; as a women's clothing style tailored as opposed to dressmaker.
  • Rodeo tailor is a term for a creator of the flamboyant costumes typical of country and western musicians, characterized by extensive hand embroidery, an abundance of rhinestones, and cowboy details such as pearl snaps and arrowhead pockets.
  • In some documents, tailor means adjust, and tailoring means adjusting.

Sewing professional is the most general term for those who make their living by sewing, teaching, writing about sewing, or retailing sewing supplies. They may work out of their home, a studio, or retail shop, and may work part-time or full-time. They may be any or all or the following sub-specialties:

  • A custom dressmaker specializes in women's custom apparel, including day dresses, suits, evening or bridal wear, sportswear, or lingerie.
  • A tailor makes custom menswear-style jackets and trousers.
A roadside tailor in Haikou City, Hainan Province, China
  • A cutter cuts out, from lengths of cloth, the panels that make up a suit. In bespoke tailoring, the cutter may also measure the client, advise them on style choices, and commission craftsmen to sew the suit.[1]
  • An alterations specialist, or alterationist adjusts the fit of completed garments, usually ready-to-wear, or restyles them. Note that while all tailors can do alterations, not all alterationists can do tailoring such as E-Bespoke Tailor.[2]
  • Designers conceive combinations of line, proportion, color, and texture for intended garments. They may or may not have sewing or patternmaking skills, and may only sketch or conceptualize garments. They work with people who know how to actually construct the garment.
  • Patternmakers flat draft the shapes and sizes of the numerous pieces of a garment by hand, using paper and measuring tools or by computer using AutoCAD based software, or by draping muslin onto a dressform. The resulting pattern pieces must comprise the intended design of the garment and they must fit the intended wearer.
  • A wardrobe consultant, fashion advisor, or stylist recommends styles and colors that are flattering to a client.
  • A seamstress is someone who sews seams or a machine operator in a factory who may not have the skills to make garments 'from scratch' or to fit them onto a real body. This term is not a synonym for dressmaker. Seamstress is also an unkind and archaic euphemism for prostitute.

Tailor as a surname[edit]

Interior of a Tailor's Shop - anonymous painter, c. 1780

The profession's denomination, Tailor, is a common surname in many languages: Taylor (English), 裁缝 (中文), Couturier (French), Schroeder, Schneider, and Schneiderman (German), Sarti (Italian), Siuvejas (Lithuanian), Skroderis (Latvian), Szabó (Hungarian), Croitoru (Romanian), Sastre (Spanish), Krawiec (Kravitz) (Polish), Portnoy (Russian), Krejčí (Czech), Darzi (Hindi/Urdu), Snijder, Kleermaker(s) (Dutch), Alfaiate (Portuguese), Al-Khayyat / الخياط (Arabic), Chait / חייט (Hebrew), Raftis /Ράφτης (Greek), Kravets, Kravchuk, and Kravchenko (Ukrainian), Terzi (Turkish).

In the movie Meeting Venus (written and directed by István Szabó), many of the characters have the cognates ("blood relative") of the surname Tailor from different languages.

Though unrelated to the procedure of tailoring, the similar-sounding surname Tyler was derived from the tiler profession.

See also[edit]



  1. ^ "St James Style: Cad and the Dandy's London Cut | Men's Style and Lifestyle Blog". Stjames-style.blogspot.com. 2010-05-26. Retrieved 2014-02-06. 
  2. ^ "About E-Bespoke Tailor". www.e-bespoketailor.com. Retrieved 13 June 2016. 


  • Deckert, Barbara: Sewing for Plus Sizes: Design, Fit and Construction for Ample Apparel, Taunton, 1999, Appendix B: How to Find, Select, and Work With a Custom Clothier, pp. 142–143.'Meru'(Merollu_plural)(Telugu language of Telangana in A.P.)

Further reading[edit]

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