A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century.
64-669: Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory , there is evidence of tailor shops in Ancient Greece and Rome , as well as tailoring tools such as irons and shears . The profession of tailor in Europe became formalized in the High Middle Ages through the establishment of guilds . Tailors' guilds instituted a system of masters , journeymen , and apprentices . Guild members established rules to limit competition and establish quality standards. In 1244, members of
128-592: A common impurity. Tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before 3000 BCE. The Bronze Age forms part of the three-age system for prehistoric societies. In this system, it follows the Neolithic in some areas of the world. While copper is a common ore, deposits of tin are rare in the Old World , and often had to be traded or carried considerable distances from
192-673: A master's workshop than those who took in piecework in their own home. Tasks grew more specialized; by the end of the century, one individual might focus solely on collars and sleeves. The trade was one of the first in England to exhibit labor disputes, with tailors frequently on strike against lengthy working hours, low wages, and the use of laborers outside the workshop such as women and children. The strikes generally failed; some participants were imprisoned or transported to America or Australia. The unrest eventually influenced Parliament to establish rules for wages, hours, and working conditions in
256-674: A much more evident Mesolithic era, lasting millennia. In Northern Europe , societies were able to live well on rich food supplies from the marshlands fostered by the warmer climate. Such conditions produced distinctive human behaviours that are preserved in the material record, such as the Maglemosian and Azilian cultures. These conditions also delayed the coming of the Neolithic until as late as 4000 BCE (6,000 BP ) in northern Europe. Remains from this period are few and far between, often limited to middens . In forested areas,
320-654: A single room. Settlements might have a surrounding stone wall to keep domesticated animals in and hostile tribes out. Later settlements have rectangular mud-brick houses where the family lived in single or multiple rooms. Burial findings suggest an ancestor cult with preserved skulls of the dead. The Vinča culture may have created the earliest system of writing. The megalithic temple complexes of Ġgantija are notable for their gigantic structures. Although some late Eurasian Neolithic societies formed complex stratified chiefdoms or even states, states evolved in Eurasia only with
384-696: A single source. The emergence of metallurgy may have occurred first in the Fertile Crescent , where it gave rise to the Bronze Age in the 4th millennium BCE (the traditional view), although finds from the Vinča culture in Europe have now been securely dated to slightly earlier than those of the Fertile Crescent. Timna Valley contains evidence of copper mining 7,000 years ago. The process of transition from Neolithic to Chalcolithic in
448-454: A trade club at which they could procure workmen. Sometimes, a skilled journeyman assigned by the call house would be taken on permanently by the master. Master tailors who failed to comply with laws of wages or hours could lose access to the call houses, and journeymen whose work was reported as poor could be removed from the call book. Many tailors became virtually blind from the extensive hours of stitching by hand with only candelight to illumine
512-510: A wool or camel-hair canvas for the body, a horsehair chest piece for the breast area, and a flannel domette for a more masculine pronounced bulk. The shoulders of the British are more heavily padded. The fabrics used by the British are in the range of 9-13 oz due to the colder climate. This style of cut can be credited to Henry Poole & Co , and H. Huntsman & Sons . The British are also credited in creating their ever-so-popular trademark,
576-800: Is also a transition period between Stone Age and Bronze Age, the Chalcolithic or Copper Age. For the prehistory of the Americas see Pre-Columbian era . The notion of "prehistory" emerged during the Enlightenment in the work of antiquarians who used the word "primitive" to describe societies that existed before written records. The word "prehistory" first appeared in English in 1836 in the Foreign Quarterly Review . The geologic time scale for pre-human time periods, and
640-516: Is an example. In archaeology, the Iron Age refers to the advent of ferrous metallurgy . The adoption of iron coincided with other changes, often including more sophisticated agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles, which makes the archaeological Iron Age coincide with the " Axial Age " in the history of philosophy. Although iron ore is common, the metalworking techniques necessary to use iron are different from those needed for
704-488: Is anonymous. Because of this, reference terms that prehistorians use, such as " Neanderthal " or " Iron Age ", are modern labels with definitions sometimes subject to debate. The concept of a "Stone Age" is found useful in the archaeology of most of the world, although in the archaeology of the Americas it is called by different names and begins with a Lithic stage , or sometimes Paleo-Indian . The sub-divisions described below are used for Eurasia, and not consistently across
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#1732779634672768-782: Is called the Lower Paleolithic (as in excavations it appears underneath the Upper Paleolithic), beginning with the earliest stone tools dated to around 3.3 million years ago at the Lomekwi site in Kenya. These tools predate the genus Homo and were probably used by Kenyanthropus . Evidence of control of fire by early hominins during the Lower Palaeolithic Era is uncertain and has at best limited scholarly support. The most widely accepted claim
832-555: Is defined by its inner construction. Since Italy lies in southern Europe and has a warm climate, the Italian tailors developed a cut that was light and cooler to coincide with the conditions. What they developed is called the Italian/European cut. This cut is more light, with fabrics ranging from 7-9 oz. This way of doing canvas has a range of 1-2 layers, a linen body canvas, and a light horsehair canvas. The Italian shoulder
896-399: Is more natural, and sometimes has a "shirt sleeve" with a roping head. The cut is also slimmer than the British, with a more casual setting. The tailors credited with these cuts are Brioni and Rubinacci . Bespoke suits created by an Italian tailor are called su misura . The average cost of a su misura suit is between €1,700 and €3,000 , although one might cost more than €5,000 from
960-520: Is not generally used in those parts of the world where the working of hard metals arrived abruptly from contact with Eurasian cultures, such as Oceania , Australasia , much of Sub-Saharan Africa , and parts of the Americas . With some exceptions in pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas, these areas did not develop complex writing systems before the arrival of Eurasians, so their prehistory reaches into relatively recent periods; for example, 1788
1024-558: Is provided by a wide variety of natural and social sciences, such as anthropology , archaeology , archaeoastronomy , comparative linguistics , biology , geology , molecular genetics , paleontology , palynology , physical anthropology , and many others. Human prehistory differs from history not only in terms of its chronology , but in the way it deals with the activities of archaeological cultures rather than named nations or individuals . Restricted to material processes, remains, and artefacts rather than written records, prehistory
1088-551: Is seen as a transition period between the Stone Age and Bronze Age. An archaeological site in Serbia contains the oldest securely dated evidence of copper making at high temperature, from 7,500 years ago. The find in 2010 extends the known record of copper smelting by about 800 years, and suggests that copper smelting may have been invented independently in separate parts of Asia and Europe at that time, rather than spreading from
1152-500: Is that H. erectus or H. ergaster made fires between 790,000 and 690,000 BP in a site at Bnot Ya'akov Bridge , Israel . The use of fire enabled early humans to cook food, provide warmth, have a light source, deter animals at night and meditate. Early Homo sapiens originated some 300,000 years ago, ushering in the Middle Palaeolithic . Anatomic changes indicating modern language capacity also arise during
1216-446: Is usually taken as the end of the prehistory of Australia . The period when a culture is written about by others, but has not developed its own writing system, is often known as the protohistory of the culture. By definition, there are no written records from human prehistory, which can only be known from material archaeological and anthropological evidence: prehistoric materials and human remains. These were at first understood by
1280-516: Is when the first signs of human presence have been found; however, Africa and Asia contain sites dated as early as c. 2.5 and 1.8 million years ago, respectively. Depending on the date when relevant records become a useful academic resource, its end date also varies. For example, in Egypt it is generally accepted that prehistory ended around 3100 BCE, whereas in New Guinea
1344-517: The Drape cut , credited to Frederick Scholte who trained the founders of Anderson & Sheppard . An Italian cut suit offers a flattering shape with soft tailoring, aiming for the most attractive appearance for the wearer. A suit jacket in northern Italy will usually have a square shoulder, while in southern Italy, the preference is for a more natural shoulder. Like the British cut, the Italian cut
