By Bernhard Roetzel.
In half considered one of this text I gave an outline of the state of bespoke tailoring in Germany, together with its historical past. As we speak 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Of the outdated masters skilled by the pre-war tailors, solely Volkmar Arnulf remains to be working.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 turned a Herrenschneidermeister in 1962, after he had skilled each as a males’s and as a women’ tailor. He was very lively 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 situated in a historic townhouse with the workrooms within the again rooms.
Volkmar Arnulf gives exact reducing, wonderful handwork, excellent sample matching and a slim, barely 1960ish silhouette. As well as you’ll expertise assembly a really well mannered and modest individual 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, once they wanted just a little 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 title in German postwar tailoring was Max Dietl in Munich. The founder was a superb 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 gives high fashion for girls.
The store is straight reverse the Opera home, comprising 4 flooring of a whole 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 demise of his father.
The corporate makes for purchasers of all ages – fairly often youthful males are introduced in by their fathers. Though nearly all of clients search for Brioni, Kiton, Stefano Ricci or Zilli, the bespoke division nonetheless has an excellent repute and plenty of work.
There isn’t a home type however the fits which can be made there for Dietl Jr look very very similar to a well-fitting Attolini go well with. I personally favor 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 singular type.
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 skilled as a tailor earlier than he studied vogue 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 clients are from overseas, which is uncommon for German tailors. He usually 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 gives a home type: his commerce mark type is a softly tailor-made double-breasted with vast lapels; his coats are usually on the shorter facet. He has a desire for luxurious materials similar 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 aside from the size of the coat. I wished 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 in a position tailor with a visual affect from Italy. Nonetheless, he’s usually German by way of precision reducing 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 turned 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 wished to strive her then and had a DB go well with made. I wished one thing in a Forties kind of lower with a ventless coat and vast pleated trousers. I confirmed her a number of footage 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 gives the old-school high quality that she received used to whereas working for Volkmar Arnulf. She makes every garment fully herself, which generally 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 clients within the basement of her home, which is half atelier and half becoming room. She is keen 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 often ship a primary becoming that could be very near the mark.
To this point 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 certain the size is appropriate. Typically she prefers a barely ‘youthful’ look. Jokingly she calls my type ‘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 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 gives not solely a unique type of reducing and tailoring but in addition a singular approach of dealing with clients. 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 clients.
Regardless of being Anderson & Sheppard-trained, Whitfield has developed his personal model of Savile Row type. He cuts the coat a bit longer, with a transparent shoulder line and vast lapels, particularly on his double-breasted fits. The whole lot 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 seam. 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 house 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, actual 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 just a few bespoke tailors. One is Carlo Jösch in Cologne. He studied pattern-making as a result of he wished to develop into a designer, and didn’t practice 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 develop into a bit bored with it. He does make kilts usually, however his fundamental enterprise is fits, jackets, trousers and overcoats.
Jösch prepares a toile becoming earlier than he cuts the precise material – the standard solution to work in women’ tailoring and high fashion. It really works effectively in males’s tailoring too. After the toile becoming you’ve got the standard 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 skilled with Heinz-Josef Radermacher and labored there for some time earlier than organising his personal enterprise.
Radermacher is without doubt one of the huge outdated names from the Seventies-Nineteen Nineties. His type 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 could be very tough, serving primarily to verify steadiness and proportions. The following two fittings are carried out within the common 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, however it nonetheless seems 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 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 because of this. And just some minutes stroll from the Opera home is without doubt 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 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 favor MTM.
Schmidt labored for a few years in Frankfurt earlier than he began the enterprise with Schallmey. He was once answerable for the bespoke tailoring in n MTM store however wished to begin his personal operation.
Schmidt is a passionate collector of books about reducing and tailoring. His collections fills cabinets within the store. He research these books incessantly 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 all the time 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 gives the diploma of ‘Italian’ that the majority Germans are proud of.
Germans would typically 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 type.
An replace: after I requested Schmidt for his costs he informed me that Schallmey will really 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 as we speak. When Markus Schnurr was in search of a store that he might 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 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 every thing, from the sample to the buttonholes.
He’s used to creating modern go well with types but in addition is aware of methods to lower a timeless type. 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 wished 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 clients of Dietl; most of his clients as we speak 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 number of very effectively 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. Nevertheless it was not a difficulty as a result of on the checked material the stitches are hardly seen. A good friend of mine actually beloved 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 differ in preferring to cite costs with or with out material. Apologies that this creates some inconsistency.
- Volkmar Arnulf: €6000 (with material)
- 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)
