By Bernhard Roetzel.
In half one among this text I gave an summary of the state of bespoke tailoring in Germany, together with its historical past. At present I’ll suggest some particular tailors, together with my very own experiences.
Volkmar Arnulf
www.arnulf-massatelier.de
Of the outdated masters educated by the pre-war tailors, solely Volkmar Arnulf continues to be working. He’s thought of the doyen of German tailoring by most of his colleagues.
Volkmar Arnulf turned a Herrenschneidermeister in 1962, after he had educated each as a males’s and as a girls’ tailor. He was very lively in Berlin’s guild of tailors and within the World Federation of Grasp Tailors.
For a number of a long time Arnulf ran a store at Kurfürstendamm, Berlin’s well-known boulevard, however he relocated to Potsdam 10 years in the past. The store is situated in a historic townhouse with the workrooms within the again rooms.
Volkmar Arnulf provides exact slicing, wonderful handwork, good sample matching and a slim, barely 1960ish silhouette. As well as you’ll expertise assembly a really well mannered and modest particular person and a particularly knowledgable craftsman.
I’ve by no means ordered something from Volkmar Arnulf, however Torsten Grunwald in Denmark has ordered a number of fits there and has written about his expertise.
I had the trousers of half a dozen of my Savile Row fits altered there about 10 years in the past, once they wanted somewhat further width on the waist. His tailors did a superb job hand stitching little patches of matching satin to the inside waistband.
Max Dietl
www.max-dietl.de
The largest identify in German postwar tailoring was Max Dietl in Munich. The founder was a superb tailor and on the identical time an excellent businessman. He made for a lot of German film stars and TV greats as a result of Munich was the centre of the postwar movie trade.
Regardless of being dedicated to his craft, Dietl began promoting handmade Italian menswear within the Nineteen Seventies. He was the most important Brioni buyer in Germany for many years; he additionally provides high fashion for girls.
The store is instantly reverse the Opera home, comprising 4 flooring of a whole constructing. The bespoke division is on the highest flooring. The current proprietor of the home is Max Dietl Jr. He’s not a educated tailor, so the tailoring division has been run by employed cutters for the reason that loss of life of his father.
The corporate makes for purchasers of all ages – fairly often youthful males are introduced in by their fathers. Despite the fact that nearly all of clients search for Brioni, Kiton, Stefano Ricci or Zilli, the bespoke division nonetheless has an excellent popularity and plenty of work.
There isn’t any home fashion however the fits which are made there for Dietl Jr look very very like a well-fitting Attolini swimsuit. I personally desire the double-breasted fits they make for Wolfgang Grupp, the founding father of the German sportswear and underwear model Trigema. As he’s very slim the outer chestpocket is just below the left lapel, which is sort of a singular fashion.
Detlev Diehm
www.diehmdesign.eu
In Munich you must take a look at Detlev Diehm. His store is situated in an outdated Bavarian home in a residential space not removed from the centre. Diehm educated as a tailor earlier than he studied style design.
He spent most of his working life as a designer and artistic director, returning to bespoke tailoring a few years in the past. About half of his clients are from overseas, which is uncommon for German tailors. He repeatedly holds trunk reveals on the Les Bains lodge in Paris.
Diehm cuts and suits each garment himself. One tailor works for him within the workroom downstairs. Diehm is the one German tailor I’m conscious of who provides a home fashion: his commerce mark fashion is a softly tailor-made double-breasted with large lapels; his coats are usually on the shorter aspect. He has a choice for luxurious materials akin to cashmere.
I had a DB swimsuit constituted of a inexperienced Solaro by Diehm about 5 years in the past. The primary becoming was very near the mark aside from the size of the coat. I needed 3cm extra, Diehm insisted on 1.5 cm. On the second becoming I agreed that 1.5 cm was higher.
Stefan Sicking
sicking-muenchen.de
A tailor with a a lot greater following in Munich is Stefan Sicking, largely as a result of he has been round longer. I used to be launched to him extra 20 years in the past, when his store was across the nook from the legendary Schumann’s American Bar.
Regardless of his lengthy expertise, Sicking just isn’t very well-known exterior Munich as a result of he shuns publicity to the purpose of refusing requests for interviews. He’s a really in a position tailor with a visual affect from Italy. Nonetheless, he’s usually German by way of precision slicing and the standard of the make.
Kathrin Emmer
handgefertigte-massanzuege.de
A Munich expat is Kathrin Emmer. She was born and educated there, earlier than transferring to Berlin to work for Volkmar Arnulf. She turned a grasp tailor and opened her personal store in 2003 in her flat in Berlin. I met her briefly afterwards in 2005 once I occurred to be in Berlin as a result of I used to be attending the Congress of The World Federation of Grasp Tailors.
