When we think of learning the tailoring trade one is first drawn to the idea of securing a tailoring apprenticeship. For many, this can be both a positive and negative experience. It’s the temperament of the tailor that makes for a good master. During Rory’s time at Henry Poole’s, three apprentices left prematurely owing in most cases to the attitude of their masters. Many masters find it difficult to relate to their apprentices.
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Men's Bespoke Trouser Making - Belt Loop Style
Bespoke trouser making is a great garment for training up a machine operator. Often the focus of tailoring is honed one's hand sewing skills and overlooking the skilled artisan that can operate an industrial sewing machine.
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The Making of a Savile Row Coat Video Series
Coat making is by far the most satisfying art in handcraft tailoring. It requires the most skills and combination of techniques to create a satisfactory outcome.
Make Your Own Waistcoat
The first garment Rory ever made himself was a waistcoat. Though not in fashion then as they are today, this didn’t deter Rory from wearing it at any given time. Making your own waistcoat is a great way of getting pride from one’s own work and marking the stepping stone from spectator to tailor. When compared to other garments like trousers and coats, the waistcoat is a much simpler garment to make. It holds all of the key skills needed to master to make both trousers and coats.
Pattern Cutting and Drafting Course
Pattern drafting is the place to start your sartorial journey. It will give you a sense of garment
construction as well as learning about proportion and fit.
The course includes trousers, waistcoats, coats, overcoats, tailcoats and figuration in its content as well as measuring and fitting.
Each student must first purchase a set of tools which match those that Rory uses in his classes so that they can follow along unhindered in the process.
Cutting & Tailoring Courses
Whether it's learning a new language, a musical instrument or an artistic skill, ten thousand hours is the recognised time frame to master any subject.
Tailoring is no different. Ten thousand hours works out to seven years, working a five day week, forty hours a week. This is also the same amount of time our Master Tailor, Rory Duffy spent studying the tailoring trade under some of the finest artisans in both the UK and Ireland.
Video series available at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/thehta
Since the release of my free video series The Making of a Coat in 2012, I realised the need for a ’how-to’ video series on coat making and an in-house coat making class, particularly Savile Row coat making.
So many people say, ‘tailoring is a dying art’. It's not because there are fewer people taking up the needle but rather aspiring tailors are finding it harder and harder to secure an apprenticeship under a master of the trade.
Savile Row Tailoring
Savile Row tailoring, though often copied, is rarely ever equalled. It is also one of the few places in the world you would struggle to find master tailors. On Savile Row, tailors specialise in different areas.
These areas are broken down into different skills. Rarely, if ever, does one tailor train in each area. In the instance they had, they probably failed in one skill and hoped they could succeed in another.
The handcraft tailor academy - Bespoke Tailoring School - Online and in-house
The Handcraft Tailor Academy was founded by Rory Duffy in his birth place of Co. Monaghan, Ireland in 2016. Rory had a long and illustrious career when he decided to commit to his life long dream of a tailoring academy.
For the first time, international students could take online tailoring courses from a Savile Row trained master tailor
His tailoring academy was the first of its kind in the British Isles offering courses both online and in-house that most people can afford.
