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Craft, Luxury, & Obsession on the Trail of a $50,000 Coat
Spiegel & Grau
July 2013
On Sale: July 16, 2013
272 pages
ISBN: 1400069939
EAN: 9781400069934
Kindle: B00B3GMJC2
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
In today’s world of fast fashion, is there a place for a
handcrafted $50,000 coat?
When
journalist Meg Lukens Noonan learned of an unthinkably
expensive, entirely handcrafted overcoat that a
fourth-generation tailor had made for one of his longtime
clients, she set off on an adventure to understand its
provenance, and from that impulse unspooled rich and
colorful stories about its components, the centuries-old
bespoke industry and its traditions, and the master
craftsmen whose trade is an art form.
In
The Coat Route, Noonan pieces together the creation
of the coat in question, tracing its elements to their
far-flung sources, from the remote mountains of Peru, where
villagers shear vicunas—whose soft fleece is more coveted
and rare than the finest cashmere—to the fabulous Florentine
headquarters of Stefano Ricci, the world’s greatest silk
designer; from the family-owned French fabric house
Dormeuil, founded in 1842, which drapes kings, presidents,
and movie stars to the 150-year-old English button-making
firm that creates the ne plus ultra of fasteners out of
Indian water-buffalo horn and the workshop of the master
hand engraver who makes the eighteen-karat gold plaque that
hangs inside the coat’s collar. We meet the dapper
son-in-law of an Australian wine baron who commissions the
coat’s creation, and we come to know John Cutler, one of the
top bespoke tailors in the world, who works his magic with
scissors and thread out of his Sydney shop, redolent of
cedar and English wool.
Featuring a cast of
offbeat, obsessed, and wildly entertaining characters,
The Coat Route presents a rich tapestry of local
masters, individual artisans, and family-owned companies
that have stood against the tide of mass consumerism. As
Noonan comes to realize, these craftsmen, some of whom find
themselves on the brink of retirement with no obvious
successors, have increasing reason to believe that their way
is the best way—best for their customers, best for the
environment, and best for the quality of life of all
involved. The Coat Route is a love song to things of
lasting value.
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