Pressing: An unsung art of bespoke tailoring (video)

The first time I saw a tailor use an iron to shape cloth, I was genuinely surprised.

You wouldn’t think material would be able to be manipulated that much, using steam and pressure to turn a straight piece of canvas into the shape of a collar (above). But it’s routine for bespoke tailoring, and is used in many other parts a suit, as Nicholas De'Ath of Dege & Skinner shows us in today's video.

It’s Nicholas's third example that most readers will probably be familiar with: shaping the leg of a trouser so that it becomes a slight ‘S’ shape, with bulges at the thighs and calves (below).

Now I haven’t had this on all my trousers, and it hasn’t seemed to make a big difference when I have. But my body shape doesn’t necessarily need help in that area - and the important thing is that if a tailor feels it’s needed, pressing gives them the ability to do so.

The reason I was keen to do this video is that pressing, as a part of the craft of bespoke, doesn’t get talked about that much. It’s a lot easier to show basted jackets covered in white stitches, or someone hand-padding a jacket on their knee.

Pressing is noisy, hard to see, and the results are often hidden - either because the result is just a smooth finish (as on the shoulder seam) or because it’s actually on the inside, as with shaping the inlay.

So I asked Nicholas, who has cut me both a lovely linen suit and a summer jacket (worn here), to talk us through three major examples. We then run through a handful of others on a mannequin.

Many thanks to him, to the tailors who demonstrate the work for us, and to everyone else at Dege & Skinner for their help.

And thank you as always to the Campaign for Wool, who have supported all these videos. There is a dedicated channel for video on PS (see menu above) and other recent videos in this vein are: