Beschreibung
"The Cutters' Practical Guide" being the present acknowledged Standard System of Cutting at the Tailor and Cutter Office and the System taught to the Students at our Academy, it has, in a variety of forms and adaptations, been laid before the members of the tailoring trade. The cordial reception it has met has induced us to develop both the System and its applications, and prepare these for publication in more permanent form. Part One has already appeared, in which the System is adapted more particularly to Youths' and Juvenile Garments. A promise was then made that Part Two, embracing every Style and Class of Gents' Body Coats, would ultimately be published.
The present work will be valued, not only for its application to ordinary coats, but by many more because it embraces many garments which in most trades are regarded special and unusual. Among these we may reckon Military, Naval, and Livery garments, with other classes of official and non-official dress, which the head of every respectable firm is liable to be called upon to make.
The work throughout will be found thoroughly practical in its mode of representing
and dealing with the various styles and classes of garments. Everything superfluous is studiously avoided. The work is prepared for practical Cutters and for everyday use, which will be greatly facilitated by the large clear type and equally clear engraving of the Plates. We feel confidence in placing it in the hands of our many patrons.
Autorenportrait
W. D. F. VINCENT:
W.D.F. Vincent began his career as an apprentice with Frederick Cooper in Yeovil. After completing his training, he briefly established his own businesses in Oxford and later in Maidenhead as a clothier and tailor, though neither venture was financially successful.
While in Maidenhead, Vincent won an essay competition on tailoring, which was open to all members of the National Federation of Foremen Tailors, titled "The Great National Work on Trouser Cutting, or Defects in Trousers." He submitted his entry under the pseudonym "Oxonian" and won the first prize. This success led him to secure a position with The Tailor and Cutter magazine.
In the early years, Vincent contributed numerous articles on tailoring methods and techniques to the magazine. However, due to the terms of his employment, these articles were published without attribution to him.
By the 1890s, Vincent became a leading tailoring authority. His books, such as The Cutter's Practical Guide to the Cutting & Making of All Kinds of Trousers, became standard reference work.
By 1917, Vincent referred to himself as a journalist.
The Tailor and Cutter magazine and academy were operated by John Williamson & Co Ltd.
In the 1950s and 1960s, many tailors displayed their Tailor & Cutter Academy Diplomas, signed by W.D.F. Vincent, as the Chairman of Examiners, as a centerpiece in their shop windows. One such example can still be seen on display at the Museum of Welsh Life at St. Fagans in South Wales.