How the Netherlands revived its education of craft tailoring

Back in 2011, the Dutch National Opera & Ballet had a problem: it couldn’t find any local talent when looking for high-quality tailors. This realisation gave birth to Meesteropleiding Coupeur, a private school with a goal to revive the craft of tailoring. And so far it looks like it’s been successful, with past graduates having worked with Dutch designer-duo Viktor & Rolf, denim label G-Star Raw, and the National Opera & Ballet.

This Saturday, the institution, situated in a former red-brick school building in the west of Amsterdam, will host another Open Day to introduce prospective applicants to its six workshops and education system. Long hallways connect the ateliers with sewing machines and large tables, displaying works of past students, like a majestic all-white Elizabeth costume with a star-shaped standing collar used in the play Maria Stuart.

Crafting perfection

”Everything is about quality,” director of the school, Roger Gerards, told FashionUnited. In order for students to excel as master tailors in their craft, the education is rigorous. After admission, the most essential basic techniques are taught for half a year. Sometimes, students may have to repeat different parts of a garment 20 to 30 times until the teacher approves, Gerards said. “This half year really shapes the basic mentality of the students. They strive for perfection.”

After mastering the basics, students then learn to make whole garments and will specialize with two master tailors in either menswear and womenswear. Gerards also emphasised the importance of the workshop environment in providing students with sufficient space to practice the craft of tailoring.

“We don’t design, we only make” Gerards said, stressing the difference between tailors and designers, as well as the difference between the training at his institution versus a common higher-education fashion school. The students learn techniques to make clothes with their hands and with machines, but they never design, illustrate or learn about marketing as other schools do nowadays, he says.

The sober almost ascetic training of the makers behind flamboyant costumes and intricate corsets showcased on the last Open Day in November, is perhaps best embodied in the silent garden of the school, where students sometimes take their lunch. “It’s very important for a craftsman to have silence to focus on making,” says Gerards.