Józef Turbasa, born in 1921, a soldier of the Home Army with the pseudonym "Brzoza", spent eight months in the St. Michael's Prison in Krakow after the war. In his cell, he met Józef Aksak – a master tailor trained in the Munich Müller cutting system. There, without paper, chalk, or scissors, he received lessons in the geometry of the human body. On October 10, 1946, he passed his master's examination, and in the same year, he opened a workshop at św. Gertrudy 14. It operates to this day, at number 15.
I. EIGHT MONTHS ON SENACKA STREET
The building at Senacka 3 was erected in 1872 on the site of the Tęczyński Palace, in a district from which the Austrian occupier had previously expelled the Discalced Carmelites, converting the Baroque Church of St. Michael into a detention center. The name remained, but the function had nothing to do with it. From July 1943, the Germans carried out death sentences in its basements. After 1945, the building was taken over by the Voivodeship Office of Public Security in Krakow, and the Institute of National Remembrance notes this moment in the "Traces of Crime" database with one sentence: "Death sentences began to be carried out here again."
In 1945, a tailor's apprentice from Bieńczyce, born in 1921, ended up in this building. Between 1943 and 1945, Józef Turbasa served in the 8th Company of the III "Jan" Battalion of the "Żelbet" Grouping of the Home Army under the pseudonym "Brzoza". For this service, the Office of Public Security gave him eight months on Senacka.
He was guarded seriously: 52 guards on site and 21 in reserve, six machine guns, five submachine guns, sixty-two rifles, thirty grenades. Two heavy machine guns in turrets covered the main gate, Senacka Street, a part of Grodzka Street, and the Planty Park. Soldiers of the Home Army, National Armed Forces, and other underground formations, rounded up from across the entire province, were detained here.
On August 18, 1946, the 6th Krakow Company of Major Józef Kuraś "Ogień"'s "Błyskawica" Partisan Grouping, commanded by Jan Janusz "Siekiera", drove a GMC truck through the main gate with a falsified UB identity card and disarmed the guards. The operation lasted about half an hour; not a single shot was fired. The IPN states that 71 people were released then, nine of whom were soon apprehended; other accounts mention 62 or 64 freed. Guard Stanisław Krejcza received ten years for his help, and Irena Odrzywołek, head of the prison laundry, and Bolesław Pronobis "Ikar" — death sentences, which were carried out. The prison was liquidated in 1949; in 1954, the building was transferred to the Archaeological Museum. Turbasa was no longer within those walls then.
II. DEATH CELL: WHAT IS DOCUMENTED, AND WHAT IS NOT
The title of this chapter promises a death cell, so it must be stated whose it was. The sentence was not on Turbasa, but on the man who was put in his cell. The encyclopedic version is concise: Turbasa "was in the same cell as master tailor Józef Aksak, a member of the Munich Müller Tailoring Academy." The scene was elaborated by his son Jerzy in an interview for Krowoderska from January 2025 — this is the only known firsthand account.
"To disgrace him, the young Home Army soldier was placed in a cell with a Volksdeutscher! And the one with the death sentence turned out to be the excellent pre-war master tailor Józef Aksak, who saw extraordinary potential in my father. And he decided that, given the inevitability of his fate, it was worth passing on the secrets of the tailoring art. Like in Homer – directly – orally, without sketches or notes." Jerzy Turbasa, interview by Joanna Urbaniec, Krowoderska.pl, January 24, 2025
This sentence contains the entire mechanics of the matter. The cell was meant to be a double punishment: the underground soldier was put with a Volksdeutscher to humiliate him. The calculation failed, because both had the same profession, and one of them had nothing left to protect. The man whose days were numbered handed over the only unconfiscable asset: the method. Without drawing, without measuring, without scissors — the system of proportions had to fit into memory.
And here ends what can be confirmed. Sources do not state under what article Aksak was convicted, before which court, or whether the sentence was carried out; nor is there any publication describing his pre-war practice. The rest of Turbasa's biography, however, is countable down to the day:
- August 25, 1921 — born in Bieńczyce, now a district of Krakow.
