Chicago Waldorf School is featured in Esquire Magazine for its partnership with Italian luxury fashion house Kiton to launch a unique high school course in tailoring, called “The Art of Tailoring.” The program teaches students traditional tailoring techniques alongside branding and design to give students real-world industry skills.
“Kiton’s North American director of wholesale made-to-measure, Victor de Leon, lives in the city. His children attend Chicago Waldorf School.
‘I was watching seven-year-olds sewing and weaving and knitting socks and gloves and hats,’ he says. ‘And they were doing it with such ease, like little tailors. It made me think.’
With the school’s principal and the eager support of De Matteis, de Leon hatched a plan to take those handwork classes to another level with high school kids. And so, since September 2024, de Leon has been presiding over the Art of Tailoring, which was conceived to instill craft-based skills direct from the tailor’s shop.”
