My Tailor Threw Me Out

[HLow]

Pants that are too tight spells disaster for your circulation

 

[Coburn]



I went to my regular alterations tailor (Peter Harland on Stanley Street in Liverpool) to have a few tweaks made to a pair of J.Crew chinos, after having a first round of alterations made a few days earlier. I asked to have the top of the thigh taken in (again) to 22". He refused on the basis that it would "look silly" and hurt his "40-year" reputation. "What reputation?", I wondered. I asked if there was any way he could feasibly do it, and told him that, if so, "looking silly" would be my problem, not his. He said he'd taken all that he could out of the thigh, mentioned something about "leg twist", and quite sternly refused my service on principle.

I was annoyed, but this type of behaviour doesn't surprise me one bit. It's typical of the orthodoxy that remains in British tailoring. What bothers me is the sanctimonious attitude of the tailor that the customer has to contend with. These people feel that because they've been doing something for 40 years, they're entitled to respect. They force their "expertise" on you, regardless of whether you ask for it or if it's relevant to your particular needs. What's absurd is that, while on the one hand, we're talking about this man's livelihood and professional integrity, on the other, we're talking about trousers.

As a student of business and marketing (as well as fashion), I'm intrigued by this strategy. It seems to me that if he would just cater to the customer's requests, while perhaps making expert suggestions along the way, he'd fare better in terms of reputation, rather than by exercising pridefulness and elitism that's potentially more damaging.

He sounds like a great tailor.

 

[Trompe le Monde]

the customer is always right tight.

 

[GBR]



Welcome to Style Forum.
You are in the wrong here, in many ways. You also come across as a petulant and vindictive jackass.

Whilst a little harsh, I suspect that this is the right approach to the OP's claims.

The tailor is entitled to his pride and if he does not believe that the alteration is correct, he can and should refuse to carry it out. What if it had turned out as badly as he feared, you then wore the garment and people asked who had done the alteration? You then name him and it is his reputation that is sullied not you in your your stupidity in seeking the alteration.

These are a pair of cheap Chinos - take some comfort that the man has probably saved them from your folly. He was neither being "orthodox" nor sanctimonious, that is you for not taking his advice and deciding that you knew best, clearly you did not as it was the second round of alterations.

 

[lostron]

quit complaining and just go to another tailor..

first lesson jn business, you will not always get what you want and need to find alternatives

 

[PtrckHmphrys]

-

 

[F. Corbera]

You would never get this treatment at the Andover Shop.

Is moving to Boston to change alterations tailors a possiblity for you?

 

[patrickBOOTH]

I have a strong feeling the tailor didn't really think it would hurt his reputation. Along the same lines as "the customer is always right" philosophy he didn't want to risk you coming back and whining that they were then too tight and have to buy you a new pair. I'd bet a buffalo nickel that was his reasoning.

 

[IndianBoyz]

This is why you should pick an (alterations) tailor that you will trust completely, from the beginning.
You don't argue with your tailor, but that's my opinion. If he makes a misstake he will correct this.

 

[patrickBOOTH]



Careful measuring of a pair of chinos I own already.

If anyone cares: To put this into context, I'm quite tall with very skinny arms and upper body, but my thighs are fairly wide in relation, so my pants need to be snug in the thighs to balance my proportions. I like to maintain a slim/comfortable fit overall, but to balance my proportions, my pants need to be slightly slimmer than the rest. The exact alterations I wanted are: 22" thigh, 15" knee, 14" calf, 12½" hem, 31½" inseam.

This is a huge mistake, there are so many other dimensions that you didn't measure that might, (and in all likelyhood would) make the outcome of this particular pair differen't.

2+2=4 but so does 3+1

 

[PtrckHmphrys]

-

 

[bellyhungry]

Why not post pics of you wearing the trousers 1) as is, and 2) safety pin the thigh to 22" so that we can take a look?

 

[mcbrown]



What bothers me is the sanctimonious attitude of the tailor that the customer has to contend with. These people feel that because they've been doing something for 40 years, they're entitled to respect. ... What's absurd is that, while on the one hand, we're talking about this man's livelihood and professional integrity, on the other, we're talking about trousers.

Bravo. This is the most sophisticated and subtle trolling I have seen yet on SF.

 

[unbelragazzo]



It's just the stench of pride and pomposity that surrounds the tailoring trade — or rather, my local, and arguably inconsequential, tailoring community — that I find so silly. The presumption that because it's skilled and delicate work, it automatically entitles them to respect, and the obstinateness with which they wield their "expertise", regardless of whether you ask for it or if it's relevant to your particular needs.

You object to the man taking pride in his work? Can you pm me his contact info so I can make him my tailor?

 

[Master Squirrel]



. In his expert opinion — and I don't doubt for a second that he knows far more than me — he would be ruining the garment, and he told me this.

So he is the expert and knows the garment will be ruined. In other words: he knows you will be disappointed and risks the possibility of a upset customer spreading the story that the tailor is incompetent (complete with the ruined trou as a vivid example). He was wise to steer clear.