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 this time 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Of the outdated masters educated by the pre-war tailors, solely Volkmar Arnulf continues to be working.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-about the doyen of German tailoring by most of his colleagues.

Volkmar Arnulf grew to become a Herrenschneidermeister in 1962, after he had educated 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 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 positioned in a historic townhouse with the workrooms within the again rooms.

Volkmar Arnulf gives exact reducing, glorious 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 a bit of additional width on the waist. His tailors did a superb job hand stitching little patches of matching satin to the internal waistband.

Max Dietl
www.max-dietl.de

The most important title in German postwar tailoring was Max Dietl in Munich. The founder was a superb tailor and on the similar 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 business.

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 gives high fashion for girls.

The store is straight reverse the Opera home, comprising 4 flooring of an entire constructing. The bespoke division is on the highest flooring. The current proprietor of the home is Max Dietl Jr. He isn’t a educated tailor, so the tailoring division has been run by employed cutters because the demise 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 the vast majority of prospects search for Brioni, Kiton, Stefano Ricci or Zilli, the bespoke division nonetheless has an excellent status and many work.

There isn’t a home fashion however the fits which might be made there for Dietl Jr look very very similar to a well-fitting Attolini swimsuit. 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 sort of a novel fashion.

Detlev Diehm
www.diehmdesign.eu

In Munich it is best 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 educated 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 prospects are from overseas, which is uncommon for German tailors. He often holds trunk reveals on the Les Bains resort 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 fashion: his commerce mark fashion is a softly tailor-made double-breasted with vast lapels; his coats are typically on the shorter facet. He has a choice for luxurious materials equivalent to cashmere.

I had a DB swimsuit produced from 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 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 larger 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 sometimes 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 educated there, earlier than shifting 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 wished to strive her then and had a DB swimsuit made. I wished one thing in a Nineteen Forties kind of minimize with a ventless coat and vast 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 minimize 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 typically ends in an extended 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 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 girls, 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’s going to often ship a primary becoming that may be very near the mark.

To date I’ve had 4 fits made by Emmer and the minimize has all the time been exact. She likes the sleeves of the coat barely longer so on the second becoming I all the time ensure that the size is right. Typically 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 gives not solely a unique form of reducing and tailoring but in addition a novel manner of dealing with prospects. Don’t anticipate servile chitchat: he’s very matter-of-fact {and professional}. He doesn’t converse 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 fashion. He cuts the coat a bit longer, with a transparent shoulder line and vast lapels, particularly on his double-breasted fits. All the pieces 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 minimize 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 house I measured the longest jacket I had made by John Coggin in Savile Row. It turned out that James Whitfield had minimize the very same size.

The was very a lot the best way I prefer it: no fuss, precise work, an excellent 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 couple of bespoke tailors. One is Carlo Jösch in Cologne. He studied pattern-making as a result of he wished to turn into a designer, and didn’t prepare as a tailor. Nonetheless we works by hand within the conventional manner.

Jösch additionally educated as a kilt-maker in Scotland. The press typically mentions this and he has turn into a bit bored with it. He does make kilts often, however his essential enterprise is fits, jackets, trousers and overcoats.

Jösch prepares a toile becoming earlier than he cuts the precise cloth – 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 gotten 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 educated with Heinz-Josef Radermacher and labored there for some time earlier than organising his personal enterprise.

Radermacher is without doubt one of the massive outdated names from the Nineteen Seventies-Nineties. His fashion is influenced by the Radermacher silhouette; the double-breasted fits he often wears present this pedigree.

Weyand educated each as a males’s and a women’ tailor. His first becoming may be very tough, serving primarily to  examine stability and proportions. The following two fittings are carried out within the common manner.

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 trendy and clear, but it surely nonetheless appears 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 swimsuit metropolis in Germany as a result of it’s the centre of finance – it’s well-liked for trunk reveals of Savile Row tailors for that reason. And only a few minutes stroll from the Opera home is without doubt one of 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 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 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 steadily 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’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 gives the diploma of ‘Italian’ that almost all 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’s not actually their fashion.

An replace: after I requested Schmidt for his costs he advised 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. No less than 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, business 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 often finishes the garment after two fittings. He works on his personal so he has full management over all the pieces, from the sample to the buttonholes.

He’s used to creating modern swimsuit types but in addition is aware of how you can minimize 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 wished 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 related specs for some older prospects of Dietl; most of his prospects as we speak 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 a lot of very effectively executed hand-stitching across the edges. He was a bit disenchanted as a result of he seen that I wasn’t too proud of it. Nevertheless it was not a difficulty as a result of on the checked cloth the stitches are hardly seen. A buddy of mine actually beloved 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)