In October 1913 the first moving assembly line for automobiles anywhere began running at Ford’s Highland Park plant, and output went from hundreds of cars a day to thousands. The achievement was identical units produced at speed, and it is the single most influential manufacturing idea of the century. It is also the exact opposite of what a suit needs.
Where the idea reaches its limit
A car is a product and its buyer adapts to it. A suit has to adapt to its buyer, and buyers are not identical: shoulders slope differently, arms differ in length, chests and waists sit in every possible relationship. No line can produce that.
So the industry does something clever
It makes suits on a line, to a pattern, at a price the line makes possible, and then leaves the last operation to a person. That last operation is the alteration, and without it the whole arrangement fails.
Which is where the money quietly goes
A suit off the line is affordable because it was made for nobody. Roman, master tailor at Lincoln Tailor, on site in our store, is the step that makes it yours, and skipping it is skipping the point of the entire system.
Also for Highland Park: Sixty Acres in 1908, and the Habit of Planning Ahead. More on style consulting, or plan your visit to our Oak Park showroom.