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#17327796346721408-653: The Copper Age or Bronze Age ; or, in some geographical regions, in the Iron Age ). The term Neolithic is commonly used in the Old World ; its application to cultures in the Americas and Oceania is complicated by the fact standard progression from stone to metal tools, as seen in the Old World, does not neatly apply. Early Neolithic farming was limited to a narrow range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat , millet and spelt , and
1472-531: The Paleolithic , by the Neolithic only Homo sapiens sapiens remained. This was a period of technological and social developments which established most of the basic elements of historical cultures, such as the domestication of crops and animals , and the establishment of permanent settlements and early chiefdoms. The era commenced with the beginning of farming , which produced the " Neolithic Revolution ". It ended when metal tools became widespread (in
1536-434: The rock of eye method of cutting: which is a freehand way of drafting a pattern by trusting your eye and experience rather than focusing on numbers. Instead of using pencil to draft the pattern, the rock of eye typically involves chalk to mark. Just as there are various methods of tailoring, there are also styles that differ regionally. This is due to different climates and cultures in the world, causing "house style" cuts of
1600-606: The three-age system for human prehistory, were systematised during the nineteenth century in the work of British, French, German, and Scandinavian anthropologists , archaeologists , and antiquarians . The main source of information for prehistory is archaeology (a branch of anthropology), but some scholars are beginning to make more use of evidence from the natural and social sciences. The primary researchers into human prehistory are archaeologists and physical anthropologists who use excavation, geologic and geographic surveys, and other scientific analysis to reveal and interpret
1664-475: The "Chalcolithic", "Eneolithic", or "Copper Age" refers to a transitional period where early copper metallurgy appeared alongside the widespread use of stone tools. During this period, some weapons and tools were made of copper. This period was still largely Neolithic in character. It is a phase of the Bronze Age before it was discovered that adding tin to copper formed the harder bronze . The Copper Age
1728-705: The Azilian cultures, before spreading to Europe through the Iberomaurusian culture of Northern Africa and the Kebaran culture of the Levant . However, independent discovery is not ruled out. "Neolithic" means "New Stone Age", from about 10,200 BCE in some parts of the Middle East, but later in other parts of the world, and ended between 4,500 and 2,000 BCE. Although there were several species of humans during
1792-460: The Iron Age, often through conquest by empires, which continued to expand during this period. For example, in most of Europe conquest by the Roman Empire means the term Iron Age is replaced by "Roman", " Gallo-Roman ", and similar terms after the conquest. Even before conquest, many areas began to have a protohistory, as they were written about by literate cultures; the protohistory of Ireland
1856-694: The Middle East is characterized in archaeological stone tool assemblages by a decline in high quality raw material procurement and use. North Africa and the Nile Valley imported its iron technology from the Near East and followed the Near Eastern course of Bronze Age and Iron Age development. The Bronze Age is the earliest period in which some civilizations reached the end of prehistory, by introducing written records. The Bronze Age, or parts thereof, are thus considered to be part of prehistory only for
1920-739: The Middle Palaeolithic. During the Middle Palaeolithic Era, there is the first definitive evidence of human use of fire. Sites in Zambia have charred logs, charcoal and carbonized plants, that have been dated to 180,000 BP. The systematic burial of the dead , music , prehistoric art , and the use of increasingly sophisticated multi-part tools are highlights of the Middle Paleolithic. The Upper Paleolithic extends from 50,000 and 12,000 years ago, with
1984-546: The canvas and the flannel domette are used. The most well-known cut developed by the Americans is the Ivy League cut. The tailors credited with this cut remain anonymous. Prehistory Prehistory , also called pre-literary history , is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins c. 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with
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2048-569: The case of Indigenous Australian "highways" known as songlines . The Mesolithic, or Middle Stone Age (from the Greek mesos , 'middle', and lithos , 'stone'), was a period in the development of human technology between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic . The Mesolithic period began with the retreat of glaciers at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, some 10,000 BP, and ended with
