Why Bespoke Tailoring Takes 80 Hours of Handwork
A bespoke suit from Savile Row requires between fifty and eighty hours of hand labour across cutter, coat maker, trouser maker, and finishers.
Sebastian Cole · 2026-05-24
Craft
Artisanal traditions, maker culture, and the handmade.
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Showing 121–140 of 167 articles
How Cork Is Harvested and Why It Matters
In Portugal's Alentejo region, cork bark harvesting occurs during a six-week summer window.
William Ashford · 2026-05-24
The Endangered Craft of Hand-Blown Glass
At a London studio, a gather of molten glass at eleven hundred degrees glows orange-white on a blowpipe.
Thomas Nakamura · 2026-05-24
Inside a Perfume Organ: How Master Perfumers Work
The perfume organ at Givaudan's training school in Grasse holds approximately six hundred bottles arranged by olfactory family.
Thomas Nakamura · 2026-05-24
The Last Great Umbrella Makers of London
James Smith and Sons has occupied the same corner of New Oxford Street since 1857.
William Ashford · 2026-05-23
Why Heritage Brands Survive While Trends Disappear
Barbour has been making waxed cotton jackets in South Shields since 1894.
Daniel Hurst · 2026-05-23
The Difference Between Machine-Made and Hand-Welted Shoes
The hand-welted shoe and machine-made shoe may look similar on a shelf, but construction methods produce fundamentally different objects.
Catherine Avery · 2026-05-23
Inside a Japanese Pottery Studio: Wabi-Sabi in Practice
At the Raku family workshop in Kyoto, where the fifteenth generation continues a tradition from the sixteenth century, tea bowls are shaped without a wheel.
Thomas Nakamura · 2026-05-23
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How Whiskey Barrels Get a Second Life
At the Speyside Cooperage in Craigellachie, Scotland, master coopers repair approximately a hundred thousand casks per year.
Marcus Wei · 2026-05-23
The Craft of Bookbinding in the Digital Era
At Shepherds Bookbinders in London, a craftsman applies gold leaf to a leather spine using heated brass tools.
Thomas Nakamura · 2026-05-23
Why the Best Wool Still Comes from Specific Farms
The Saxon Merino sheep of Tasmania's Midlands produce fleece averaging fifteen microns, among the world's finest.
Sebastian Cole · 2026-05-23
How Eyeglass Frames Are Made by Hand in Jura, France
In Morez, population five thousand, in the Jura mountains near the Swiss border, spectacle-making dates to 1796 when a nail-maker bent wire into a frame.
Catherine Avery · 2026-05-23
The Revival of American-Made Workwear
In the 1990s, American workwear manufacturing appeared terminal.
Sebastian Cole · 2026-05-23
Inside a Tuscan Tannery: How Vegetable-Tanned Leather Is Made
At the Badalassi Carlo tannery in San Miniato, Tuscany, raw cowhides hang in pits filled with chestnut bark liquor dark as espresso.
Daniel Hurst · 2026-05-23
The Art of Hand-Engraving on Metal
At Marcus Hunt's workshop in the English Midlands, a steel graver is pushed across a shotgun receiver, removing a fine curl of metal to create lines of microscopic precision.
Oliver Ramsey · 2026-05-23
How Japanese Selvedge Denim Is Woven on Vintage Looms
The Toyoda GL-3 shuttle loom from the 1950s weaves denim at approximately seventy-five centimetres wide.
Marcus Wei · 2026-05-23
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The Architecture of Paris's Haussmann Boulevards
Between 1853 and 1870, Baron Haussmann demolished roughly twenty thousand medieval buildings in Paris and replaced them with grand boulevards and uniform apartment blocks.
Marcus Wei · 2026-05-22
The Architecture of Tokyo's Hidden Temples
Tucked between a convenience store and a parking garage in Minato ward, Zojoji Temple's main gate rises fifteen metres above the pavement.
James Alderton · 2026-05-22
The Architecture of Barcelona's Modernist Legacy
When Gaudi's Sagrada Familia nears completion, nearly a century and a half after construction began in 1882, it will culminate a period of experimentation that made Barcelona one of Europe's most visually inventive cities.
Catherine Avery · 2026-05-22
The Architecture of London's Brutalist Icons
The Barbican Estate, completed in 1976, rises from bombed-out ruins of the City of London in massive concrete terraces and towers housing over four thousand residents above a concert hall, theatre, cinema, library, and art gallery.
James Alderton · 2026-05-22