Video Summary - Who is the coatress? | Tailoring in Conversation: E20

Episode summary — Tailoring in Conversation: E20 with Manuela Leis (Berlin)

Manuela tries to avoid rigid to-do lists, preferring to identify one most important focus for the coming week.
She treats Sundays as a planning/cleaning day:
- schedule the week
- clean her kitchen and clothes
- later do personal drawings, binge-watch TV, and knit (not business-related)
As a freelancer/atelier owner, she emphasizes the need to take breaks intentionally:
- don’t “push through” when you should rest—otherwise you may have to redo work and get frustrated
- if a piece is done “shitty,” she’s learned it can be better to stop and return fresh rather than forcing perfection
She prefers working intensely on one garment at a time—switching among multiple pieces makes it harder for her to stay in the right mindset.

She connects craft to mental regulation: keeping her hands busy helps her mind rest.
She even suggests that without this practice, she’d “smoke way too much”—making practice functions as a coping mechanism.

Childhood
- creativity came from a family full of handwork (seamstresses, embroiderers)
- play-based making: embroidery cards, hand knitting, drawing and dressing up toys
Apprenticeship (Vienna)
- she trained at a school combining technical instruction with experimental tailoring
- the training structure included:
  - starting with garments like skirts/blouses/dresses (not jumping straight to jackets)
  - teacher-led technical workshops (e.g., pockets, layering, sewing methods)
  - a “rule”/map for sequencing steps (a structured baseline)
  - then experimental tailoring, where students combined learned techniques into their own garment designs
- she valued material experience and craftsmanship more than later fashion-design university work.
Fashion design university
- she disliked the conceptual/season/trend-driven framework and felt it minimized craftsmanship and tailoring knowledge
- she felt it wasn’t effective for learning making skills the way apprenticeship did

Quality (in her view) includes:
- construction that works well and lasts
- respect—for the customer, the garment, and the materials
- how the tailor interacts with and treats the work
She argues tailoring can become overly rule-following/“perfect,” especially online:
- she wishes there were more acceptance of different approaches
- she wants more risk-taking, fantasy, and experimentation—not tailoring treated as “one correct way”
- she criticizes the notion that “proper tailoring” exists only if tradition is followed exactly

She’s especially drawn to coats because:
- they feel like a “stage garment” (the idea of theatrical self-presentation)
- you can “go all in” with style even if everyday style is more subdued
- they allow lots of detailed, time-consuming construction
- she enjoys the physical sensation of wearing something heavy

She notes tailoring conversations can be “boring” because life isn’t only tailoring.
She frames difficult clients as a performance/project, not something to take personally:
- treat it as an interesting challenge
- stay calm rather than angry (anger won’t improve the outcome)
She doesn’t like “house styles” as a rigid marketing identity:
- the tailor should extract the client’s personality
- then “infuse” their own interpretation—without forcing the client to wear a disguised version of themselves

Her biggest struggle is pocket corners / jetted or piping-like pocket work:
- cutting precisely into corners is where she procrastinates
- it’s a pain point even when the method itself is otherwise manageable

She became self-employed about 4 years ago, officially starting in October 2017.
“Coatress” name:
- a wordplay mixing “code maker / dress mistress” and “master” concepts
- she wanted to reclaim the feminine side of “master/mistress” language (and contrast it with how women tailors are often stereotyped)
Key early-life/business enabling factor:
- she didn’t feel fully ready, but she accepted the risk of failing as a matter of sanity
- she had crucial support from a tailor advisor/mentor
- her first major client was extremely demanding (including a highly decorated “Jimi Hendrix”-style jacket), and succeeding there gave her confidence.

Locations: Berlin (base), Bavaria (upbringing), Vienna (apprenticeship and school experience), Vienna Werkstätte area/school referenced (via description); Germany cities mentioned in passing: Munich, Cologne, Hamburg
Garments / materials mentioned: overcoats, top coats, coats, skirts/blouses/dresses, bespoke suits; padded canvas; pocket corners; jetted/piped pockets
Names / speakers:
- Manuela Leis (guest)
- Marina Abramović (used as a metaphor for “performance”)
- Jimi Hendrix (referenced via a client’s jacket concept)