Well-suited : A History of the Leeds Clothing Industry, 1850-1990

The making of cloth as a central element within industrialization has been the subject of intense scrutiny, yet the industry that created garments from that cloth has been largely neglected.

This book remedies this neglect through a study of the Leeds tailoring trade.

Leeds occupies a special place in the history of the UK clothing industry: by the outbreak of the First World War it had become the nation's foremost producer of menswear, and the city remained the production and distribution centre for men's tailoring until the 1980s.

The tailoring industry in Leeds evolved from remarkably small beginnings in the mid-nineteenth century.

Developments in manufacturing, and innovations in retailing practices, brought spectacular success, but from the 1960s, the industry suffered an equally dramatic decline, caused by managerial failure to invest in human resources and by competition from cheap imports.

Honeyman presents an engrossing story of an industry's rise and fall, charting the history of such familiar household names as Burton, Hepworth, Price, and Collier.