Montauk
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It’s been two years since I first trumpeted Rory Duffy here on Styleforum, announcing a video series I was producing which would offer an unprecedentedly detailed look into his Brooklyn-based practice of Henry Poole-trained bespoke tailoring. It’s been almost a year since that series -- “The Making of Coat” -- ended abruptly after 24 episodes (shortly after the first fitting). While Duffy has posted in this forum that he and I “have parted on good terms,” nothing could be further from the truth. I have refrained from commenting on the matter pending resolution of a dispute with him regarding the ownership of those videos and the delivery of the garment which was to be my primary compensation. In the absence of any such resolution, and receiving no response from Duffy to repeated attempts to secure one, I’ll now share the truth of this failed project.
As I explain in the first introductory chapter of the series, this project was conceived by Duffy and me shortly after we met in New York City around Christmas 2012. We agreed that in return for his labor in making me a bespoke coat (I paid upfront for the cloth) I would document the process in a series of approximately a dozen videos. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement, guaranteed by nothing nothing beyond a handshake with Duffy, who I felt confident was not only a partner, but a friend.
To help promote the project, I contacted Will Boehlke of A Suitable Wardrobe, for whom I’d worked previously, and offered him the exclusive premier of each episode as it was completed, asking nothing beyond my standard rate for written pieces, which I would also provide to accompany each video. Will agreed, and “The Making of a Coat” premiered on ASW in the spring of 2013, where it immediately garnered positive reviews and a substantial following.
It quickly became apparent to both Duffy and me that completing the series with the detail we wanted would require three or four times more episodes than we'd originally envisioned, each of which was generally the product of several hours shooting at Duffy’s Brooklyn home, followed by hours more editing on my own. To help offset the time I was investing beyond the scope of the original arrangement, Duffy agreed to a $100 stipend per episode. It was a token sum, in no way granting him ownership of the videos, but reflecting his appreciation of the passion I was putting into a project that was overwhelmingly in his service. We also agreed that I’d be paid a small stipend for commissions he made from people who’d learned about him through the videos. I never asked how exactly this would be determined. I simply trusted Rory.
Why should I have doubted him? All throughout 2013, I’d worked tirelessly to promote him, becoming his de facto PR flack here on Styleforum, helping out at events, and even hosting dinner parties at my home with the express purpose of introducing him to friends I thought might be able to help establish him here in NYC. On the many days when I arrived for a shoot only to find him unprepared, I would pitch in any way I could, going so far as to clean up his workshop if he had a imminent client appointment. It’s humiliating in retrospect, but despite his often erratic and self-absorbed behavior, I was a True Believer, certain that Rory was the rare Real Deal, and that I was uniquely positioned to help him.
I should have suspected Duffy was being less than completely honest with me when he insisted that he’d only garnered a single client from the videos, but I persisted. The premiere of the first fitting -- after almost 20 episodes -- was imminent, the series had momentum, and I was frankly eager to get this coat already. It was around this time that I discovered that Duffy had set up his own separate Youtube and Vimeo feeds featuring all of my videos, pirated from my Vimeo feed and presented as his own work, with no mention of me. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I explained that while I had always encouraged him to embed the videos on his website and anywhere else he liked, as the creator and owner of the videos and an entrepreneur in my own right, I insisted that they ultimately reside on my Vimeo feed, where they would continue to direct traffic and attention to my other sartorially related projects. He agreed, we shook hands again, and I continued to post more episodes. Upon discovering a few weeks later that these too had been pirated, and after a final email pleading with Rory not to derail a project that was so good for us both, I stopped posting and threatened a public reckoning here on Styleforum, which this post represents.
At this point, Duffy revealed his true colors, responding that he’d “been receiving legal advice on this matter for quite some time now” and that any successful complaints to Youtube or Vimeo would be met with a lawsuit based on the premise that “ownership of the film lies in the edits, which I [Duffy] paid for.” Even more fancifully, he argued that the films were his by right of “intellectual property” (by which logic any documentary subject would own any film made about them). Completing his rather quaint understanding of U.S. law, he threatened to sue me for libel and slander if I took any action to harm his reputation.
I’ve asked myself many times since why Duffy would have taken such a self-destructive line with me, surely his single greatest advocate. I’d never given him any reason to question me or my dedication to the project, and indeed I probably would have granted him a co-copyright if he’d simply asked. But that wasn’t his style. Put simply, having paid his dues as an apprentice, Duffy now wanted to be the boss. In retrospect, where I saw myself in a serendipitous and mutually beneficial partnership between filmmaker and subject, Duffy saw me as an employee, and my work as his property.
