“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.

It was often like that. Difficult to find things. In the mix of the hundreds of little bits and pieces that made up the very heart of the tailoring studio, things got lost. Almost… Because they could of course always be found again – it just took time. Time that maybe could have been used otherwise. But, he found it. Placed in a large box with embroidery tools and a odd mix of shears that was ment to be sharpened. “How did it get in here…?” Well, no use in speculating about that… It was found. He was pleased.

So that was set. Images. With the camera. For the documentation. But what about text then? Of course he could make some notes right on the Polaroids, but that wasn’t enough. Or was it? “You probably need to explain more, if you want to be serious.” he thought. “Lists, references and stuff…” He actually had no idea of how to go about a serious research project, since he had spent most of his life sewing – as tailors usually do – but he had picked up that there should be a certain set of rules, to make it just the slightest academic, or just plain acceptable at least.

“The typewriter!” He just remembered that he had an old typewriter stacked away in his archive room. (Well, it was more of a storage room for fabrics and slopers, but anyway…) “That will be great! My second tool of achievement!” The feeling of checking boxes pleased him. It felt less complicated than the actual writing probably would be. To just plan, how to do it, before you actually did it. Planning was always easier…

He found the dusty typewriter and tested it. It still worked! He started on a new list. ‘Main focus areas in the art of tailoring.’

“There! It’s a good start. Let’s test the camera tomorrow.” He went back to the neverending work of making those bespoke suits. Again, there was new deadline looming. And he was dedicated not to miss it.

Sure, he didn’t have any academic training and wasn’t especially good with words or writing either. But, at the same time he was sure that this had to be done. He had a story to tell – a compelling need to share his love for his trade. Since he felt that many seemed to have given up on the idea of meeting ‘a locally based tailor, who made things from scratch and had a glowing will to make things as passionately thoroughly as just possible’ (as a local journalist had written about him some 10 years ago) he felt he had to make this documentation himself.

“Given up on the idea… well, maybe more lost contact with…” he corrected himself. He wasn’t sure that people in general had rejected passionate garment-making, maybe it was more of a communication thing – that people thought time had lost contact with skills like his, that they simply didn’t exist anymore. Thoroughly made garments, that is… “Well we have to change that, won’t we?!”

He was ready to get started!