A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally suits and men's clothing. Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats and similar garments of wool, linen, or silk; the term refers to a set of specific hand and machine sewing and pressing techniques that are unique to the construction of traditional jackets. Retailers of tailored suits take their services internationally, traveling to various cities, allowing the client to be measured locally. Traditional tailoring is called "bespoke tailoring" in the United Kingdom, where the heart of the trade is London's Savile Row tailoring, "custom tailoring" in the United States and Hong Kong; this is unlike made to measure pre-existing patterns. A bespoke garment or suit is original and unique to each customer. 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. As the tailoring profession has evolved, so too have the methods of tailoring. There are a number of distinctive business models. While some may practice many, there are others who will practice only two. Local tailoring is; the tailor is met locally and the garment produced locally. This method enables the tailor to take professional measurements, assess posture and body shape to make unique modifications to the garment. Local tailors will have a showroom or shopfront allowing clients to choose fabrics from samples or return the garment should it require further modification; this is the most traditional form of tailoring. Hong Kong Tailors and London are the most famous for high quality bespoke tailoring, in average it takes about 2 to 3 fittings and about 50 to 70 working hours to handmake one suit. Distance tailoring involves ordering a garment from an out-of-town tailor enabling cheaper labour to be used. In practice this can now be done on a global scale via e-commerce websites.

Unlike local tailoring, customers must take their own measurements, fabric selection must be made from a photo and if further alterations are required the garment must be shipped. Today, the most common platform for distance tailoring is via online tailors. Online tailors sometimes offer to pay for needed alterations at a local tailor. Another new option is the concept where a free test suit is made to the provided measurements and shipped to the customer first; the test suit can be worn to see where any adjustments are wanted. The final suit is tailored to the new specifications provided by the test suit fitting. Unlike tailors who do distance tailoring, traveling tailors provide a more personal service to their customers and give the customers an opportunity to see the fabric samples and meet the tailor in person. Traveling tailors travel between cities and station in a local luxury hotel for a short period of time to meet and provide the same tailoring services they would provide in their local store.

In the hotel, the customer will be able to select the fabric from samples and the tailor will take the measurements himself. The order will be shipped to the customer within 3–4 weeks time. Unlike local tailoring, if further alterations are required the garment must be shipped. Today, most traveling tailors are from Hong Kong, traveling to the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Japan. A tailor-made is a man's suit consisting of pants; as an adjective, tailor-made refers to clothing made by or in the style of clothes made by a tailor, characterized by simplicity of cut and trim and fine finishing. Rodeo tailor is a term for a creator of the flamboyant costumes typical of country and western musicians, characterized by extensive hand embroidery, an abundance of rhinestones, cowboy details such as pearl snaps and arrowhead pockets. In some documents, tailor means adjust, tailoring means adjusting. Sewing professional is the most general term for those who make their living by sewing, writing about sewing, or retailing sewing supplies.

They may work out of their home, a studio, or retail shop, may work part-time or full-time. They may be any or all or the following sub-specialties: A custom clothier makes custom garments one at a time, to order, to meet an individual customer's needs and preferences. A custom dressmaker specializes in women's custom apparel, including day dresses, evening or bridal wear, sportswear, or lingerie. A tailor makes custom menswear-style trousers. A cutter cuts out, from lengths of the panels that make up a suit. In bespoke tailoring, the cutter may measure the client, advise them on style choices, commission craftsmen to sew the suit. An alterations specialist, or alterationist adjusts the fit of completed garments ready-to-wear, or restyles them. Note that while all tailors can do alterations, not all alterationists can do tailoring. Designers conceive combinations of line, proportion and texture for intended garments, they may or may not have sewing or patternmaking skills, may only sketch or conceptualize garments.

They work with people who know how to construct the garment. Patternmakers flat draft the shapes and sizes of the numerous pieces of a garment by hand, using paper and measuring tools or by computer using AutoCAD based software, or by draping muslin onto a dress

Stanley Frederick'Stan' Ponchard was a professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s and 1950s. He played for the Balmain Tigers in the NSWRFL. A Balmain junior, Ponchard played five-eighth for Balmain between 1943–48 and 1951–53, he captained the club during his career. He scored 46 tries and kicked 14 goals. Stan Ponchard won two premierships with Balmain in 1944 and 1946, his representative career extended to one appearance for N. S. W. City Firsts in 1948, he was the nephew of another Balmain stalwart, Des Ponchard who played with the Tigers between 1922–29. Ponchard moved to Kempsey, New South Wales after his playing career, died there on 22 November 2000. Stan Ponchard was posthumously inducted into the Balmain Tigers Hall of Fame in 2010; the Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players by Alan Whitaker and Glen Hudson. 1995, Griffin Books

