Smack in the middle of his frenetic run-up to the Melbourne Fashion Festival’s Menswear Edit runway, Jarrad Cuff paused for a chat and shoot with VoxFrocker Evan Lim to explain the genesis of his remarkable bespoke tailoring atelier Mr. Cuff. Scroll down to meet Evan, and click back here and here for more daily MFF updates from the VoxFrock Rookie Crew of emerging fashion journalists and photographers.
Words and photographs: Evan Lim
“No one was hiring tailors.” Jarrad Cuff ruefully remembers the reality after he graduated with a Bachelors in Fashion Design (Honours) in 2016. “I went for 12 job interviews as a tailor and one [interviewer] even said to me; ‘You’re too experienced, and we actually don’t have a sewing machine.’”
Jarrad is now founder of his own business, Mr. Cuff, a bespoke menswear tailor with two locations, in Docklands and Howie Place in Melbourne’s CBD. The label is one of eight featured in MFF’s Menswear Edit Runway with designers such as Christian Kimber and Godwin Charli also in the line-up.
Prior to working as a tailor Jarrad toured the world as part of a circus troupe. His act was called the German Wheel, a rolling, rocking feat of balance and atheticism inside a giant contraption not unlike a hamster wheel. He would sew (a skill he started when he was six) during gaps between shows.
Travelling also shaped Jarrad’s view of clothes which had been limited in childhood to Perth, where shorts and sandals were acceptable attire for almost any day.
“In the Middle East (for example) guys have to dress up,” he recalls. “If you don’t dress up, they think you’re poor. And then you’ll get segregated. It’s this pre-conception of what Western culture is like. As a male, you’re seen as the provider.” Dressing to reflect status was a given.
Jarrad later worked with a tailor for two and a half years, one where most of the suit production was done overseas. The studio used the made-to- measure model, which he says is similar to how fast fashion companies work today. After getting measurements from a client, the tailor would communicate with a factory overseas and a suit was made in two weeks.
Costs were stripped bare, Jarrad recalls: “Shipping (the suit) over at a reduced cost from countries where labor laws are different, like Indonesia, Bangladesh, China…”
It was a vastly different process to the bespoke tailoring Jarrad practices now; a process of craftsmanship, beginning with a pattern system he compares to blueprints for a house.
Jarrad points out there is also significant waste associated with the made-to-order factory model he left, including the carbon footprint of shipping garments overseas, and significant plastic packaging.
By contrast, every Mr. Cuff garment is crafted in Melbourne. No fabric is wasted; even off-cuts are repurposed into other garments. “It’s a good business practice,” Jarrad says. “Every piece of fabric is expensive, so sustainability is just something that’s built into the brand. I’m not chasing that [sustainability label], it’s not my aim, it’s just better practice.”
Jarrad has goals for tailoring and menswear in general beyond Mr. Cuff’s two ateliers. “I started this business because I want to make it better,” he says. “Not only in terms of sustainability, but for other tailors. That company I was working for went through 10,500 suits a year. If I did that amount, we’d have to have at least 40 tailors.”
He imagines what might be possible with such demand. “That would create so many jobs in Australia. Suits would be made using Australian wool by Australian tailors for the Australian aesthetic.”
Jarrad regards the MFF Menswear Edit runway as a rare opportunity for Mr. Cuff to show off what tailoring can do; to lift the tailoring industry up. The collection he showed was based on the classic safari suit, a distinctive style and crucial to Jarrad’s belief in the importance of a brand having its own distinctive voice.
“We answer the question; ‘Mr. Cuff does what _?’,” he explains. “So many menswear brands can’t answer that question. We need to be able to (convey) what we’re trying to achieve, to (show) we have a design concept”. In the past, Mr. Cuff collections were based on themes such as the Australian Outback or on the Lone Ranger.
Before the show Jarrad admitted being “very nervous” but he need not have been. The designs he featured were distinctive and refined, the safari theme strong and clear in the collection. Garments included a black cinched safari jacket and collared short-sleeve shirts with safari-style pockets, all paired with hand-crafted leather sandals by Jerusalem Sandals in Palestine, a brand he stocks in Mr. Cuff stores. A show hit was the runway appearance by Miguel Maestre of The Living Room television show fame, wearing Mr. Cuff.
Jarrad’s Mr. Cuff is a young brand with big dreams and, on the Melbourne Fashion Festival’s Menswear Edit runway, proved it can already stack up against the best in the menswear industry. Its future is bright.
Evan Lim, journalist/photographer
