What Colonial Williamsburg can teach us about the trades revival

Everyone is vulnerable except for the mantua-maker.

Tailors at Colonial Williamsburg preserve and practice 18th-century garment-making techniques. (Author photo)

On a recent Sunday afternoon in Colonial Williamsburg, a journeyman wigmaker held up two locks of hair — one horse, one human — to explain why 18th-century barbers and their clients preferred one over the other. As she worked the hair through a h…