Militant Guild of Rural Tailors

I’ve been aware of the Militant Guild of Rural Tailors/Young Meagher for a while now, but I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it. Lots of info about clothing and tailoring, but were there really 19th century tailors who took up arms in a quixotic fight against the encroachment of industrialism and poor quality, mass produced clothing? I checked the site a few times and always came away a bit puzzled. It’s certainly an idea that I find really intriguing. As a guy that sews, is in full support of the right to keep and bear arms, who has to wrestle with a love of technology on one hand and a Luddite-ish tendency on the other hand, and who loathes shoddily made anything, (which seems like oh so much these days), I found it all rather compelling.

As I’m currently trying to learn more about sewing clothes, I found a lot of the stuff about the traditions of tailoring and more specifically, military tailoring, very engrossing. I really hate poorly made clothing, and it seems to be everywhere. I cling to the idea that I would rather pay more money for something of superior quality once, rather than having to buy substandard garments repeatedly. Since I seem to not be able to find exactly what I need, (freakish proportions, a need for durability, and idiosyncratic features) I have opted to try my hand at making exactly what I need and want.

(The MGRT site has loads of links along the right hand side including a lot of links to tailors/men’s clothing lines. While I thought this was great initially - support the little guy, find some unique items, the potential of things being made to personal specification - but I can’t get past how annoying and hard to navigate so many of their websites are. Less artsy fartsy obtusity meant to show off how clever your web designer is, more solid info that is easy to access.

The other thing I find a bit odd is that a lot of them appear to still be into this whole fashion thing of seasons. Hey I like that jacket. Oh, it’s no longer available since it’s last years spring line. I wish there was more focus on solid core items.)

I’ve come to the conclusion that YM/MGRT is a line of well tailored men’s clothing, swaddled in an elaborate hoax regarding the existence of a secret organization of shears wielding rebels against mass manufactured mediocrity. An elaborate narrative where museum artifacts meet modern, albeit by way of the late 19th century, fashion. It’s all quite steampunkish in tone.

And if nothing else, the brass knuckles/scissors symbol is just really damn cool.

And if I could get a T-shirt with this on it, I’d totally wear it.

I gather the man behind it all is Liam Maher, a designer for Denham The Jean Maker.

There is definitely some aesthetic overlap.

But I keep wondering: was there really a secret army of pissed off tailors sabotaging the manufacturing processes promising mediocrity?