On tailor-made clothing and market force...

Boy, I can't believe I haven't jogged down a single thought in more than three months.  How time flies by, and we don't even notice it.  Now that the kids are back to school, and the various property dealings are settled, life is back on a rhythm again and I can write a bit more.

I was reading this article in New York Times about bespoke suites.  I can't help but think back of the times, more than a few decades ago when I was growing up in Asia.  Back then, without the benefits - or is it really a benefit?? - of mass production, craftsmanship was something to be desired, valued, and yes, expensive.  I used past tense in describing that since this oftentimes doesn't seem to be the case anymore.  It was a time when Made In Italy or Made In France really means something special, and with that, really expensive.

I have a fetish of sorts about shoes.  I love shoes that are Made In Italy since they are so comfortable.  You see, my feet are rather oddly shaped (in my opinion); they're wider on the sides.  With years of high keels, my bunion also hurts.  I've come to value comfortable shoes since they really make a world of difference.

But, Italian shoes were expensive back then.  In between Italian shoes, I would buy tailor-made shoes locally made by shoemakers.  I would say, the prices of tailor-made shoes costed at least 25% less than the Italian shoes.  I got to pick the materials - leather, mostly - and I saw the shoes created by hands.  The craftsmanship, though not as beautiful as those of the Italians - was something to behold of.  I have the patience to wait as well.

These days, market forces have worked against anything that requires craftsmanship.  Women's fashion-related industry is even worse than men since women have been successfully molded to change their wardrobe every season, couple of times a year.  With that kind of turnover, who has the time and patience to wait for tailor-made stuffs?  Everything is bought, with the expectation that they'll be thrown out within six months.  Nobody holds onto anything.  And mass-production is infinitesimally cheaper than the beautiful stuffs from tailors, no matter how hard they try and how much more beautiful their wares are.

Men's fashion might be marginally better than women's, but men of the younger generations are being molded to become more like the ADHD fashion sense of the women's.  Tailor-made industry might still hold a tiny niche in the very high-end men's fashion corner, but the way it's getting stagnant in growth and the lack of scalability in operation, as noted in the NYTimes article, speaks of its impending doom.

The tailors that caters for women's needs have all but disappeared in Hong Kong.  There are still some surviving in some corners in China, but their craftsmanship is nowhere near where their Hong Kong counterparts of old could offer, and they're scrapping by more like bottom-feeding individually than a niche industry that has a prospect to survive, particularly in the face of a world where everything in China is mass-produced.

I'm in my nostalgia mode today, and think back fondly of the days when beautifully craftsman was to be treasured and desired and kept like treasure - not to mention the high price tag that goes with it.  The younger generations don't seem to have any patience, or mostly don't have the deeper pocket to pay for that multiple times a year.

How ironic, when one looks at the almost outdated tagline of Patek Philippe campaign, that "You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely take care of it for the next generation."  It's not incidentally that Patek's - and other major watch brands - collectable items all cater for men.  In a way, I almost find it insulting that such honoring of traditions only targets men; but can I blame them for that, since women certainly have not helped themselves, by being such a fickle?  *sigh*