We met once more in 2009 after I had moved to Berlin myself. I needed to attempt her then and had a DB swimsuit made. I needed one thing in a Nineteen Forties kind of lower with a ventless coat and large pleated trousers. I confirmed her a number of photos and talked at size about my imaginative and prescient for the swimsuit. She didn’t say a lot however on the first becoming it turned out that she had listened very rigorously, as a result of the lower was faultless.
Emmer provides the old-school high quality that she acquired used to whereas working for Volkmar Arnulf. She makes every garment fully herself, which typically leads to an extended ready checklist. She has tried outworkers however was by no means proud of the outcomes.
Emmer moved to Potsdam in 2012. She receives her clients within the basement of her home, which is half atelier and half becoming room. She is prepared to fulfil most sartorial needs if they’re inside her skilled capability. In my expertise whereas she is reluctant to impose concepts on a buyer, she’s going to advise the novice.
Most of her output is sober enterprise fits for males, however she does make for a few ladies, who primarily order overcoats and fits. For the reason that pandemic she has been making extra sports activities coats and separate trousers. When a clients is ready to outline his needs exactly, I discover she’s going to normally ship a primary becoming that may be very near the mark.
Thus far I’ve had 4 fits made by Emmer and the lower has all the time been exact. She likes the sleeves of the coat barely longer so on the second becoming I all the time make sure that the size is right. On the whole she prefers a barely ‘youthful’ look. Jokingly she calls my fashion ‘grandfatherly’ however she nonetheless does it very effectively.
James Whitfield
www.jameswhitfieldbespoke.com
One other expat is James Whitfield. He’s English however works in Berlin. He educated as cutter and tailor at Anderson & Sheppard in London.
In 2012 he got here to Berlin as the pinnacle cutter for the newly established bespoke home Purwin & Radczun. As this enterprise trusted the pinnacle cutter it by no means recovered from his departure in 2019; Whitfield arrange his personal studio within the historic Kewenig warehouse.
Whitfield is the one Savile Row-trained bespoke tailor working in Germany. He provides not solely a unique sort of slicing and tailoring but additionally a singular method of dealing with clients. Don’t count on servile chitchat: he’s very matter-of-fact {and professional}. He doesn’t converse fluent German however this isn’t an issue for his clients.
Regardless of being Anderson & Sheppard-trained, Whitfield has developed his personal model of Savile Row fashion. He cuts the coat a bit longer, with a transparent shoulder line and large lapels, particularly on his double-breasted fits. Every part is made in his workshop by himself and an worker, who he has educated himself.
I had a jacket made by James Whitfield from a size of classic Scabal jacketing. After many fits made by continental tailors I felt like I used to be again on Savile Row. The primary becoming was with sleeves and James solely made chalk marks, he didn’t unpick the shoulder seam. We had agreed on a really English lower with a hight waist, small armholes, slanted pockets, a centre vent and an extended coat.
On the second becoming I used to be curious to know the size of the coat and at dwelling I measured the longest jacket I had made by John Coggin in Savile Row. It turned out that James Whitfield had lower the very same size.
The was very a lot the way in which I prefer it: no fuss, precise work, an excellent end result. Germans normally love Whitfield as a result of he has that air of authority in sartorial issues that many youthful German tailors lack. And his fits have class that may in any other case solely be present in London.
Carlo Jösch
carlo-joesch.de
Within the Rhineland there are nonetheless fairly a couple of bespoke tailors. One is Carlo Jösch in Cologne. He studied pattern-making as a result of he needed to grow to be a dressmaker, and didn’t prepare as a tailor. However we works by hand within the conventional method.
Jösch additionally educated as a kilt-maker in Scotland. The press usually mentions this and he has grow to be a bit uninterested in it. He does make kilts repeatedly, however his most important enterprise is fits, jackets, trousers and overcoats.
Jösch prepares a toile becoming earlier than he cuts the precise cloth – the same old method to work in girls’ tailoring and high fashion. It really works effectively in males’s tailoring too. After the toile becoming you will have the same old fittings.
Jösch’s workshop is within the centre of Cologne in a neighbourhood of vintage retailers, jewellers and artwork sellers.
Julian Weyand
julianweyand.com
A promising tailor of the youthful technology is Julian Weyand in Düsseldorf. He educated with Heinz-Josef Radermacher and labored there for some time earlier than organising his personal enterprise.
Radermacher is likely one of the massive outdated names from the Nineteen Seventies-Nineteen Nineties. His fashion is influenced by the Radermacher silhouette; the double-breasted fits he normally wears present this pedigree.
