The Sartorial Way

Latin for, “to tailor”, the word Sartoria carries with it, the strength of generations past and an enduring craft and art form that is seldom rivaled. If we fast forward to more contemporary times, we witness the evolution of the sartorial way and how it has expanded from traditional tailoring to emcompassing a lifestyle.

Blogs and websites are chalked full of what it means to be sartorial, and yet, we know that there is more to the story than the never ending stream of perfectly edited images of well-dressed men and women.

A term after my own heart and love for all things Italian, “Sartoria” can be easily translated to mean, the tailor’s shop. Pausing for a moment, if we are lucky, we may begin to understand the complicated, beautiful, and essential world of those artisans worthy of the designation of tailor.

Exploring the DNA of the sartorial element, I can’t help but to reflect on author G. Bruce Boyer’s required reading, True Style, where he so beautifully states, “Tailoring was shaped by what has come to be known as Humanism.” With roots dating back to the Renaissance period, it becomes even more clear that the Tailor has enabled us to quite simply be the best version of ourselves in the quest to express who we are, and who we hope to be.

There’s little doubt that the Sartorial culture is having a moment. And while we can’t deny the allure, we must also focus our attention on the timelessness of the classics and the institution that is artisanal tailoring. I cringe at the thought of a world without the patience, precision, skill, and artistry of the tailor. And so we end where it seems that we began, in the search for the sartorial way and what it can teach us about history, and ultimately ourselves.