Abi Totre comes from a family with a tailoring tradition and years of experience in fashion. The family tailoring business was established in 1964 in Macedonia. He has always been close to tailoring. He started working in Paris for his uncle, who had a tailoring salon where famous faces often appeared. Here he gained experience, discovered his love for fashion and realised what he wanted to do in life.
You built your fashion salon from scratch. What were the beginnings, and what are the visions today?
It was hard, as in every beginning, but you can overcome everything if you have a strong will. This is what I stick to in my profession and my personal life. Obstacles must be overcome. That is what I had lived up to from the beginning when I started at the age of 16 as an apprentice with my uncle in Paris. That is why I value my success, and I value my customers who share the success with me by coming to my salon.
How do you assess the level of dressing of managers in the Czech Republic, and how do you think managerial fashion will develop?
If I compared the time about ten years ago and today, a lot has changed in fashion, especially in the style of dressing for women and men. I can judge this thanks to my experience when I try to meet the fashion requirements of my customers. The Italian style is more and more popular. Mostly the younger generation of my customers wants to dress beautifully and move with the times, so to speak, and insist on quality. Quality suits made of quality fabrics are in emand here. There are many materials on the market today. Still, we only offer our customers first-class quality because they also demand this quality in our salon.
Where do you look for inspiration? Do you follow French fashion trends?
I follow fashion every day, and I study fashion trends in France, Italy and England. A custom tailor cannot do without it these days. Collectively, they are a fashion mecca. Everything in fashion originates there and comes from there. But I can tell you that our customers also follow these fashion trends. For example, a customer comes in with a photo of an actor from a famous movie about agent 007, and within a few days, he has a tuxedo of the same quality and cut.
It seems that today’s fashion is moving towards casual, and “haute couture” is disappearing. What is your opinion?
Fashion is difficult to understand. Fashion is what people wish to wear. Fashion is also worn casually, but it depends on where we go and when, and we dress accordingly. For a wedding, it is a suit and tie. For work, we need a business suit. And in the afternoon, it is more relaxed, and there is no need for a tie. Fashion changes with the times, but that is not to say that the suit is going away. The classic suit has been in fashion for 350 years and always will be. This is also true of women executives, for whom I often make mostly shirts. I think every woman is sexier in a shirt than in a T-shirt or a sweater.
Thank you for the interview.