In subsequent months, while speciously stating on Styleforum that our partnership ended amicably, Duffy tried to dissuade me from taking my grievances public by offering to make me a new coat. (Why he didn’t simply offer to finish the original coat wasn’t clear.) Considering that I didn’t have the time or resources to launch a copyright infringement lawsuit, and that ultimately there would be no damages to collect in such a frivolous action, I figured I might as well take what I could get, and we scheduled an appointment. Other than being an hour and half late, Duffy was on his best behavior, and as I went through the fabric swatches I found myself -- despite everything -- getting excited all over again at the prospect of having a Savile Row quality garment made for me.
The day before our scheduled first fitting a month later, I wrote Duffy to confirm, and received this message back:
He went on to state that the condition of making me a new coat would be that I sign some sort of “legally binding” contract, presumably granting him co-ownership of the videos, probably with a non-disclosure rider. It was clear to me that he hadn’t even begun work on the coat, and it was finally becoming clear that he would never do so. He’d only been playing me for time.
Even at this point I might have accepted Duffy's proposition had he not stopped responding to any communication from me. In the end, the sum total of what I received from him for investing literally hundreds of hours in this project was $1700 -- $2000 minus the $300 I’d paid him for two yards of cloth. I never received a coat -- completed or otherwise.
In a way I wish Duffy has at least waited until the series had been completed to reveal his mendacity. It would have involved countless more hours dedicated to the greater glory of a man I now know to be blithely self-serving, but at least the finished project itself would exist as an evergreen resource for tailors, catnip for tailoring aficionados, and a proud accomplishment for me. I would have liked the coat, too.
As it is, the videos at least show that my intentions were pure to the point of naivete. Those who’ve seen it know that the series was never just about the coat. Wherever possible, I tried to make the videos about the subject himself -- polishing Rory's rougher edges to present him as I saw him: the noble artisan, fighting his lonely crusade against the shortcuts of modern industry. None but the last few videos even included so much as a screen credit for me (although they all do feature my copyright in the credits). I’d gotten so swept up in a quixotic campaign to promote an honest-to-goodness Savile Row tailor that I failed to safeguard my own interests against him.
Who knows how long Duffy will remain with his Mystery Asian Firm. His mercurial employment history and volatile personality suggests it will only be a matter of time before it sours and he burns his bridges yet again. In any case, he will certainly continue to trade on the skills so ably demonstrated in the videos, and for that I cannot fault him. If I found Duffy’s tailoring to be rather set in its ways (e.g. a somewhat dated Poole house cut), it was clearly the work of skilled hands. Of course, skill is only one element that a client looks for in his tailor, with whom any commission is a business partnership of sorts. The other essential attribute a tailor must possess is trustworthiness. Here Duffy falls far short of the mark.
As for the videos and their accompanying essays, they can all be found, unaltered and in their incomplete entirety, on my new website -- thewholecloth.com -- where I hope they may continue to find a keen audience alongside my other menswear musings and videos.
AY
As I explain in the first introductory chapter of the series, this project was conceived by Duffy and me shortly after we met in New York City around Christmas 2012. We agreed that in return for his labor in making me a bespoke coat (I paid upfront for the cloth) I would document the process in a series of approximately a dozen videos. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement, guaranteed by nothing nothing beyond a handshake with Duffy, who I felt confident was not only a partner, but a friend.
To help promote the project, I contacted Will Boehlke of A Suitable Wardrobe, for whom I’d worked previously, and offered him the exclusive premier of each episode as it was completed, asking nothing beyond my standard rate for written pieces, which I would also provide to accompany each video. Will agreed, and “The Making of a Coat” premiered on ASW in the spring of 2013, where it immediately garnered positive reviews and a substantial following.
It quickly became apparent to both Duffy and me that completing the series with the detail we wanted would require three or four times more episodes than we'd originally envisioned, each of which was generally the product of several hours shooting at Duffy’s Brooklyn home, followed by hours more editing on my own. To help offset the time I was investing beyond the scope of the original arrangement, Duffy agreed to a $100 stipend per episode. It was a token sum, in no way granting him ownership of the videos, but reflecting his appreciation of the passion I was putting into a project that was overwhelmingly in his service. We also agreed that I’d be paid a small stipend for commissions he made from people who’d learned about him through the videos. I never asked how exactly this would be determined. I simply trusted Rory.
Why should I have doubted him? All throughout 2013, I’d worked tirelessly to promote him, becoming his de facto PR flack here on Styleforum, helping out at events, and even hosting dinner parties at my home with the express purpose of introducing him to friends I thought might be able to help establish him here in NYC. On the many days when I arrived for a shoot only to find him unprepared, I would pitch in any way I could, going so far as to clean up his workshop if he had a imminent client appointment. It’s humiliating in retrospect, but despite his often erratic and self-absorbed behavior, I was a True Believer, certain that Rory was the rare Real Deal, and that I was uniquely positioned to help him.
