links and things.....: 2010

Sunday 9 May 2010

Has sacred code of Savile Row tailors been broken?

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/news/has-sacred-code-of-savile-row-tailors-been-broken-1955138.html

The case of the stolen inside-leg measurements has stunned the genteel  world of men's outfitting. Tom Peck reports 

A tailor is as important to a man as his doctor or  dentist," says Simon Cundey, director of Henry Poole & Co,  acknowledged founders of London's Savile Row. "He lives and breathes  with you the whole span of your life. From your university gown, to your  suit for your first job interview, your wedding, and all the way  through your life and career. And, like a doctor or dentist, trust and  discretion is at the heart of this relationship."    

The news then, that a former  tailor at Ede &  Ravenscroft, the country's oldest outfitter with clients including the  Queen, Prince Charles, and David Cameron, is  alleged to have stolen  confidential information about a number of its clients, including their  most  intimate measurements, has  caused quite a stir around the  luxurious fitting rooms of the 250-year-old street.

The company, whose Burlington Gardens store looks down  Savile Row, alleges that former member of staff, Matthew Farnes,  secretly set up a rival business while still working for Ede &  Ravenscroft.

The company claims in a High Court writ that Mr  Farnes took with him private details of its customers and lured a number  of them to his new business.

Mr Farnes, who  spent four years in the bespoke department at Ede & Ravenscroft's  Burlington Gardens store, is being sued for damages of up to £150,000.

The writ claims that Mr Farnes emailed himself the  company's  bespoke measurement form, which was confidential, as well as  contact details of customers.

For around 200  years, the great, the good, and the fabulously wealthy have surrendered  their vital statistics to one of the outfitters on the famous street. In  the mahogany drawers of Henry Poole & Co's luxurious  premises  still sit the "paper patterns" – the set of 30 measurements that go into  the production of their bespoke suit – of everyone from Winston  Churchill to Edward VII. When  Buffalo Bill brought his "Wild West Show"  to Britain in 1887 he too called in for a fitting. "He had a 46-inch  chest," says Mr Cundey.

Excepting Buffalo Bill,  these measurements are evidently not for public consumption. "We have  some very high-profile customers. Some of them are happy for people to  know who their tailor is. Others prefer it to be kept quiet."

But the case only highlights the fact that, for all  the deference and discretion of the fitting room, in many cases the  tailors of Savile Row are cut from the same cloth as the businessmen and  bankers they kit out. This is not the first time a tailor has set up on  his own and sought to take his clientele with him.

"It happened to us in the 1970s," says Mr Cundey, the  seventh generation of his family to run the business. "A cutter went off  to form his own company. Back then it wasn't so difficult. The law was  much less strict.

"But these things do go on.  Many a pint gets drunk over talk of who's doing what and going where.  It's like any industry.

"Certainly there's an  element of loyalty between customers and their specific tailors," admits  Mr Cundey. "But people are loyal to their outfitters too. Poole has a  certain look, a unified cut, that our customers like.

"Often people will go off on their own, and it all  either goes very right or very wrong. Sometimes they'll realise they  can't deliver the final product. They don't have all the works they  need, or the accountancy. They'll make promises on price that they can't  keep. They'll last for a couple of years before customers start coming  back to us. The grass is always greener on the other side.

"These patterns, these measures, they belong to the  house, not to the tailor. Imagine you had spent many months developing  say, a recipe for a cookie, and once you've got it just right, someone  comes along and gives it to say Starbucks?"

He  adds: "I'd say 80 per cent of cutters out there are pretty loyal. But if  this business with Ede gets drawn out into a long legal battle it might  lead other cutters to think twice about going their own way.

Opposite Henry Poole & Co is Mark Marengo, who,  having been in business for three years remains the newest name on the  street. "It might be seen as if people are poaching someone else's  clients," says Neil Marengo, Mark's brother and front of house man. "But  often customers are very loyal to their particular tailor, like many  people are to their hairdresser. If that tailor moves, the client will  probably follow, he has allegiance to his personal tailor.

"Customers often talk to us about their lives, their  careers. They are getting new suits for their weddings, or to start new  jobs. There is an understanding that that information is treated with  discretion, especially as we might also be making suits for colleagues  of theirs."

Mr Farnes, who opened his own  tailors in nearby Sackville Street last year, vehemently denies all the   allegations. He said in a statement: "I robustly deny this allegation  and will be fully defending this in court."

Standing  outside his new shop, Savile Row Artisan, he said he feared that the  legal action could taint his reputation. He would not comment on whether  he had worked with  royalty during his four years with his former  employer.

Ede & Ravenscroft, which makes  ceremonial robes as well as suits, jealously guards its close ties with  royalty, members of the House of Lords and the legal profession. 

The case is a blow to the house,  established in 1689  for the coronation of William of Orange and believed to be the oldest  tailor in the world. 

If the case does proceed,  the attire of those present in court may well command as many column  inches as the evidence itself.

Dead Man's Patterns, Hormazd Narielwalla

http://www.deadmanspaterns.co.uk

eugenio recuenco

'the tailor' taken from series of photographs for german band Rammstein circa 2009 by spanish photographer eugenio recuenco.

http://www.eugeniorecuenco.com/

Monday 1 February 2010

Tuesday 26 January 2010

Graham Harwood

Graham Harwood. Hogarth, my Dad. 2002

Graham Harwood. Hogarth, My Mum. 2002

http://www.zaneberzina.com/

Archeology of Skin (2006)

The work series 'Archaeology of Skin' draws on laboratory environment settings and is created using biomedical references. It reflects indirectly on developments in biological science due to the employment of dermatological research methods and equipment during my research period in order to create these works while remaining a personal artistic archaeology of the epidermis.

Olivier Goulet

........One can view the skinbags as bodily extensions, external organs that serve as holdalls for the items we have around us. Covers for computers, cameras, pods and other digital components are multimedia second skins that convey the miniaturization and fragmentation of computers distributed on the surface of and inside our bodies, and which will end up being connected up to our brains. As it becomes neutral our skin becomes porous.......

In Olivier Goulet’s work the idea of human mutation and moulting stimulated by technological innovation relates to continuous political changes that affect the definition of borders and national identities.

http://www.skinbag.net/code/presse-dossier.php

Monday 25 January 2010

Thursday 21 January 2010

Apollo Flaying Marsyas, Juseppe de Ribera

Jusepe de Ribera, Apollo Flaying Marsyas, 1637

The Last Judgement, Michelangelo

Michelangelo, Piero Aretino holding the flayed skin of St Bartholomew, with the artist's own face; a detail from The Last Judgement, 1537-41, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City