Unsuitable craftsmanship left too many holes
THE R1 million-suit pictured on page 6 of last week’s Sunday Tribune is an example of bad tailoring.
I was in the clothing trade from the age of 17. I am now 91. I started my career at the technical college and at 24 years old became a certified master tailor.
I received a Brevet (award) in textile knowledge and was allowed to call myself a master in clothing technology. I was born in the Netherlands, but have lived in South African for 14 years.
Apart from eight diplomas, I have first, second and third prizes which I earned in various bespoke tailoring competitions.
The article about Ziyaad Nanabhay’s R1 million suit and looking at the picture gave me shivers.
I don’t dispute the quality of the fabric and the accessories used, and Nanabhay might know a lot about fashion, but he lacks knowledge of fitting a garment and tailoring.
The photograph in the paper shows it clearly.
To start with, the doublebreasted waistcoat doesn’t fit. It can be seen where the left and right panels meet and this should be the centre of the body.
But with this suit, it is about 2cm away from the centre. This means the waistcoat is too tight and, to solve the problem, they changed the position of the button, which also caused another problem.
The second problem is at the bottom of the waistcoat, where the right panel is showing out about 2cm below the left panel.
The shoulder line of the jacket should be a straight line, but the bubbles that can be seen show that the tailor involved made a mess of the fitting.
The hand-sewing is also terrible. The edge sewing should be invisible or, if it’s meant to be visible, the stitches should not be more than 2mm apart and should be much more regular.
For a good fit, the circumference of the sleeves is too small, but this could be debated if a slim-fit is required.
I think when the gentleman closes his jacket, it may show fault lines starting from the closed button.
Why do I care about this? Because I want the reader to know that craftsmanship is not learned overnight.
Million-dollar suit-makers do not exist. I made a prizewinning suit in 1958, when I was 34 (seen above), in a conservative style, but fitting and good quality should never change.
My haute couture handmade suit took 48 hours to make. The tailors who spent 286 hours to make Nanabhay’s suit, which should actually be worth less than R6 000, must have been hit by an American bomb and were unable to do proper tailoring. HAMID HOOGAKKER
Asherville