Oakwood Tailors - Bespoke Tailors, Made To Measure Tailor, Manchester Lancashire

Oakwood Tailors - Formal And Evening Wear hire for that extra special occassion, and a personal bespoke tailoring service

As one master tailor told the Financial Times this week, 

These people aren't tailors - they're outfitters, - an important distinction. Few of us may be able to afford a Savile Row suit but it is important somehow to know that, if we had the money and inclination, we could. Right now, London's historic master tailors are only hanging on by a thread. But they surely deserve to survive.

Tailor Manchester, Oakwood Tailor, Bespoke Tailor Manchester

Made To Measure Tailor Manchester Lancashire

The Manchester clothing industry was exceptional. It dominated the Manchester economy for more than half a century and at its peak in the 1930s it employed 40,000 people or one-third of the local work force. The industry was dominated by the production and distribution of men’s tailored outerwear. Manchester was the only city that specialised in men’s tailoring and it became the dominant producer of men’s wear in the country. The Manchester tailoring firms played a key role in extending the social and geographical distribution of men’s tailored outerwear in the first half of the twentieth century, and from the 1930s to the 1960s the Manchester multiple tailors, who specialised in made to measure garments, provided about 40 per cent of all suits worn by British men.

The growth of the industry took place in two phases. The first took place in the late nineteenth century and was based on technical and organisational changes in manufacturing and supported by innovation in retailing, in which links between production and distribution were created. By 1914 the Manchester trade had clearly asserted its strength and superiority in the nation’s men’s wear trade but what came next was even more significant. During the inter-war years the Manchester trade enjoyed spectacular rates of growth, based on satisfying the growing and relatively untapped market for made to measure suits, supported by the practice, employed by the ‘multiple tailors’, of fully integrating manufacturing and retailing. The networks of shops supplied by their own factory produce produced efficiency gains in distribution, which reduced costs, stimulated demand and further enhanced profits. Although Montague Burton was by far the largest of the Manchester multiple tailoring enterprises, employing 10,00 workers and opened 600 shops by the late 1930s, there were ten multiple firms altogether including Hepworth, Prices ‘Fifty Shilling Tailor’ and Weaver to Wearer. The multiples dominated the Manchester trade but there were other large firms that specialised in manufacturing, such as Barrans and Heatons, and plenty of medium sized enterprises that tended to concentrate in high quality products. A plethora of small businesses continued to operate often on the basis of subcontracting from the larger businesses.

The ubiquity of suit wearing among males which both supported and was sustained by the Manchester tailoring trade was challenged in the period after the Second World War. By the 1960s, the moment of the suit had passed. Men’s fashions were increasingly influenced by young working class males who were unexcited by the products of the multiples and their shops. At the same time, the distinction between the fashion of the workplace and the fashion of everyday wear became more clearly drawn for all social groups. Firms such as the Manchester multiples which were built on a single standard product were poorly equipped to produce the variety of garments that came to comprise the male wardrobe. The Manchester industry also became challenged by developments in retailing which extended the range of outlets for men’s wear, and by the import of cheap imported goods. The industry continued to exhibit sparks of vitality and dynamism to the 1960s, yet its underlying structure was crumbling. By the 1970s, there was little doubt that the industry was facing terminal decline. Employment loss and firm closure continued through the 1980s and into the 1990s when an industry once central to the prosperity of the Manchester economy had been virtually liquidated.
Oakwood Tailors Manchester, West Yorkshire, who specialize in made to measure bespoke tailoring business, formal and casual dress wear.

Oakwood Tailors, Manchester, West Yorkshire, we strive to provide clothing of top notch quality at very reasonable prices and excellent customer service.

With a wide range of the latest styles, from the classics to the ultra modern; and a wide choice of excellent fabrics, we are a one-stop shop for custom tailored mens and womens wear for all occassions.

Our designs for mens suits, Blazers or sports jackets, Tuxedos and Coats range from single breasted two button classic to double breasted Italian cuts. Fit and silhoutte can range from the tailored look to the unconstructed drape. 

Mens trousers can be made to measure from the basic plain front style to the full cut triple pleated kind and everything in between.

'Bespoke' is actually a term which dates from the 17th century, when tailors held the full lengths of cloth in their premises. 

When a customer chose a length of material, it was said to have “been spoken for”. Hence a tailor who makes your clothes individually, to your specific personal requirements, is called bespoke. This is unlike “made-to-measure”, which simply uses a basic, pre-existing template pattern, which is then adjusted to roughly your individual measurements. 

655 Roundhay Road, Oakwood, Leeds, LS8 4BA - Tel: 0113 293 5180
E-mail: info@oakwood-tailors.co.uk

Oakwood Tailors - Formal And Evening Wear hire for that extra special occassion, and a personal bespoke tailoring service

  

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