JAMES TIDWELL & COMPANY
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Welcome to the Draft Table
The Clothes Architect • January 8, 2021
A draft board is for pro and fantasy sports. The Draft Table is for tailors - real tailors.
This blog entry is the first of many in a large endeavor, one which I believe is necessary more than ever. It's not only a belief, it's what I've been told by customers at other jobs that I've held. By the way, the subtitle above isn't just catchy, it's appropriate. The tailoring trade that I've come to live, sleep, eat and drink for the past eighteen years has been in decline for about half a century at this point in time, and it has declined to the metaphor that is implied in the subtitle.
The clothing business that was once run by garment cutters, technical designers and tailors, mainly master tailors and domestic factory workers, is now run by advertisers, marketing experts, conceptual designers, foreign sweatshops and anybody who has enough money to bend them to their own whims and tastes. Style is dictated to people and not tailored to their physique and lifestyle, as it should be. In no lack of ways, people today are force-fed what to wear and what they should wear, instead of being educated on what works for them, only them, and squarely putting the choice in their hands. Style has been made to be interchangeable with fashion, when in reality the former is based on matter of fact and the latter on matter of opinion. The term bespoke began as a process and has legally and literally corrupted and distorted to the point where it is merely a statement lacking much of its former substance.
That in a nutshell is the draft board, and when compared to draft boards in pro and fantasy sports, it makes sense. It's selection without soul. It lacks the human element, one that made the tailoring trade what it is. The human element ultimately made it the third largest industry in America at one point, but that was long ago. The tailoring trade eventually outgrew itself, but since no industry can exist in a vacuum, the ones who made the windows did not perpetuate themselves and now the ones who make the window dressing run the business. What exists now are very nice-looking curtains covering a big hole in the wall.
The Draft Table is the 21st century tailor, one whom I hope can bring about a true renaissance of the craft. On the Draft Table we remember that necessity was and is always the mother of invention. That same necessity invented button-down collar shirts, cuff bottoms, vented coats and tuxedos. Eventually they worked their way to the masses, but they were originally meant to satisfy the individual. You might also say that scale is the mother of innovation, but it always begins with the scale of one.
The Draft Table recognizes that the tailor needed today is a real tailor, one who not just takes in, lets out, shortens, lengthens and sews on a button, but takes something made from nothing for nobody or everybody, and shapes and molds it into something just for you. And not only that, they know style, color, anatomy, kinesiology and occasions to make it everything, just for you.
Stay with me and you'll get it. You'll understand...
Believe it or not, Tidwell and Company is not a new thing. In fact, it's been around for a minute, since 2010 to be exact. During that time, the tailoring firm had been nothing more than a side business to make a few extra bucks for certain customers who really liked me and my work. Also during that time, I exclusively went to customers at their home or place of business, partially out of convenience to them, but mostly out of a general lack of funds and hence, a lack of a sustainable place to do business. Student loans still lingered, other commitments handcuffed my time and money, and the bills all dictated that things stay the way they were for the time being. And so they did until the coronavirus forced everyone to stay at home. In my solitude and faced with an uncertain future at the place where I had been employed, I struck while the iron was hot and used newfound time and savings to finally make Tidwell and Company what I envisioned it to be. The firm was reorganized, this website was created, key people were contacted and most importantly, The Studio was discovered. Around the corner and under my nose was Utility Works, an old electric company building that was renovated and repurposed as a collaborative space for artists to work in and sell their wares. A small studio space was secured and very quickly was transformed into a old-school den that became The Studio. Not only does James Tidwell & Company now have The Studio to fit clients for garments and perform consultations for custom options and wardrobe selections, but can now provide a tailoring home to always provide good work, good advice and good service for its customers and clients. To be sure and safe, hand sanitizer is provided, masks are required and The Office is wiped down between every appointment. Just in case you forget to bring a mask (which at this point you shouldn't), custom-made masks are provided. Now with the addition of The Studio, we're now cooking with gas in an old electric building! Visits to your home or office are still available, but on a case-by-case basis in the interim. Tidwell and Company can now offer the whole range of skills that a personal tailor should offer, and now has a personal space to do it in. I invite you to bookmark tidwellcompany.com in your Internet browser, make an appointment, and pay a visit to The Studio!