I should have suspected Duffy was being less than completely honest with me when he insisted that he’d only garnered a single client from the videos, but I persisted. The premiere of the first fitting -- after almost 20 episodes -- was imminent, the series had momentum, and I was frankly eager to get this coat already. It was around this time that I discovered that Duffy had set up his own separate Youtube and Vimeo feeds featuring all of my videos, pirated from my Vimeo feed and presented as his own work, with no mention of me. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I explained that while I had always encouraged him to embed the videos on his website and anywhere else he liked, as the creator and owner of the videos and an entrepreneur in my own right, I insisted that they ultimately reside on my Vimeo feed, where they would continue to direct traffic and attention to my other sartorially related projects. He agreed, we shook hands again, and I continued to post more episodes. Upon discovering a few weeks later that these too had been pirated, and after a final email pleading with Rory not to derail a project that was so good for us both, I stopped posting and threatened a public reckoning here on Styleforum, which this post represents.
At this point, Duffy revealed his true colors, responding that he’d “been receiving legal advice on this matter for quite some time now” and that any successful complaints to Youtube or Vimeo would be met with a lawsuit based on the premise that “ownership of the film lies in the edits, which I [Duffy] paid for.” Even more fancifully, he argued that the films were his by right of “intellectual property” (by which logic any documentary subject would own any film made about them). Completing his rather quaint understanding of U.S. law, he threatened to sue me for libel and slander if I took any action to harm his reputation.
I’ve asked myself many times since why Duffy would have taken such a self-destructive line with me, surely his single greatest advocate. I’d never given him any reason to question me or my dedication to the project, and indeed I probably would have granted him a co-copyright if he’d simply asked. But that wasn’t his style. Put simply, having paid his dues as an apprentice, Duffy now wanted to be the boss. In retrospect, where I saw myself in a serendipitous and mutually beneficial partnership between filmmaker and subject, Duffy saw me as an employee, and my work as his property.
In subsequent months, while speciously stating on Styleforum that our partnership ended amicably, Duffy tried to dissuade me from taking my grievances public by offering to make me a new coat. (Why he didn’t simply offer to finish the original coat wasn’t clear.) Considering that I didn’t have the time or resources to launch a copyright infringement lawsuit, and that ultimately there would be no damages to collect in such a frivolous action, I figured I might as well take what I could get, and we scheduled an appointment. Other than being an hour and half late, Duffy was on his best behavior, and as I went through the fabric swatches I found myself -- despite everything -- getting excited all over again at the prospect of having a Savile Row quality garment made for me.
The day before our scheduled first fitting a month later, I wrote Duffy to confirm, and received this message back:
“Circumstances have changed somewhat since we last saw each other. I’ve sold out! Too many cunts threatening to ruin me has left me with, take the money and run with it [sic]. I currently work for the one of the largest manufacturers in the world out of Asia.”
He went on to state that the condition of making me a new coat would be that I sign some sort of “legally binding” contract, presumably granting him co-ownership of the videos, probably with a non-disclosure rider. It was clear to me that he hadn’t even begun work on the coat, and it was finally becoming clear that he would never do so. He’d only been playing me for time.
Even at this point I might have accepted Duffy's proposition had he not stopped responding to any communication from me. In the end, the sum total of what I received from him for investing literally hundreds of hours in this project was $1700 -- $2000 minus the $300 I’d paid him for two yards of cloth. I never received a coat -- completed or otherwise.
In a way I wish Duffy has at least waited until the series had been completed to reveal his mendacity. It would have involved countless more hours dedicated to the greater glory of a man I now know to be blithely self-serving, but at least the finished project itself would exist as an evergreen resource for tailors, catnip for tailoring aficionados, and a proud accomplishment for me. I would have liked the coat, too.
As it is, the videos at least show that my intentions were pure to the point of naivete. Those who’ve seen it know that the series was never just about the coat. Wherever possible, I tried to make the videos about the subject himself -- polishing Rory's rougher edges to present him as I saw him: the noble artisan, fighting his lonely crusade against the shortcuts of modern industry. None but the last few videos even included so much as a screen credit for me (although they all do feature my copyright in the credits). I’d gotten so swept up in a quixotic campaign to promote an honest-to-goodness Savile Row tailor that I failed to safeguard my own interests against him.
Who knows how long Duffy will remain with his Mystery Asian Firm. His mercurial employment history and volatile personality suggests it will only be a matter of time before it sours and he burns his bridges yet again. In any case, he will certainly continue to trade on the skills so ably demonstrated in the videos, and for that I cannot fault him. If I found Duffy’s tailoring to be rather set in its ways (e.g. a somewhat dated Poole house cut), it was clearly the work of skilled hands. Of course, skill is only one element that a client looks for in his tailor, with whom any commission is a business partnership of sorts. The other essential attribute a tailor must possess is trustworthiness. Here Duffy falls far short of the mark.
As for the videos and their accompanying essays, they can all be found, unaltered and in their incomplete entirety, on my new website -- thewholecloth.com -- where I hope they may continue to find a keen audience alongside my other menswear musings and videos.
AY