2112-463: The collection of folklore and by analogy with pre-literate societies observed in modern times. The key step to understanding prehistoric evidence is dating, and reliable dating techniques have developed steadily since the nineteenth century. The most common of these dating techniques is radiocarbon dating . Further evidence has come from the reconstruction of ancient spoken languages . More recent techniques include forensic chemical analysis to reveal
2176-506: The end of the Bronze Age large states, whose armies imposed themselves on people with a different culture, and are often called empires, had arisen in Egypt, China, Anatolia (the Hittites ), and Mesopotamia , all of them literate. The Iron Age is not part of prehistory for all civilizations who had introduced written records during the Bronze Age. Most remaining civilizations did so during
2240-639: The end of the prehistoric era is set much more recently, in the 1870s, when the Russian anthropologist Nicholai Miklukho-Maklai spent several years living among native peoples, and described their way of life in a comprehensive treatise. In Europe the relatively well-documented classical cultures of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome had neighbouring cultures, including the Celts and the Etruscans , with little writing. Historians debate how much weight to give to
2304-446: The few mines, stimulating the creation of extensive trading routes. In many areas as far apart as China and England, the valuable new material was used for weapons, but for a long time apparently not available for agricultural tools. Much of it seems to have been hoarded by social elites, and sometimes deposited in extravagant quantities, from Chinese ritual bronzes and Indian copper hoards , to European hoards of unused axe-heads. By
2368-489: The finest tailoring houses. A master tailor can create a suit in approximately 40 hours. The number of tailors in Italy decreases at a rate of 8 percent annually, with fewer than 750 tailors as of 2016. The American cut of tailoring is a mix of the Italian and the British ways. The American cut is more baggy and full, with a natural shoulder that is lightly padded. American tailoring usually involves doing light canvas, where only
2432-493: The first organized settlements and blossoming of artistic work. Throughout the Palaeolithic, humans generally lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers . Hunter-gatherer societies tended to be very small and egalitarian, although hunter-gatherer societies with abundant resources or advanced food-storage techniques sometimes developed sedentary lifestyles with complex social structures such as chiefdoms, and social stratification . Long-distance contacts may have been established, as in
2496-497: The first signs of deforestation have been found, although this would only begin in earnest during the Neolithic, when more space was needed for agriculture . The Mesolithic is characterized in most areas by small composite flint tools: microliths and microburins . Fishing tackle , stone adzes , and wooden objects such as canoes and bows have been found at some sites. These technologies first occur in Africa, associated with
2560-473: The introduction of agriculture , the date of which varied by geographic region. In some areas, such as the Near East , agriculture was already underway by the end of the Pleistocene , and there the Mesolithic is short and poorly defined. In areas with limited glacial impact, the term " Epipalaeolithic " is preferred. Regions that experienced greater environmental effects as the last ice age ended have
2624-407: The invention of writing systems . The use of symbols, marks, and images appears very early among humans, but the earliest known writing systems appeared c. 5,200 years ago. It took thousands of years for writing systems to be widely adopted, with writing having spread to almost all cultures by the 19th century. The end of prehistory therefore came at different times in different places, and
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2688-474: The keeping of dogs , sheep , and goats . By about 6,900–6,400 BCE, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, and the use of pottery . The Neolithic period saw the development of early villages , agriculture , animal domestication , tools , and the onset of the earliest recorded incidents of warfare. Settlements became more permanent, some with circular houses made of mudbrick with
2752-559: The master by their parents (for a fee), performed menial tasks such as cleaning, managing the fires to heat the pressing-irons, running errands, and matching fabric and trims. Apprentices were also taught the " tailor's posture ", to sit cross-legged on a raised board or bench while they sewed. A tailoring establishment then generally consisted of a well-appointed room in which the master would measure customers. Cutting, sewing, buttonholes, and finishing work were performed in adjoining rooms. In England, there were many negative associations with
