Blog Post

The Tailor & Cutter remembered by Eric Musgrave

Stewart Christie • Feb 08, 2018

Former editorial director of Drapers and author of Sharp Suits, Mr. Musgrave is a writer and commentator on menswear, textiles and fashion retailing. This is the first of twelve contributions of a series featuring the interesting details of The Tailor & Cutter.

On the left , semi-formal and semi-casual looks from 1941. The Tailor & Cutter is full of examples of the lost art of commercial illustrations like this.



For more than 100 years, tailors like Stewart Christie had their own regular publication - The Tailor & Cutter . Flourishing from 1866 until 1972, the magazine became the printed manifestation of a mini-business empire that included a world-renowned tailoring academy in London, numerous technical publications on cutting and garment construction, a global network of tailors following The T&C’s correspondence courses, and a small emporium of tailor’s tools and equipment.

The unrivalled reputation of The Tailor & Cutter was started by a passionate Scotsman called John Williamson. In January 1866 he produced in Scotland The Tailor , the first incarnation of the magazine, which demanded improved working conditions for the craftsmen in the industry. By the time he relocated to London later that year, he saw the potential for a journal to provide regular communication and technical information to the tailoring community. Backed by a wealthy benefactor, Angelica Patience Fraser, in September 1866 Williamson launched two publications, The Tailor and The Cutter , but soon merged them into one.



On the left , likenesses of royalty and politicians were used regularly – and presumably unofficially – on fashion plates in The Tailor & Cutter. In this one from 1891, the figure on the left is clearly the 26-year-old grandson of Queen Victoria, Prince George, who in 1910 became King George V.

On the right , Pre-Second World War casualwear from 1937: the publication continually promoted its patterns to tailors around the world.

On the left, Textile mills and cloth merchants were imaginative advertisers in The Tailor & Cutter and happily quite a number still survive. Not all were so lucky: Founded in 1892, Heather Mills in Selkirk in the Scottish Borders was one of the town's largest employers with 200-plus workers, but it was closed in 2009.
On the right, From 1939, a front-page advertisement for an Irish tweed supplier. The company survived until the mid-1980s, it is believed.



The wild-haired and bearded Williamson believed tailoring people should better themselves and improve their craft. He wrote in 1869: “Our mission is to put a superior class of literature dealing with the science and art of the trade into the hands of every tailor.”

To dovetail with the journal, Williamson and Fraser established in 1866 “The Tailor’s School of Art” at 93-94 Drury Lane, Covent Garden. The gentlemen of London were renowned for being the best-dressed in the world – The Tailor & Cutter simultaneously promoted that view and benefited from it. Womenswear was a regular part of the contents although a separate journal for women’s tailoring was produced from 1884 onwards.



Today, rare copies of The Tailor & Cutter magazine are keenly sought by aficionados of fine menswear. The magazine featured from its earliest days illustrations of the latest fashionable styles. These detailed images were for sale so that tailors outside the capital could show their clients what cosmopolitan trend-setters were wearing. From its earliest editions, The T&C spoke with confidence and authority on what was correct in dressing.

In 1902 the tailoring academy and magazine relocated to its celebrated address at 42-43 Gerrard Street, Soho (the premises are now occupied by a Chinese supermarket). Outside the five-storey building hung a sign showing the famous portrait of The Tailor by Renaissance artist Giovanni Battista Moroni; this image was adopted as the T&C’s logo. By 1903 the reputation of The Tailor & Cutter was so well-known that Beatrix Potter had a mouse reading a copy on the cover of her book The Tailor of Gloucester.

In 1884 the magazine described itself as “A Journal of Art, Science and Trade”. By 1930 it could boast that it had “The Largest Circulation of Any Trade Journal In The World Issued For The Tailoring, Clothing and Allied Trades.” In 1932 it added that it was “The Leading Authority On Clothes”. By 1945 this had been significantly amended to be “The Authority on Style and Clothes”. The end for The T&C came in 1972. The rise of ready-to-wear and the drastic reduction of the British tailoring trade meant there was no commercially-sized audience for a regular publication. Luckily, Stewart Christie will be able to share some fascinating visuals from The Tailor & Cutter over the next few months to celebrate the traditions the company still upholds in Edinburgh. *

On the left, In 1903, one of the mice helping The Tailor of Gloucester was pictured reading The Tailor & Cutter by Beatrix Potter
On the right, The 90th anniversary issue of the magazine in September 1956 featured an image of The Tailor by Giovanni Battista Moroni, which was the logo of The Tailor & Cutter Academy and appeared in every issue of the magazine. Painted around 1570, the portrait is in The National Gallery in London.

Special thanks to Eric Musgrave for this fascinating piece. We look forward to his contributions from the archives over the next 12 months.
www.ericmusgrave.co.uk

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