Lest Darkness Fall is an alternate history science fiction novel written in 1939 by American author L. Sprague de Camp; the book is considered one of the best examples of the alternate history genre. Prominent alternate history author Harry Turtledove has said it sparked his interest in the genre as well as his desire to study Byzantine history. Lest Darkness Fall is similar in concept to Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. A shorter version was first published as a short story in Unknown #10, December 1939, it was published as a complete novel by Henry Holt and Company in 1941 and reprinted by both Galaxy Publishing and Prime Press in 1949. The first British edition was published in hardcover by Heinemann in 1955; the first paperback edition was published by Pyramid Books in February 1963 and reprinted in August 1969. A paperback edition was issued by Ballantine Books in August 1974 and reprinted in 1975, 1979 and 1983; the importance of the work was recognized by its inclusion in The Easton Press's The Masterpieces of Science Fiction series in 1989.

The book has been collected with David Drake's novella "To Bring the Light" in Lest Darkness Fall and To Bring The Light, with other works by de Camp in Years in the Making: the Time-Travel Stories of L. Sprague de Camp, with works by other authors in Lest Darkness Fall and Related Stories. An E-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form. Galaxy's Edge magazine reprinted Lest Darkness Fall over four issues starting in August 2014, repeating a typographical error that appears in Lest Darkness Fall and Related Stories. American archaeologist Martin Padway is visiting the Pantheon in Rome in 1938. A thunderstorm arrives, lightning cracks, he finds himself transported to Rome in the year 535 AD. At this time, the Italian Peninsula is under the rule of the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths; the novel depicts their rule as a benevolent despotism, allowing freedom of religion and maintaining the urban Roman society they had conquered, though torture is the normal method of interrogation by what passes for law-enforcement agencies.

In the real timeline, the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire temporarily expanded westwards, embarking on what came to be known as the Gothic War. They overthrew the Ostrogoths and the Vandals in North Africa, but this war devastated the Italian urbanized society that required the support of intensive agriculture and by the end of the conflict Italy was depopulated: its population is estimated to have decreased from 7 million to 2.5 million people. The great cities of Roman times were abandoned and the Byzantines never consolidated their rule over Italy, which faced further invasions by the Lombards; some historians consider this the true beginning of the Dark Ages in Italy. The city of Rome was besieged three times and many of its inhabitants did not survive to the end of the war, thus Padway, finding himself in this Rome and knowing what the near future holds in store, must act not only to preserve the future of civilization, but to improve his personal chances of survival. Padway wonders whether he is dreaming or delusional, but he accepts his fate and sets out to survive.

As an archaeologist, he has enough understanding of various devices used before his time but after the sixth century to be able to reproduce them by the means available. He can speak both modern Italian and Classical Latin, learns enough Vulgar Latin to communicate effectively. Most crucially, Padway had read with great attention the book of the historian Procopius, who described the war at whose outset Padway finds himself. Though not in possession of a physical copy of Procopius when hurled back in time, Padway had memorized his book in great detail, down to the precise details of the time and route of the various armies' moves and their tactical and strategic considerations, as well as the convoluted and violent power struggles of the various contenders for the Gothic Kingship, thus Padway, in effect, knows the direct, immediate future of the country where he lives and of individual people whom he meets. In addition to this specialized and uniquely useful knowledge of the current war, Padway had taken a general interest in military history, which he would be able to put to practical purposes.

Padway's first idea, after he concludes that it is no illusion and that he is in the past, is to make a copper still and sell brandy for a living. He convinces Thomasus the Syrian, to lend him seed money to start his endeavor, he teaches his clerks double entry bookkeeping. Padway develops a printing press, issues newspapers, builds a crude semaphore telegraph system utilizing small telescopes. However, his attempts to reproduce mechanical clocks and cannons are failures, he becomes involved in the politics of the state as Italy is invaded by the Imperials and threatened from the south and east. Padway rescues the deposed Thiudahad and becomes his quaestor, he uses the king's support to gather forces to defeat the formidable Imperial general Belisarius. Padway manages to surprise Belisarius with tactics never used in the ancient world. Deceiving the Dalmatian army, Padway reinstates the senile Thiudahad and