A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.
Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now properly refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers, and similar garments, commonly of wool, linen, or silk.
The term so used thus refers to a set of specific hand and machine sewing and pressing techniques that are unique to the construction of traditional jackets. Small and medium size retail tailors often provide their services internationally, with individual tailors and cutters travelling to various cities, allowing the customers to be met locally, measured on one trip, fitted on another and thereafter supplied with (a) garment(s) without the inconvenience of themselves travelling overseas. Even small tailoring businesses without an international following will sometimes travel from one city to another within their home country, and quite a number will visit customers at the customers' places of work or homes.
Traditional tailoring is called "bespoke tailoring" in the United Kingdom, where the heart of the trade is London's Savile Row tailoring, and "custom tailoring" in the United States and Hong Kong. This is unlike made to measure which starts by using pre-existing patterns within which relatively few individual style preferences can be satisfied. A true bespoke garment or suit is completely original and unique to each customer. However, the term 'bespoke' is widely used by makers of garments not within the strict original definition of the term and the legal battle to prevent what was once regarded as a misuse of the description has now been lost.
Famous fictional tailors include the tailor in The Tailor of Gloucester, The Emperor's New Clothes and The Valiant Little Tailor. A more recent example is John le Carré's The Tailor of Panama.
A clothes shop or clothes store is any shop which sells items of ready-made clothing.[1]:59 A small shop which sells expensive or designer clothing may be called a boutique. A shop that sells clothes for a narrowly-restricted market such as school uniforms or outdoor sports may be called an outfitter.
Ballston Spa is a village and the county seat of Saratoga County, New York, United States, located southwest of Saratoga Springs.[3] The population of the village, named after Rev. Eliphalet Ball, a Congregationalist clergyman and an early settler,[4][5] was 5,409 at the 2010 census. Ballston Spa lies on the border of two towns, situated partly in the Town of Ballston and partly in the Town of Milton. The Ballston Spa School District encompassing most of the combined towns of Milton, Malta, and Ballston is often referred to locally as ‘Ballston Spa’ with the village proper being referred to as ‘The Village’ or 'Town'.
History
The village was first settled in 1771. In 1787 Benajah Douglas, grandfather of 1860 presidential candidate Stephen A. Douglas, built the first tavern and hotel at Ballston Spa. It was located near the natural spring.[6]
In 1803 Ballston Spa's Sans Souci Hotel, at the time the largest hotel in the United States, was built by Nicholas Low. Presidents, senators and governors stayed there, as well as many wealthy private citizens.[7] Ballston Spa was incorporated as a village in 1807.
At one time the village was served by four railroads: the Delaware and Hudson Railway, the Ballston Terminal Railroad, the Schenectady Railway Company,[8] and the Hudson Valley Railway.[9]
The village was famous for its mineral water spring used for healing in sanatoriums,[10] including the Hawthorne and Lithia springs.
The effervescent water, tonic, and cathartic from this city is also known as Ballston Spa. The liquid contains common salt and carbonates of magnesium and calcium.
Movies and books
Portions of the novel The Last of the Mohicans were written by James Fenimore Cooper in the present day Brookside Museum and inspired by the local landscape.
The village was the model for the village of North Bath, NY, the setting for the 1993 best-selling novel and 1994 movie, Nobody's Fool. The book's author, Richard Russo, is a native of nearby Gloversville. It was also the location of the fictional "Elspeth Hatch" murder trial defended by Clarence Darrow set in 1897 in the book titled The Angel of Darkness by author Caleb Carr.
Several scenes in Sydney Pollack's 1973 film The Way We Were were filmed on Ballston Spa's Front Street. Scenes from The Horse Whisperer (1998) were also filmed in the village.[11]
Since 2008 Ballston Spa has been home to the Ballston Spa Film Festival of short films from around the globe.[12]
Museums
The historic Verbeck House.
Ballston Spa is home to the National Bottle Museum.[13] It is also home to Brookside Museum, Saratoga County Historical Society.[14]
The Brookside Museum, United States Post Office, Union Mill Complex, and Verbeck House are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[15]
Industry
In 1838 the Ballston Spa National Bank, one of the oldest still functioning American banks was founded. In 2015, the bank opened its 11th branch. It also boasts a world class IT department. [16]
George West (known as the "Paper Bag King") developed a line of square-bottomed paper bags which he manufactured by the millions after the American Civil War, and at one time owned almost a dozen paper mills located along the Kayaderosseras Creek.[17] The village was also home to the Ballston Knitting Company from 1918 to 1994.[citation needed]
As the county seat of Saratoga County, county offices, courts, law enforcement, and the jail are major employers.
Nearby:
Cities
Mechanicville
Saratoga Springs
Towns
Ballston
Charlton
Clifton Park
Corinth
Day
Edinburg
Galway
Greenfield
Hadley
Halfmoon
Malta
Milton
Moreau
Northumberland
Providence
Saratoga
Stillwater
Waterford
Wilton
Villages
Ballston Spa (county seat)
Corinth
Galway
Round Lake
Schuylerville
South Glens Falls
Stillwater
Victory
Waterford
Census-designated places
Clifton Gardens
Clifton Knolls-Mill Creek
Country Knolls
Hadley
Milton
North Ballston Spa
Hamlets
Bloodville
Burnt Hills
Crescent
Gansevoort
Greenfield Center
Jonesville
Middle Grove
Porter Corners
Quaker Springs
Rexford
Rock City Falls
Vischer Ferry
West Milton