AT ONE TIME BESPOKE WAS A TERM USED IN TAILORING, SHOEMAKING AND CABINET MAKING. IN TAILORING THE ORIGINAL TERM DATES BACK TO THE DAYS WHEN A CUSTOMER ORDERING A GARMENT WOULD SELECT AND RESERVE A CLOTH THAT WAS THEN “BESPOKEN” OR “SPOKEN FOR”. TODAY THE TERM MEANS “MADE TO PERSONAL SPECIFICATION” AND ENTAILS METICULOUS ATTENTION TO DETAIL, EXCEPTIONAL CUTTING AND MAKING SKILLS, A WIDE CHOICE OF TOP QUALITY FABRICS AND THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF CUSTOMER SERVICE.

However bespoke is now being attached to so many things it is losing its true meaning. In recent weeks I have seen mention of bespoke jewellery, bespoke apartments, bespoke legal services and bespoke perfume. Now Virgin Atlantic are offering bespoke cocktails and in a recent newspaper article I read that gastro pubs are now offering bespoke scotch eggs!

Is it just me or have we already lost the true, and very powerful meaning, of the word bespoke? As a bespoke tailor of many years standing I would hope not, but I fear the worst.

J. P. Thornton

The book was published in 1893 by J. P. Thornton, whom I know very little about other than the fact that he was apparently a professor. If any of my readers know more I would be fascinated to hear from them. He wrote at least two other weight tomes on tailoring. “The International System of Garment Cutting Including Coats, Trousers Breeches and Vests” and one on ladies tailoring, “The Sectional System of Ladies Garment Cutting”.

In “The Sectional System of Gentlemen’s Garment Cutting” he lists the different body shapes of gentlemen, including the “fore and aft hump man”, the “prominent hips man”, and the “corpulent” and “pigeon breasted” figures and explains how to conceal these shapes with tailoring, aided by diagrams and illustrations.

Whilst maybe no man would really like to consider themselves as fitting one of the above templates it perhaps explains why the prominent UK restaurant reviewer A. A. Gill recently stated in one of his reviews that, “I have no idea what I weigh. I eat what I like and trust in a good tailor.”

Naturally I consider this to be very sound tailoring advice indeed.