Tailor Made London

-Rant Alert-
On Monday we had a talk from someone from Tailor Made London to help us with ideas about technology and tailoring coming together. I have been very sceptical about this company since I initially researched them for this term's work. They claim to be able to make bespoke suits for a fraction of the cost of Savile Row tailors, still keeping all the components of a fully bespoke suit. I find this very hard to believe as I know how much time and money goes into making a bespoke suit, I don't see how they can create something that costs £3000 on Savile Row and sell it for £660?
The first thing I noticed about the guy who came in to speak to us was that his suit didn't fit him that well, which was very surprising as he's the owner of a suit making company that is supposedly revolutionising the way we make suits. I also noticed the cuffs of his suit looked a bit strange, as if they didn't button up properly. Anyway he made a fairly good speech about their company and what they do using tech. Basically, they use a body scanner to measure the client, then there is a software that creates the pattern for the bespoke suit, then the fabric is laser cut to the pattern shapes. This then goes round their factory being put together and there is a fob on each garment which is scanned at each point so they can track each suit, which is clever. He also told us that they make their suits in Italy which was annoying because as a British company they are shipping their trade elsewhere to get it cheaper, when there are students like myself wanting jobs in that exact trade. When there was a chance for questions I asked (sounding a little angrier than I'd have liked to sound) about why the company was replacing the skills I am learning with machinery. He responded by saying that by using machinery rather than humans to measure, draft the patterns and cut out the fabric reduced the amount of human error and therefore each garment would be perfect. He said there would always be jobs putting the pieces together and hand stitching all the finishing touches for humans and that we would always need humans to run the machines. I didn't get a chance to respond as someone else asked a question, but this left me more annoyed, because there's also human error in sewing the pieces together and hand stitching! I'm sure it wouldn't be so difficult to invent robots or machines to do these jobs too in the near future, which would be cutting out the need for real people in these jobs at all! Besides, there can be human error in anything, for example a doctor diagnosing patients, are you going to replace them with a machine so they don't make any errors?
It worries me because what happens when these machines eventually break down and there isn't anyone left with the skills that the machines took over?
From a business point of view I can totally understand that it is a lot more cost effective to use machines rather than people but when you're passionate about something, you want the skill to live on and not die out.
Tailoring has been around for hundreds of years and processes haven't changed much because they haven't needed to. There isn't anything wrong with the way tailors work, and on a personal level I really enjoy pattern drafting, I don't want to be told I can't do it because it's much quicker and cheaper for a machine to do it for me. Unfortunately some people in my class don't enjoy that part of tailoring and would be very happy to let a machine do it for them.
I talked to one of our technicians after who completely agreed with me and didn't like that tech is taking over, which is totally different from the reactions I got from my other tutors who were all for the advancements in tech.
Having spoken to a few other students I found that some others felt like me too. I am concerned that I'm paying £9,000 a year for 3 years to be taught skills that are being replaced with tech literally as I'm learning them!
I'm all for using technology to assist design or manufacture, but when it removes skill and human ability then it's not an aid, it's a replacement which means we're slowly becoming less skilled. God forbid but we might actually end up like the film Wall-E predicted :(

That's enough of a rant, it would be interesting to see what others think, so if you've taken the time to read this then please drop me a comment saying whether you agree or disagree, and why. Do you study or work somewhere where tech is taking away your skills too? Let me know!
I'll leave this post with one saying:
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."