How Does a Tailor Spend a Workday?

What Exactly is a Tailor?

A tailor is someone who gets paid wages to fit, cut and sew clothing (most usually jackets, pants and skirts) for men and women. The materials he uses are often wool, linen or silk. The tailor does not merely sew. The tailor is a custom clothier, someone who can make suits and other clothing to fit. Bodies are like fingerprints--no two are exactly alike--and a brilliant tailor is an artist who can make clothes individual, unique and perfect. Tailors can work in their own stores, as employees of clothing stores to do both alterations and custom fittings, in their own studios by appointment only or by bringing their material swatches and fitting tools right into people's homes or places of business. We will look at the workday of a tailor in a clothing store.

The Workday

A tailor will often have a work area or a small studio as part of a suit or dressmaker's store. She often is paid a small salary by the store and then additional amounts on a piece basis for standard fitting and alterations on the stores ready-made clothing. Accordingly, she is on call to the store to service the customers as they make their purchases. She or the store sets up appointments with customers who want their clothing made to fit. She must be able to take measurements, offer material samples, cut material, sew and host fittings during the course of several appointments over a couple of week period. In a larger store, she may have seamstresses or patternmakers working for her to streamline parts of her job. In between appointments, she is traditionally cutting and sewing and studying styles and trends--peak or notch lapel, side, center or no vent, double-breasted or single, hidden buttonholes, the drape of the trousers and the silhouette. Fine clothing is often stitched by hand; a fine tailor can spend major portions of her workday stitching.

Homework

A tailor works long hours. If the store has late hours, he may teach a salesman to do rudimentary measurements. But often he has work that keeps him past closing hours just to keep up with delivery schedules. Many tailors will take work home, particularly if they want dinner with the family or contact with the world outside.