A Polish book on the best tailors in Europe namechecks a certain “Zaremba tailoring house”, indicating 1894 as the year it was founded. Today headed by the young 35 year-old Maciej, it was founded by his grandfather, one of the most renowned tailors in the whole of Warsaw.
“When I took over at the helm of the workshop, everyone thought I was crazy” Maciej tells me, adding: “We had debts of 10,000 euros and our activity was grinding to a standstill.” The youngster, who had studied classic humanities subjects, done stints as a DJ and was a Motorsport enthusiast, literally resurrected Warsaw’s interest in bespoke tailoring, thanks to his impeccable taste and undeniable savoir faire.
Today the workshop employs five craftsmen, one specializing in trousers and two master tailors. Maciej is in the category of what we like to call laymen’s tailoring: on the one hand, an entrepreneur who sets the aesthetic tone of the product and develops the business end, and on the other, a team of craftsmen who make the vision a reality.
The shop is elegant, refined, with wooden flooring and furniture that stretches up to the ceiling. The walls are adorned with diplomas and newspaper cuttings mentioning his grandfather Tadeus, and his father, who sadly passed away at the tender age of 63. You can’t help but notice a mannequin decked out with a tuxedo and waistcoat, made by a relative of Maciej in far-off 1938: wide lapels, a cran which creates a beautiful V shape in the pointed lapel, with the right-hand peak higher than the left-hand one (the tip of the point), a long, slender buttonhole on the lapel, a “renaissance” shoulder and second dart going to the hem. It is interesting to note how up-to-date the jacket seems; if it were to be worn to a gala dinner today, I myself would not hesitate to lay on the praise, a testament to how classic menswear never loses its appeal.
Today, Zaremba offers both genuine bespoke items made in Warsaw and industrial made-to-measure attire made in Italy, as well as accessories and shoes from other brands, including TBD Eyewear.
As soon as he took over at the atelier, Maciej immediately set about emptying the puffier shoulders typical of Polish jackets, to create a lighter product, with a more decidedly Italian flair. “It was a constant battle with the previous tailor, to get him to make the jackets in a different manner to the one he was used to” he explains. They use two types of canvas, a lighter one for the blazer and a thicker one for formal and ceremonial wear. I saw shirt-style armholes, open armholes, wide lapels with double stitching, the second dart to the hemline (which tailoring purists detest), but what struck me the most was the new type of cran being offered on his jackets (see photo), characterized by a sharply sloping line (the one that stitches the collar and the lapel together), which then veers upwards after the edge of the collar. A very retro look, emblematic of certain tailors of the 1930s, its fascination remains intact, I believe, given that it requires great dexterity to cut the collar strip which should be neither too wide not too narrow to avoid it rising at the front (as, truth be told, happened to Maciej’s jacket :) ). The jacket he was wearing, to go into the finer details, is a beautiful Loro Piana cashmere with a perfect drop, as witnessed by the fact that – when the jacket was unbuttoned - the front quarters seemed to lightly brush against each other, rather than stretching backwards. I must admit I was expecting to find a jacket that differed greatly from my usual style, yet I found lines that I would not hesitate to wear, an international flair and a praiseworthy attention to proportions. And now I await the fitting for the commissioned suit: a Hardy Minnis Fresco of 310 grams with a windowpane pattern, and a waistcoat inspired by the tuxedo jackets of 1938, shown above. Watch this space for more.
Bespoke hugs,
Fabio
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