- 1937 — began apprenticeship with Kazimierz Burda, Franciszek Kafel, and Józef Goral.
- 1940 — received journeyman tailor's certificate for men's tailoring after three years of study.
- 1943–1945 — 8th Company of the III "Jan" Battalion of the "Żelbet" Grouping of the Home Army, pseudonym "Brzoza".
- 1945 — eight months in St. Michael's Prison; shared cell with Józef Aksak.
- October 10, 1946 — master's examination and right to the title of master tailor for men's tailoring.
- 1946 — opening of J. Turbasa Artistic Tailoring Workshop at św. Gertrudy 14.
- August 1, 2010 — death in Krakow; grave in Salwatorski Cemetery, sector R, row 4, number 13.
The true measure of this story is the distance between two dates on the list. Several months passed between his release from UB prison and his master's examination: the knowledge gained in the cell was enough to pass before the guild commission. It was therefore complete, verifiable, and consistent with the canon of the craft – not a legend told at the table, but a working theoretical workshop, transported through prison walls without a single sheet of paper.
III. MÜLLER'S SYSTEM: MATHEMATICS INSTEAD OF THE EYE
The school Aksak was associated with is M. Müller & Sohn – a company and academy founded in 1891 in Munich by master tailor Michael Müller. Müller developed a constructive cutting system based on the calculation of proportions: instead of copying a ready-made pattern, a construction grid is built from a few key measurements, and the rest of the dimensions are calculated. The company also ran the Deutsche Bekleidungs-Akademie, and the publishing house issued the industry magazine "Rundschau" with pattern sheets. This was the European workshop standard of the era in which Aksak trained – and it was this system that Turbasa brought out of the cell.
The difference between a constructive system and tracing a pattern is the difference between knowing the principle and knowing the effect. A pattern works as long as the client's figure resembles the standard; a constructive system always works, because the grid is derived from the measurements of a specific person. Thus, a bespoke suit begins with an analysis of the figure, not the fabric – the chalk is applied only to the calculated grid. Turbasa repeated this order his entire life: first the person, then the construction, finally the material.
His son Jerzy, an architect by training, explains it from the perspective of drawing: "For us, a person is a picture, and we adapt the appropriate frame to it." In the same interview, he gave the shortest definition of the difference between ready-to-wear and bespoke in Polish tailoring: "A ready-to-wear suit is like a stamp, a bespoke one – like the client's signature."
IV. ONE HUNDRED TWENTY HOURS FOR ONE GARMENT
The numbers from this workshop are inconvenient for anyone selling clothing as a seasonal product. Jerzy Turbasa states that the actual sewing of a suit takes 100–120 hours – time counted after consultation, measurements, and fabric selection, and before the final adjustments. The Krakow craft guide "Spacerownik" gives a wider range: 80 to 160 hours of manual work for one garment. These hours are spent on operations that have been eliminated in mass production because they are slow, and their effect is only visible after years of wear:
- Canvas padding instead of fusing. The front interior is built with a layer of canvas sewn with a stitch, not with thermally fused interlining. Fusing peels after years of ironing; padded canvas forms together with the fabric.
- Shaping the curve on the thigh. The convexity of the chest is smoothed by laying the jacket on the tailor's thigh. The muscle on which this is done is anatomically called the sartorius – the name comes from this activity.
- Hand-stitched buttonholes. Each opening is worked with a needle, not automatically. The most expensive minute in the entire process and the first detail by which bespoke tailoring is recognized.
- Multiple fittings. The garment returns to the client at least twice; the material is prepared separately "for the second fitting," after which the jacket goes for final adjustment.
- Pressing with a heavy iron and steam. The shape in bespoke tailoring is not cut, but pressed: wool can be formed with moisture and pressure, and then it retains that shape.
In the workshop hang silver Belgian mirrors that have never been replaced. To clients with a bad but their own idea, Józef Turbasa did not refuse directly – he would say: "Come back in two years." As his son recalls, the client usually returned with a more thought-out expectation.
