Cutting is higher risk than sewing

“Guilds regulated the various steps in garment production minutely. For instance, the statutes of the 13th century Parisian tailors’ guild reserved cutting cloth for established masters, leaving sewing to subordinate workers called valets cousturiers.

Cloth was so expensive that cutting it was a high-risk operation. A faulty stitch can be removed, but a faulty cut can ruin an entire piece of fabric.

Couturier, which comes from coudre, to sew, was thus enshrined as a lower-status occupation than tailleur, or tailor, which derives from tailler, to cut. ”

- from Worn by Sofi Thanhauser, published 2022