He wasn’t a quick writer. Not by far. Every word he wrote was taped with caution while he continuously worried about misspellings and ununderstandable terms. To be a self-employed tailor for 30 years, didn’t necessarily make you a good writer! But he needed to do this – he felt it was important.

As the hours went by, he tried to elaborate on that very first note he had written the other day. The first installment in that list was ‘Making’. Another, further down, was ‘Type Of Garments’. “If I start with these two easier ones, maybe the rest will come more naturally…?” That was what he hoped for, and that was, what he was trying to accomplish.

“I rather get some main areas written down first…” He had already made a list of type of garments he produced for customers, at least those that came into mind – the most distinct and recent ones. And now he was working on the more complex area of the whole tailoring experience – the actual making.

“But, with the vast possibilities in ways of making a garment… How do I know which combination that will be the most resourceful one to choose?” This was such a classic question within the tailoring community. The everlasting search for the most true of tailoring methods. How to do it correct! And even after the recent large addition of many external self-acclaimed bespoke experts, that had been thrown into the mix – criticising every stitch made and every garment cut, but from a customer’s perspective – things had not become any less complicated.

The problem with all of this was of course that bespoke garments were ment to be extremely personal, and individually made, catering to a certain specific person’s needs, both work-wise and privately, even including deeply personal movement and wear behaviour. And that ment of course, that everybody had their very own different ideas on what a correct garment for them should be! Even hailing their own or others opinions, as bonafide truths.

Frome a tailor’s point of view, on the other hand, it was more of a standardization thing. How could you differ a hidden good quality inner structure from a lesser one? By setting some standards of course. But how could you then explain these standards – very complex routines and choises – for someone who’s not knowing anything about it? Most likely by simplifying it.

And there it was. A power struggle between overly simplified descriptions (of technique and routine), and an ever changing opinion crowd – of some even not being customers, just mere opinion-makers. A certain segment wanted it stiff and neat, others wanted it soft and casual. And even some, just wanted to stay in the process not ending with a finished garment at all.

“I think I maybe just have to trust my own knowledge and experience in this area, and present just that, flat out.” he thought for himself. “And then add my own inner criticism!” He laughed. Well, that was the easiest part of it all! He had lots of that – inner struggling criticism. “So there it is!” he decided. And then continued his writing.

“A picture on me hand-washing…! Let’s try that!” As usual he was already set to make one of his updates for a customer of his and his many bespoke shirts, so why not use that as a test image…? “This is such a great idea!”

He did that a lot, hand-washed for customers. But only garments he had made for them of course. He did it to ensure that the garments had the best environment possible out there in the ‘real’ world, constantly treated with respect. He called it updates to stress that it wasn’t just about getting garments cleaned and pressed – they were also looked after, overviewed for wear and tear, there was mending, altering and also a collecting of information for the customers’ further garments to be made.

“Let’s do this!”

After waiting the usual amount of time you should with the old system Polaroid pictures, he quickly ripped off the front and… well…

Disappointment.

“It must be an old film then… Let’s see if we can find another one…” The picture was all bleached out. Didn’t look great at all.

Of course, an instant success wasn’t all that easy to obtain. He went looking for an unopened package of film, if there ever was one. And yes – there were actually a few of them! Again, he was lucky! “Let’s try again…!”

“Okay. Slightly better…!” The hand looked awful – unnatural and old. And the colours were off. And strangely enough, the framing of what he wanted to get into the picture was hopelessly difficult to get. “I guess this is what you get with instant cameras… They’re quick, but art it is not!” He quickly decided to take another one – just to be sure.

“I guess I just have to practice as I go along…” He felt that well-known creeping feeling of failure coming on. He knew it all to well from his tailoring trade where extreme passions rode high, but time, money and overall boundaries for working hours were seldom and far, and few, in-between.

He was determined though, to not let this set him back in any way. Okay, the pictures were not great – even he could see that. But he had to remember that that was not the main focus here. He knew all along that this project would be difficult, but the goal was to share knowledge and thoughts! That was important to keep in mind. Not to be the best in image-maker ever. Because that, he knew, he would never be.

As the hours went by, and he continued to work on his suits, he sometimes and in-between looked at his Polaroids. After a while he actually started to like them…! They had a certain very dreamlike feeling over them, as if they captured a time long since passed.