Weyand educated each as a males’s and a girls’ tailor. His first becoming may be very tough, serving primarily to examine steadiness and proportions. The following two fittings are carried out within the regular method.
Tailors in Germany like to unpick the shoulder throughout a primary becoming, however Weyand usually prefers chalkmarks. As soon as he has good sample for a buyer he’ll handle with one becoming for following orders.
The inside of the store is fashionable and clear, but it surely nonetheless seems to be like a tailor store with darkish inexperienced partitions and a few half-finished clothes on show. Like most tailors Weyand primarily makes fits and jackets, however some clients additionally order shirtjackets or only a pair of trousers.
Schmidt & Schallmey
www.schmidt-schallmey.de
Frankfurt is the number-one swimsuit metropolis in Germany as a result of it’s the centre of finance – it’s widespread for trunk reveals of Savile Row tailors because of this. And only a few minutes stroll from the Opera home is likely one of the best-known native tailors, Schmidt & Schallmey.
Bespoke tailor Roland Schmidt (above) fashioned the corporate with Sven Schallmey, an skilled made-to-measure salesman. The main target of the enterprise was on bespoke work, however they don’t see the purpose in sending away people who find themselves not prepared for bespoke or just desire MTM.
Schmidt labored for a few years in Frankfurt earlier than he began the enterprise with Schallmey. He was answerable for the bespoke tailoring in n MTM store however needed to begin his personal operation.
Schmidt is a passionate collector of books about slicing and tailoring. His collections fills cabinets within the store. He research these books continuously to search out new inspirations or options from the previous. He claims he can tailor as calmly and softly as any tailor in Italy.
From my private expertise I’d all the time suggest ordering an Italian swimsuit from an Italian and an English swimsuit from an English tailor. However judging from the fits I’ve seen from Roland Schmidt over the previous 10 years, I feel he provides the diploma of ‘Italian’ that the majority Germans are proud of.
Germans would usually not be proud of the true factor from Italy, not least due to the difficulties ensuing from dangerous communication and the unwillingness of Italians to make one thing that’s not actually their fashion.
An replace: once I requested Schmidt for his costs he advised me that Schallmey will truly go away the enterprise quickly. Schmidt will proceed alone as Roland Schmidt Maßschneiderei. He nonetheless employs 4 tailors and one apprentice.
Markus Schnurr
www.individuelle-handgefertigte-massanzuege.de
A extra uncommon place for a bespoke tailor is Offenburg, within the south-west of Germany. At the least at present. When Markus Schnurr was on the lookout for a store that he may take over in 2017 he discovered a enterprise owned by the tailor Herbert Martin, which had for a few years served native businesspeople, trade staff, lecturers and legal professionals.
Schnurr had educated as a tailor in Metzingen and labored within the costume departments of TV studios and theatres in Baden-Baden and Stuttgart. In 2014 he began working for Max Dietl.
Schnurr cuts very exactly in my expertise, so he normally finishes the garment after two fittings. He works on his personal so he has full management over all the things, from the sample to the buttonholes.
He’s used to creating up to date swimsuit kinds but additionally is aware of methods to lower a timeless fashion. I’ve ordered two items from him: a inexperienced flannel blazer and a checked double-breasted swimsuit. On the first order I advised him the place I needed the outer chest pocket, the width of the lapels, the dimensions of the pocket flaps and the general size of the coat.
He remembered that he made jackets to comparable specs for some older clients of Dietl; most of his clients at present need slim lapels, small flaps, brief coats. For the primary becoming he simulated the place of the chest pocket with a strip of material and I nonetheless discovered it too excessive so I chalked the place to the material myself. On the second order he knew my preferences and it went easily.
The completed swimsuit was adorned with plenty of very effectively executed hand-stitching across the edges. He was a bit disillusioned as a result of he seen that I wasn’t too proud of it. However it was not a difficulty as a result of on the checked cloth the stitches are hardly seen. A good friend of mine actually liked them and requested for them when he ordered a swimsuit from Markus Schnurr later.
Costs:
All costs are for a two-piece swimsuit. Nonetheless, the tailors fluctuate in preferring to cite costs with or with out cloth. Apologies that this creates some inconsistency.
- Volkmar Arnulf: €6000 (with cloth)
- Max Dietl: €6500 (with out)
- Detlev Diehm: €4800 (with)
- Stefan Sicking: €6600 (with)
- Kathrin Emmer €4800 (with)
- James Whitfield: €4200 (with out)
- Carlo Jösch: €5000 (with out)
- Schmidt & Schallmey €5500 (with out)
- Markus Schnurr : €3400 (with out)
