How To Talk To Your Tailor
A conversation with one of the world's best
Good morning and happy new year! Welcome back to another year of 5(ish) Things. Since I started this newsletter you have been asking your tailoring questions and requesting a newsletter dedicated to this topic. I’ve been gathering your questions, thinking about best practices and trying to figure out how to condense this immense and very person-specific topic into a singular letter and finally, here we are! Today, we are sitting down with Malisa Browman-Ackermann, one of the world’s most in-demand tailors (seriously!!) to answer all your most pressing questions.
I met Malisa on a Glamour Magazine photo shoot almost 15 years ago. It was a last minute shoot and I was styling two (very famous) women who were very much not sample size with only a rack of size 2 and 4 “samples,” or the garments clothing brands use internally (for photo shoots, production, etc.) until the actual product lands in stores.
In the olden days, if we were shooting actresses, politicians, school teachers, anyone who was NOT a model, I would typically have time to pull clothing from stores and clothing brands in the talents’ respective sizes. This time however, I am pretty sure I had less than 24 hours to prepare. Enter Malisa, a cool as a cucumber tailor who honestly, carried the entire day. She made the talent feel at ease and she calmly explained to me how she was going to adjust the pieces to make the talent feel their best. And reader, a great portrait was achieved!
We have remained friends as my career changed and she rose through her chosen path to work for the biggest names I could never share with you here…as she says, “you are invited into these people’s most intimate moments, so a level of trust must be maintained.” She has worked on major pop culture moments…including hiding and revealing pregnancies!
She now runs In-House Atelier, a global concierge alterations company that she founded (she is from NYC, is currently raising three kids in Copenhagen, what a dream!, and still travels the world for work.) She pairs tailors with brands and talent for important events such as the Met Gala, Oscars, etc. and consults for brands setting up their own tailoring teams - she famously launched Uniqlo’s tailoring division in the United States and has consulted for everyone from Chanel to Thom Browne to Dover Street Market - all of which have extremely demanding and specific tailoring needs as you can imagine. More recently, she has been guiding brands on how tailoring can enhance sustainability efforts, exploring how adjusting seams or hems can prolong the life of garments or rejuvenate them.
Malisa and I sat down last week for a conversation with some of my (and your!) burning questions about tailoring and I’m here to share her advice today as well as work in some of my own best practices to help you tailor with confidence.
*I tidied this conversation for coherence and interspersed some guiding thoughts along the way.
Where do I start?
Becky: Malisa! Hi! We have been wanting to do this conversation for over a year. And it came about because I asked you over coffee “Who is the best tailor in New York?” Your reply shocked me and an idea was born. You said: “The best tailor is the one in your neighborhood so you actually get your tailoring taken care of.” So I guess my first question for you is: How do I choose a tailor? If you’re just flying blind, how do you decide where to even start? Try the closest one? What is a good sign?