NetJets: October 2022 – The Future of Tailoring

Bespoke is back in a big way, and a new generation of sartorial talent has taken the reins at major houses across the globe, giving us a peek at the cuts of tomorrow.

 

During the pandemic, the demand for bespoke tailoring plummeted. That’s hardly a surprise. Who needed a new suit or tuxedo when in-person business meetings, trips to the office, social events, and formal occasions were out of the question—and for some, even leaving home was forbidden?

According to the renowned New York men’s outfitter Alan Flusser—who has dressed all manner of Wall Street tycoons—during the lockdowns, his clients were hiding out at their holiday houses in the Hamptons. “They’re telling me they haven’t put a pair of trousers on for months; they’ve been living in T‑shirts and tracksuit pants,” Flusser said when we spoke in 2020.

His response was to down tools and offer protégé Jonathan Sigmon the chance to take over the business. Flusser wasn’t the only old hand to call it quits. There’s been a great deal of baton‑passing going on in the sartorial scene of late, with numerous leading tailors retiring and a new generation rising to take their place.

One such ascendant figure is Paolo Martorano (paolostyle.com), who got his start working for Flusser, before honing his skills at Paul Stuart and subsequently running the bespoke department at Alfred Dunhill U.S.A. Five years ago, he hung out his own shingle, setting up a bijou by‑appointment atelier on West 57th Street in Manhattan. Things were going fantastically well before the pandemic hit. “By March 2020, we’d done about 80 percent of 2019’s revenue. Business was just exploding,” Martorano says. Then came the dip. Fortunately, as life has returned to normal, demand for sartorial finery has bounced back—bigger and better than ever, in fact. “Since the second half of 2021, the occasion‑dressing business skyrocketed. Everyone wants to go out, everyone wants to be dressed up,” Martorano says. “Weddings are almost all black‑tie now and we’re making a ton of tuxedos.”

As companies have begun returning to the office, “People are coming to me for suits and they’re buying the most elegant suits I’ve ever sold in my career,” Martorano says. “They’re going for pinstripes; they’re going for double‑breasted; they’re going for peak lapels; they’re going for dressy jackets and trousers with braces. They’re choosing cloths like cashmere. They want luxury.”

And they want it from an under‑the‑radar purveyor with pedigree whom Martorano personifies.

Across the pond in London, Dominic Sebag‑Montefiore, cutter and creative director at Edward Sexton (edwardsexton.co.uk), is also observing customers taking real joy in dressing to the nines. “Bespoke tailoring is blooming into something beautiful and special,” he says.

No longer is traditional menswear viewed as a dour corporate uniform, reluctantly donned for the workday. ‘Today, the suit is free to be an icon of masculine elegance,’ he explains, ‘or something subversive.’

Sebag‑Montefiore’s mentor, the eponymous Sexton, knows a thing or two about subversion, having earned legendary status as the cutter for Savile Row insurrectionist Tommy Nutter, tailor to 1960s London’s swingingest characters. Today, Sexton’s house honors Nutter’s legacy, remaining dedicated to making ‘clothes that are striking, bold and timeless that are true to our rebellious roots—dressing The Beatles, Stones, Warhol, Hockney, and so on,’ Sebag‑Montefiore explains. ‘We approach what we do boldly and unapologetically,’ he says. ‘We have more freedom to be creative in what we make than we have had in over 40 years.’

And yet, for all this talk of breaking with tradition, Sebag‑Montefiore says he’s acutely conscious of the need to adhere to the old‑school values of exquisite construction and craftsmanship upon which Sexton built his name. ‘Legacies are hard earned and easily lost,’ Sebag‑Montefiore believes. ‘A reputation is dependent on maintaining the standards that won it. A legacy is kept by pursuing higher standards.’

