Suddenly he felt the process had become a bit more complicated than first intended, but at the same time he just couldn’t let go. “The truth must be in here somewhere…!” he said to himself while looking at the different combinations of words and processes described in front of him. There was of course a truth – always was – but what it was more specifically, and where it was to be found…? “Well hidden, apparently…”
The last few days he’d tried different approaches. First, he had made descriptions of what tailoring actually ment to him both personally and traditionally, and merged it all into a list. Then he had added technical processes – things like ‘pattern-making, measuring, cutting, pad-stitching’ and soforth. But it was all still a riddle to him.
The point was, to understand why he workwise did the things he did, the way he did, and then maybe find some new directions that would give a much better resonance between him and his customers. A new path to steer into. But how to do that? After stitching together garments since he was six years old, and being self-employed for the last 30 years, you undoubtedly had certain routines that you just followed. And that was all okay. But recently he had detected a switch in the world around him, or maybe more of a shift in the community of people that he met and frequented.
References had become harder to make. And he felt that the knowledge he put in his products had become increasingly more difficult to explain. “How on earth do you explain something added into a hem, by hand, that you can’t see, but gives weight, fullness and richness – and stability – to someone that never have had any experience with sewing or tailoring, but at the same time most certainly had been told that the two-dimensional look of it all, the finished appearence in a picture, is the most important thing ever…?” he wondered. The communication of what he did for a living, as a tailor – a bespoke tailor – had become increasingly threatened and difficult to engage in. And as a result, some people just couldn’t see the splendor and joy he could, in his work.
“So, there’s no way around it! I have to solve this. The must be a way to tell the story in someway.”
He went back to his papers. Even though it was late at night… “I can do this!”
After a while he got an idea… “Maybe I could document things with a camera insted…? Or drawings? Or both…?” It was way past midnight when he started looking for his camera.