In a moment of digitalization where immediacy reigns, craftsmanship and tradition are being reclaimed. Slow food, slow fashion, slow travel; amidst digital speed, new trends emerge, while others maintain their activity drawing from tradition and know-how acquired over decades. Slow fashion takes shape in projects like that of tailor Arnau Aguilar, who offers traditional and artisanal bespoke tailoring services from his shop next to Diagonal.
"A large segment of the population values craftsmanship, and there is an increasing shortage of tailoring professionals everywhere," Aguilar asserts, surrounded by mannequins, mirrors, and fabrics in his shop. With his artisanal and traditional craftsmanship, his tailoring business invoiced 130,000 euros in 2023, and anticipates a 25% growth for 2024.
Every tailoring process in his shop requires at least three fittings and hours of work, up to around 70 in the case of jackets, which are the most complicated piece. And, although his establishment is equipped with three sewing machines, most pieces are sewn manually: "80% of a jacket is sewn by hand." Manual sewing is predominant in tailoring, also for pieces such as coats, skirts, and tailcoats. Among all of them, the most demanded is the four-season suit, which can be made with "an infinity of materials." This catalog of materials, moreover, does not only consider Barcelona's climate, "but is of a worldwide diversity," responding to the international clients the tailoring serves.
Internationally, England and Italy "are the kings of tailoring," with renowned professionals also in France, in addition to Barcelona and Madrid. Although resorting to a tailor's services is outside the mainstream, "there is a shortage of haute couture professionals everywhere," and of all ranks and specializations. This is because tailoring shops used to have staff specifically in charge of sewing sleeves or ironing garments, "but now you can't find sleeve makers, ironers, or even journeymen." The same applies to tailors themselves, as they require extensive training and experience, which implies being willing to sacrifice and start as an apprentice.
He was Antonio Trigo's apprentice tailor in Sabadell. The path from which he became his apprentice did not follow a structured plan: Aguilar was studying industrial design when he was given a second-hand sewing machine that led him to redirect his career. Despite his grandfather being linked to spinning and his grandmother to sewing, he was completely unaware of the sector, which captivated him by allowing him to materialize his creations in an artisanal way. Aguilar then began to combine his studies with afternoons at the Guerrero School to learn industrial pattern making. On his train journey to school, he passed the Sabadell tailor shop, where he ended up being an apprentice for two years. In the end, fashion won out and he left his Industrial Design studies. His beginnings in Sabadell led to four years working for the internationally renowned tailor Josep Maria Blasi and, then, almost three more at the luxury fashion reference Santa Eulàlia.
Aguilar, also a tailoring professor at IED, began to attend to client requests on his own in 2015, and three years ago opened his premises in Narcís Oller square, a quiet corner two steps from the bustling Diagonal. Since then, his business has grown to incorporate an official and to rely on external collaborators to carry out certain tasks. The forecast, according to Aguilar, is to continue this growing progression, as suggested by the "unbeatable" spring and summer season in which the tailor shop is immersed, in which he expects to exceed 50 suits.
Among those who visit his tailor shop in Barcelona are recurring international clients and executives from large multinationals. "A tailor is a person of trust; when you find the right one, you don't change him." Thus, Aguilar has a loyal clientele that repeats, with orders ranging from the four-season suit, the most demanded, to more singular commissions, such as the 1969 tuxedo he modified for the son of its original owner. And it is that quality tailor-made garments are extremely "workable." In this way, they become living pieces that can be modified repeatedly and even used for decades. With a prolonged useful life that goes against the current trends of mass fashion and fast fashion, Aguilar works them "following the most rigorous style of the profession, with that savoir faire of before and combining craftsmanship and contemporaneity."