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 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.
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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