By Bernhard Roetzel.
In half one in every of this text I gave an summary of the state of bespoke tailoring in Germany, together with its historical past. At the moment I’ll suggest some particular tailors, together with my very own experiences.
Volkmar Arnulf
www.arnulf-massatelier.de
Of the outdated masters skilled by the pre-war tailors, solely Volkmar Arnulf remains to be working. He’s thought of the doyen of German tailoring by most of his colleagues.
Volkmar Arnulf grew to become a Herrenschneidermeister in 1962, after he had skilled each as a males’s and as a women’ tailor. He was very energetic in Berlin’s guild of tailors and within the World Federation of Grasp Tailors.
For a number of many years Arnulf ran a store at Kurfürstendamm, Berlin’s well-known boulevard, however he relocated to Potsdam 10 years in the past. The store is positioned in a historic townhouse with the workrooms within the again rooms.
Volkmar Arnulf affords exact chopping, glorious handwork, excellent sample matching and a slim, barely 1960ish silhouette. As well as you’ll expertise assembly a really well mannered and modest particular person and an especially 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, after they wanted slightly additional width on the waist. His tailors did a wonderful job hand stitching little patches of matching satin to the internal waistband.
Max Dietl
www.max-dietl.de
The largest title in German postwar tailoring was Max Dietl in Munich. The founder was a wonderful tailor and on the identical time a great 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 Seventies. He was the largest Brioni buyer in Germany for many years; he additionally affords high fashion for ladies.
The store is straight reverse the Opera home, comprising 4 flooring of an entire constructing. The bespoke division is on the highest ground. The current proprietor of the home is Max Dietl Jr. He isn’t a skilled 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. Regardless that the vast majority of prospects search for Brioni, Kiton, Stefano Ricci or Zilli, the bespoke division nonetheless has an excellent repute and plenty of work.
There isn’t any home model however the fits which might be made there for Dietl Jr look very very similar to a well-fitting Attolini go well with. I personally want 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 slightly below the left lapel, which is kind of a novel model.
Detlev Diehm
www.diehmdesign.eu
In Munich you need to take a look at Detlev Diehm. His store is positioned in an outdated Bavarian home in a residential space not removed from the centre. Diehm skilled as a tailor earlier than he studied trend design.
He spent most of his working life as a designer and inventive director, returning to bespoke tailoring a few years in the past. About half of his prospects are from overseas, which is uncommon for German tailors. He frequently holds trunk exhibits 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 affords a home model: his commerce mark model is a softly tailor-made double-breasted with broad lapels; his coats are typically on the shorter facet. He has a choice for luxurious materials equivalent to cashmere.
I had a DB go well with made out of a inexperienced Solaro by Diehm about 5 years in the past. The primary becoming was very near the mark apart 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 is just not very well-known exterior Munich as a result of he shuns publicity to the purpose of refusing requests for interviews. He’s a really ready tailor with a visual affect from Italy. Nonetheless, he’s sometimes German when it comes to precision chopping and the standard of the make.
Kathrin Emmer
handgefertigte-massanzuege.de
A Munich expat is Kathrin Emmer. She was born and skilled there, earlier than transferring to Berlin to work for Volkmar Arnulf. She grew to become a grasp tailor and opened her personal store in 2003 in her flat in Berlin. I met her briefly afterwards in 2005 after 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 go well with made. I needed one thing in a Nineteen Forties kind of lower with a ventless coat and broad pleated trousers. I confirmed her a number of photos and talked at size about my imaginative and prescient for the go well with. She didn’t say a lot however on the first becoming it turned out that she had listened very fastidiously, as a result of the lower was faultless.
Emmer affords the old-school high quality that she obtained used to whereas working for Volkmar Arnulf. She makes every garment utterly herself, which typically ends in a protracted ready listing. She has tried outworkers however was by no means proud of the outcomes.
Emmer moved to Potsdam in 2012. She receives her prospects 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 is 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 prospects is ready to outline his needs exactly, I discover she is going to often 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 at all times been exact. She likes the sleeves of the coat barely longer so on the second becoming I at all times be certain the size is right. Basically she prefers a barely ‘youthful’ look. Jokingly she calls my model ‘grandfatherly’ however she nonetheless does it very properly.
