‘Tailoring for me.’ The words topped the blank paper in front of him. He wanted to make a list of what he felt was important in his work, and this was a good start. “It’s important to detect personal goals and processes!” he said to himself proudly. “So here we go…!” He wrote down some words, things that came into mind, forming a scrambled list.
- Durable
- Comfortable
- Black
- Practical
- Easy to get cleaned
- Warm
- Made into layers, to regulate one’s temperature with
- Breathable
- Combinable
- Easy to travel with
- Not too complicated, should be fairly easy to make, alter and mend if possible
The list was easy to make. But, he suddenly felt something was missing as he went down the line… He read it through once more. And then he got it. Non of the more traditional ‘tailoring-ish’ phrases had been penned into his list! “Hm… I’d better do another list – an additional parallel one.”
He wrote ‘Tailoring for others.’ to the right of his first list. “Now. Let’s see…”
- Luxurious fabrics
- Suits
- Shape
- Padding
- Pattern matching
- Individual slopers
- Pad-stitching
- Worked buttonholes
- Floating canvasses
- Horn buttons
- Sleeve setting
- Correctness
- Own ideas incorporated
- An excess of working hours
- A process of testing different solutions, until finding perfection
“Interesting!” He looked at the two lists and realized that the difference between them was striking. To the left was a list describing mostly practical things. To the right, more traditional techniques. How had it come to this? It seemed like there was a devide between what he made for him self, and what he made for customers. For him it was more practical. His customers often went for a more classical style. He needed more garments and didn’t have a lot of time making them. The customers often treated themselves with fewer, but more exclusive garments. So it seemed at least, from looking at the lists he’d just made.
“I really have to change the names of these lists… I don’t want them to be opposites!” He crossed out ‘… for me.’ to the left and changed it into ‘Practical Tailoring’ and to the right he changed ‘… for others.’ into ‘Classic Tailoring’.
“There! Much better.” It felt good to have turned the lists into two sides of himself – two parts of one – instead of two struggling directions. “I wonder what happens if I mix it all up, and add in a direction? A process?” He went back to tailoring he’s suits and thought some more… “Ah! Now I got it!” He paused from he’s work. “I have to add technique, of course!”
He took a new piece of paper and started writing.