2816-569: The metal used earlier, more heat is required. Once the technical challenge had been solved, iron replaced bronze as its higher abundance meant armies could be armed much more easily with iron weapons. All dates are approximate and conjectural, obtained through research in the fields of anthropology , archaeology, genetics , geology , or linguistics . They are all subject to revision due to new discoveries or improved calculations. BP stands for " Before Present (1950)." BCE stands for " Before Common Era ". Juan de Alcega Juan de Alcega
2880-559: The most economical use of the fabric. Alcega illustrated 163 patterns to scale in 23 categories of men's and women's garments. Master tailors used proprietary methods for creating their clothing patterns. Up until approximately 1790, patterns to be used for cutting were considered trade secrets to be exclusively owned by the masters. By the late 18th century, publications that not only printed patterns but also gave directions for cutting and layout were widely available. In addition to patterns and templates, some master tailors and cutters use
2944-401: The nature and behavior of pre-literate and non-literate peoples. Human population geneticists and historical linguists are also providing valuable insight. Cultural anthropologists help provide context for societal interactions, by which objects of human origin pass among people, allowing an analysis of any article that arises in a human prehistoric context. Therefore, data about prehistory
3008-401: The outside workers for inferior products. Using outside workers also freed masters from the legal constraints that dictated hours and wages. Tailors who worked outside of workshops began to use their wives and family members in manufacturing garments, which increased their production to maximize their incomes. Some tailors would subcontract aspects of the work to laborers. The house of call system
3072-409: The profession of tailoring. Tailors were often called "snips", "bodkins", "thimbles", "shreds", "stiches" [ sic ], and "geese" (referring to the tailor's "goose" or iron). In William Shakespeare 's plays, a tailor was variously called a "thread", a "thimble", and a "rag". By reputation, tailors were generally presumed to drink to excess and to have effeminate tendencies (likely because of
3136-658: The regions and civilizations who developed a system of keeping written records during later periods. The invention of writing coincides in some areas with the beginnings of the Bronze Age. After the appearance of writing, people started creating texts including written records of administrative matters. The Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) included techniques for smelting copper and tin from naturally occurring outcroppings of ores, and then combining them to cast bronze . These naturally occurring ores typically included arsenic as
3200-502: The rise of metallurgy, and most Neolithic societies on the whole were relatively simple and egalitarian. Most clothing appears to have been made of animal skins, as indicated by finds of large numbers of bone and antler pins which are ideal for fastening leather. Wool cloth and linen might have become available during the later Neolithic, as suggested by finds of perforated stones that (depending on size) may have served as spindle whorls or loom weights. In Old World archaeology,
3264-635: The sometimes biased accounts in Greek and Roman literature, of these protohistoric cultures. In dividing up human prehistory in Eurasia, historians typically use the three-age system, whereas scholars of pre-human time periods typically use the well-defined geologic record and its internationally defined stratum base within the geologic time scale . The three-age system is the periodization of human prehistory into three consecutive time periods , named for their predominant tool-making technologies: Stone Age , Bronze Age and Iron Age . In some areas, there
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#17327796346723328-627: The tailor's guild in Bologna established statutes to govern their profession and required anyone working as a tailor to join the guild. In England, the Statute of Artificers , passed in 1563, included the profession of tailor as one of the trades that could be entered only by serving a term of apprenticeship, typically seven years. A typical tailor shop would have a master, a foreman, several journeymen, and apprentices. The apprentices, often beginning their training as young adolescents and indentured to
3392-429: The tailoring industry that led to its decline had occurred several decades before the development of the mechanical sewing machine. Tailoring men's jackets by adding underlayers of padding became fashionable in Europe by the 14th century. Over the years, additional areas were padded to provide an understructure that helped the garment lie neatly on the body. By the 19th century, well-tailored garments were carefully fit to