James Whitfield
www.jameswhitfieldbespoke.com
One other expat is James Whitfield. He’s English however works in Berlin. He skilled 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 relied on 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 affords not solely a special form of chopping and tailoring but additionally a novel approach of dealing with prospects. Don’t anticipate servile chitchat: he’s very matter-of-fact {and professional}. He doesn’t communicate fluent German however this isn’t an issue for his prospects.
Regardless of being Anderson & Sheppard-trained, Whitfield has developed his personal model of Savile Row model. He cuts the coat a bit longer, with a transparent shoulder line and broad lapels, particularly on his double-breasted fits. All the pieces is made in his workshop by himself and an worker, who he has skilled 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 appear. We had agreed on a really English lower with a hight waist, small armholes, slanted pockets, a centre vent and a protracted 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 best way I prefer it: no fuss, precise work, a great consequence. Germans often 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 number of bespoke tailors. One is Carlo Jösch in Cologne. He studied pattern-making as a result of he needed to turn out to be a clothier, and didn’t prepare as a tailor. Nonetheless we works by hand within the conventional approach.
Jösch additionally skilled as a kilt-maker in Scotland. The press typically mentions this and he has turn out to be a bit uninterested in it. He does make kilts frequently, however his foremost enterprise is fits, jackets, trousers and overcoats.
Jösch prepares a toile becoming earlier than he cuts the precise cloth – the same old approach to work in women’ tailoring and high fashion. It really works properly in males’s tailoring too. After the toile becoming you could 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 era is Julian Weyand in Düsseldorf. He skilled with Heinz-Josef Radermacher and labored there for some time earlier than establishing his personal enterprise.
Radermacher is among the large outdated names from the Seventies-Nineties. His model is influenced by the Radermacher silhouette; the double-breasted fits he often wears present this pedigree.
Weyand skilled each as a males’s and a women’ tailor. His first becoming may be very tough, serving primarily to test stability and proportions. The following two fittings are carried out within the traditional approach.
Tailors in Germany like to unpick the shoulder throughout a primary becoming, however Weyand typically 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, nevertheless it 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 prospects additionally order shirtjackets or only a pair of trousers.
Schmidt & Schallmey
www.schmidt-schallmey.de
Frankfurt is the number-one go well with metropolis in Germany as a result of it’s the centre of finance – it’s widespread for trunk exhibits of Savile Row tailors for that reason. And just some minutes stroll from the Opera home is among the best-known native tailors, Schmidt & Schallmey.
Bespoke tailor Roland Schmidt (above) shaped the corporate with Sven Schallmey, an skilled made-to-measure salesman. The main focus 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 want 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 chopping and tailoring. His collections fills cabinets within the store. He research these books often to seek out new inspirations or options from the previous. He claims he can tailor as flippantly and softly as any tailor in Italy.
From my private expertise I might at all times suggest ordering an Italian go well with from an Italian and an English go well with from an English tailor. However judging from the fits I’ve seen from Roland Schmidt over the previous 10 years, I feel he affords the diploma of ‘Italian’ that the majority Germans are proud of.
Germans would typically not be proud of the actual factor from Italy, not least due to the difficulties ensuing from unhealthy communication and the unwillingness of Italians to make one thing that isn’t actually their model.
An replace: after I requested Schmidt for his costs he informed me that Schallmey will truly depart 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 immediately. When Markus Schnurr was in search of 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, teachers and legal professionals.
Schnurr had skilled 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 often finishes the garment after two fittings. He works on his personal so he has full management over the whole lot, from the sample to the buttonholes.
He’s used to creating up to date go well with types but additionally is aware of easy methods to lower a timeless model. I’ve ordered two items from him: a inexperienced flannel blazer and a checked double-breasted go well with. On the first order I informed him the place I needed the outer chest pocket, the width of the lapels, the scale of the pocket flaps and the general size of the coat.
He remembered that he made jackets to comparable specs for some older prospects of Dietl; most of his prospects immediately need slim lapels, small flaps, quick coats. For the primary becoming he simulated the place of the chest pocket with a strip of cloth 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 go well with was adorned with a lot of very properly executed hand-stitching across the edges. He was a bit disenchanted as a result of he observed that I wasn’t too proud of it. However it was not a problem as a result of on the checked cloth the stitches are hardly seen. A pal of mine actually liked them and requested for them when he ordered a go well with from Markus Schnurr later.
Costs:
All costs are for a two-piece go well with. Nonetheless, the tailors range 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)
