At eight in the morning the Gulberg atelier is silent except for the sound of chalk on cloth. The cutter marks a navy worsted by hand, from a paper pattern drafted for one client, and cuts it with shears older than most of the tailors.
The canvas
The front of the jacket is built on a floating canvas of horsehair and wool. It is not glued to the cloth, as it is in most suits, but held in place by some three thousand small stitches. Over months of wear it takes the shape of the man inside it.
A fused jacket looks its best on the day you buy it. A canvassed one, ten years later.
The details nobody sees
The lapel is rolled by hand over a curve, never pressed flat. The collar is set by eye. Each buttonhole is cut, corded and stitched with silk, and takes forty minutes. The tailor initials the inside pocket when he is done.
In all, about sixty-two hours. It is not a number we try to reduce.