3456-402: The tailoring industry. Tailors were one of the first trades in England to form a labor union. The British census in 1851 identified 152,672 tailors, more than the entire railway industry at the time, and that number increased throughout the century. By then, living and working conditions of many tailors had deteriorated, but the trade was still the fourth largest of London professions. One factor
3520-697: The term is less often used in discussing societies where prehistory ended relatively recently. In the early Bronze Age , Sumer in Mesopotamia , the Indus Valley Civilisation , and ancient Egypt were the first civilizations to develop their own scripts and keep historical records, with their neighbours following. Most other civilizations reached their end of prehistory during the following Iron Age . The three-age division of prehistory into Stone Age , Bronze Age , and Iron Age remains in use for much of Eurasia and North Africa , but
3584-587: The trade. The silhouette of a British cut suit is influenced by military tailoring, with a defined waist and shoulders. The target image is that of an upper-class gentleman. The British cut of tailoring can be defined by various ways of inner construction. Since the United Kingdom has a cooler climate than (for example) the Mediterranean, the cut of the British is heavier, and bears a greater military influence. This style of canvassing has 3 layers,
3648-587: The use and provenance of materials, and genetic analysis of bones to determine kinship and physical characteristics of prehistoric peoples. The beginning of prehistory is normally taken to be marked by human-like beings appearing on Earth. The date marking its end is typically defined as the advent of the contemporary written historical record. Both dates consequently vary widely from region to region. For example, in European regions, prehistory cannot begin before c. 1.3 million years ago, which
3712-401: The view of sewing as a woman's activity). Tailors were presumed to be physically weak and to have delicate constitutions. It was commonly asserted that their diets consisted of cabbage. In comics, they were portrayed as cuckolds or henpecked husbands. A common saying at the time was "Nine tailors make a man". As with other artisanal trades, tailors relied on the "house of call" or "call houses",
3776-453: The wearer with a more subtly shaped understructure. Even with the advent of modern machines, nearly 75 percent of a custom-tailored suit's stitching is still done by hand. The earliest extant work on cutting by tailors is from Spain in 1580. Juan de Alcega , a Spanish tailor in the 16th century, published Libro de Geometría, practica, y traça ( Book on Geometry, Practice, and Pattern ) which documented methods of laying out patterns to achieve
3840-460: The whole area. "Palaeolithic" means "Old Stone Age", and begins with the first use of stone tools . The Paleolithic is the earliest period of the Stone Age . It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools by hominins c. 3.3 million years ago, to the end of the Pleistocene c. 11,650 BP (before the present period). The early part of the Palaeolithic
3904-418: The work. The call for tailoring peaked in the winter, and tailors were often unemployed for several months over the summer. During the 18th century, the profession began to shift toward large-scale and specialized production. A hierarchy of skills resulted, with the most prestigious level reserved for those who cut the cloth. "Mere sewers" ranked below the "cutters". More respect was given to those who worked in
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#17327796346723968-452: Was a 16th-century tailor and mathematician from Basque country, Spain . Little is known about the life of Juan de Alcega. He was born in the province of Gipuzkoa , probably in the town of Hondarribia . In 1580, he published in Madrid the book entitled Libro de Geometría, practica, y traça (Book on Geometry, Practice, and Pattern) , reedited in 1589. This book is a clear example of
4032-458: Was abandoned. When the Statute of Artificers was repealed in 1814, it abolished the apprenticeship requirement and so tailors could no longer control admission to the trade. Tailor strikes in 1827 and 1834 were largely motivated by opposition to employing women as outworkers. Unlike other industries, in which technological advances contributed to decline of trades, the changes to the work methods in
4096-404: Was the growing availability and popularity of "slops": cheap ready-made clothing. Another was a shift from the vast majority of tailors being engaged in workshops to most working outside the shops of employers. Master tailors who relied on outside workers saved themselves the costs of lighting and heating, as well as some supplies. Rather than pay for foremen to supervise the work, masters would fine
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