Berlin tailor Volkmar Arnulf, now based in Potsdam, handed me a short paper on fashion in bespoke tailoring, or “Maßschneidermode” in German, when I visited him last time. The paper is interesting for what it contains but also because it is a real tailor, Volkmar Arnulf, who has produced it. Few tailors have an almost Heideggerian calling to reflect on their embedment in time.
Below an excerpt from the paper in my homebrew translation:
“Bespoke tailoring fashion is not a fashion that comes along new on day X. Bespoke fashion comes from a constant process.
The World’s gradual manifestion as well as the interaction of all areas and some few secrets, which the experienced tailor has learned during life, constitute the process.
The customer stands in the foreground. In spite of a deep love for tradition and classics, he doesn’t want to appear unwordly.
In our time, fashion is galloping, wheras bespoke fashion is decelerating.
Only when the usefulness of new ideas has been proven, should trends and details make an impact on bespoke fashion.
Quality needs time to become timeless.”
Source: Volkmar Arnulf