The reputation of Australia’s oldest bespoke tailors, J.H. Cutler (jhcutler.com), stretches all the way back to 1884. When John Cutler assumed the role of cutter at the family business in the 1970s, he became the fourth generation of his bloodline to run the company. Over the years, John expertly catered to the sartorial needs of a host of Australian prime ministers, business leaders, top professionals internationally renowned entertainers. Unfortunately, none of John’s four children chose to follow him into the trade, so when he began pondering retirement, he was forced to look beyond his gene pool for a successor.

Employed by John in 2009, Sam Hazelton has been training to take the reins at J.H. Cutler for the past 13 years. Now, with John retiring to Tasmania, he’s poised to fulfill that destiny.

‘It’s an amazing opportunity,’ says Hazelton. ‘I’m truly honored and I’m still getting used to the idea. I’ve always known that the business had incredible potential, and I’d like to really explore that over the next few years.’ He says plans are afoot to refresh and slightly modernize the brand, and to ensure the standards Cutler and his forefathers established are kept.

‘It’s difficult finding or training people these days. Sadly, there’s no government‑supported tailoring apprenticeship program in this country.’”

But I’ve just hired a fantastic new tailor. It’s important to recruit young talent to learn alongside the older guys we currently have, who are in their sixties and seventies, so that their skills are passed on,” Hazelton says. “We need to ensure we can continue to keep producing tailoring of the same or better quality 10 or 20 years from now.”

The most famous Florentine tailoring house, Liverano & Liverano (liverano.com), is working toward this same goal by actively educating a new generation of talent. The house has established a school where students are tutored by maestro Antonio Liverano, who first picked up a needle as a small boy in the 1930s. Select graduates join the team as Liverano Fellows, a cohort that currently includes men and women from Italy, Japan, and Korea.

“Coming from different backgrounds, we share one common goal, which is to craft the most beautiful and comfortable tailoring for our clients,” says Korean Seung Jin “Jin” An. “We work in a collaborative setting, and we learn from each other’s culture while upholding what is a very Italian tradition and craft.”

Italian Leonardo Simoncini, who works as a tailor in the atelier and a teacher in the Liverano school, says carrying on the traditions of the maestro is a dream come true. “As a native of Florence, I am super proud to represent the best in Italian and Florentine tailoring and the ‘Made in Italy’ label,” he says.

Of his cosmopolitan teammates, Simoncini says, “Every one of us is passionate about our craft. We have never forgotten and we never take for granted the position that we occupy.

One of the countries Simoncini and Jin frequently visit to service Liverano’s customers is Singapore. In this equatorial nation, for the past 13 years, sartorial culture has been championed and fostered by one individual above all others: Kevin Seah (kevinseah.com). In addition to classic suits, tuxedos, and blazers, Seah traffics in forward‑thinking bespoke attire tailored to Singapore’s steamy climate.

‘Bespoke isn’t just about what a banker or lawyer might traditionally wear to the office,’ Seah explains. ‘I encourage my clients to reconsider their preconceptions of bespoke. Why not commission a unique tropical shirt in beautiful Indian block‑print cotton? Or some bespoke shorts or chinos? Individuality and self‑expression, creating a wardrobe that reflects your lifestyle and tastes. That’s the future of tailoring.’

Post‑pandemic, the conscious consumer wants to invest in something that they can wear numerous times in numerous ways, dressing it up, dressing it down, rather than spending £2,000 on a dress they’ll wear once to a party, or buying disposable fast fashion that will quickly find its way into a landfill. People’s mindsets around fashion have changed. They want longevity, durability, and versatility.”

So says Daisy Knatchbull, founder of THE DECK (thedecklondon.com), the first tailoring shop on Savile Row exclusively for women, by women. Established in 2019, the firm swiftly found a loyal fanbase among female consumers seeking to “buy less but better,” investing in perennial garments that can be mended when necessary and altered as the body evolves. Trend‑proof apparel of sufficient quality to survive a lifetime—or more.

“Our tailoring is made to last,” Knatchbull explains. “We do free repairs for life: We construct garments in such a way that they can be adjusted for the rest of your life, and beyond. They truly can be passed down to the next generation.

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