Men of the Cloth is a beautiful film about three master tailors and their life's work, weaving together their three stories into one about the craft and how the devotion of the men who practice it is much like a religion. I recently saw it at the DOC-NYC Film Fest and recommend that you look for it near you soon.
The film, made over 11 years, focuses on master tailors Nino Corvato from New York, Joe Centofanti, who works in the suburbs of Philadelphia and Checchino Fonticoli, who started in traditional tailoring but now works for the fashion house Brioni in Penne, Italy. For these men, custom tailoring is an art and there is no doubt that it is dying out. While the reasons for this vary and are covered, --it also shows hope for survival.
One may wonder why we should care about master tailors, and may think they only cater to the rich anyway. While it may not be feasible for most to buy custom made clothing these days – but like most fine art, custom made clothing is appreciated by even those who cannot afford to buy it. That said, the film is about the men, not the clothes.
We care about these men because watching the film, we envy the devotion and love they have for their work. How many of us can say we love our jobs even half as much as these men do theirs? For this is precisely what is at the heart of Men of the Cloth. It is not a film about a job or occupation. It is not about profit margins and how many stitches go into a pair of trousers or how exactly a pattern is made. Rather, Men of the Cloth is about the men whose vocation is "the cloth." It is about how this art (and it is an art) is slowly dying and how it has changed and yet despite the change, continues to live on. Simply put, Men of the Cloth is about passion.
The film, made over 11 years, focuses on master tailors Nino Corvato from New York, Joe Centofanti, who works in the suburbs of Philadelphia and Checchino Fonticoli, who started in traditional tailoring but now works for the fashion house Brioni in Penne, Italy. For these men, custom tailoring is an art and there is no doubt that it is dying out. While the reasons for this vary and are covered, --it also shows hope for survival.
One may wonder why we should care about master tailors, and may think they only cater to the rich anyway. While it may not be feasible for most to buy custom made clothing these days – but like most fine art, custom made clothing is appreciated by even those who cannot afford to buy it. That said, the film is about the men, not the clothes.
We care about these men because watching the film, we envy the devotion and love they have for their work. How many of us can say we love our jobs even half as much as these men do theirs? For this is precisely what is at the heart of Men of the Cloth. It is not a film about a job or occupation. It is not about profit margins and how many stitches go into a pair of trousers or how exactly a pattern is made. Rather, Men of the Cloth is about the men whose vocation is "the cloth." It is about how this art (and it is an art) is slowly dying and how it has changed and yet despite the change, continues to live on. Simply put, Men of the Cloth is about passion.