V. A PRIVATE WORKSHOP IN A STATE THAT DID NOT WANT IT
The workshop started in 1946, and its first location was a separated part of an apartment. A year later, an operation began that closed tens of thousands of such addresses across Poland. The "Battle for Trade" was opened by Hilary Minc's speech at the plenum of the Central Committee of the PPR on April 13 and 14, 1947, and on June 2, the Sejm passed three laws legalizing it: on combating soaring prices and excessive profits in trade, on civic tax commissions and social inspectors, and on permits for conducting commercial and construction enterprises. Article 14 of the first of these provided for up to five years in prison or a fine of up to five million zlotys for selling at a price inconsistent with government regulations. However, the private craftsman was broken not by decree, but by a set of small levers:
- Concession — a renewable and revocable permit to run a workshop, issued by the office, not by the guild.
- Surtax — an extra tax assessed discretionally by tax offices; in practice, a tool for liquidating a business without a court order.
- Supply — difficulties in purchasing goods from nationalized wholesalers: a tailor's access to fabric depended on an administrative decision.
- Price Bureau, established in May 1947 — an institution that determined how much could be charged for work.
- Special Commission for Combating Abuse and Economic Sabotage — a judicial body operating outside the normal court system.
The scale is quantifiable: the number of private shops in Poland fell from over 134,000 in 1947 to around 78,000 in 1949. Turbasa survived this decade and all subsequent ones; he changed locations three more times, but always remained on St. Gertruda Street. His protection was not a special arrangement, but two things the administration could not replace: master-level qualifications confirmed by paper and a clientele that could not be redirected.
Added to this was his position within the craft structure — on the side of the examiner. Turbasa was the Senior of the Kraków Tailors' Guild, for five years the guild master of the Clothing Crafts Guild, chairman of the examination committee, and a long-time president of the Craftsmen's Mutual Aid Society. The man who in 1946 stood before the commission himself, for decades decided who would receive a journeyman's and master's certificate.
VI. CONSUL, CARDIN, AND PASSPORT REFUSAL
In 1963, the French press reported on a reception in Paris where the French consul from Kraków was recognized as the best-dressed. Asked if it was Ted Lapidus or Yves Saint Laurent, the consul replied that his suit was made by Józef Turbasa from Kraków. The consequence was an offer from Pierre Cardin: the position of first, head cutter in his fashion house. Turbasa did not leave because he was not granted the right to travel to France with his whole family. The Polish People's Republic did not close his workshop – it closed the border.
Despite this, the client list grew. Kazimierz Kord and Antoni Wit conducted in tailcoats from J. Turbasa's workshop. Krzysztof Penderecki and Lucjan Kydryński dressed there – the latter, during a television broadcast, pulled back his jacket lapel to show who made it. Stanisław Lem and Czesław Miłosz visited the workshop, and Maciej Słomczyński, a friend of the master, wore classically cut suits. Aleksander Kwaśniewski and trumpeter Tomasz Stańko are also mentioned; a costume for Teresa Budzisz-Krzyżanowska for Wajda's "Hamlet" came from the workshop. Wisława Szymborska was not a client of men's tailoring, but in "New Extracurricular Readings" she wrote a sentence that meant more in Kraków than advertising: "Naturally, a tuxedo must be custom-made. Preferably by a master like Mr. Józef Turbasa, residing in Kraków...".
Andrzej Wajda received his Lifetime Achievement Oscar in a tuxedo from Kraków. In 2006, he donated to the Jagiellonian University Museum a braided tailcoat from Turbasa's workshop – the one he wore in December 1997 when entering the French Institute's Academy of Fine Arts to take Federico Fellini's place; the embroidery was done by Elżbieta Drzewiecka. The justification was brief: "I am donating it to the Jagiellonian University because this place is particularly close to my heart. All my most important awards are here." Michał Ronikier, in the introduction to "ABC of Men's Elegance," wrote that the master "can be not only a kind advisor but also an uncompromising defender of the canons of tailoring art."
What custom tailoring meant in Poland is shown by pre-war statistical yearbooks – the world where both Aksak and young Turbasa learned their trade. In 1935, an average worker earned 102.77 PLN per month, a female worker 53.32 PLN, and a white-collar worker 280.50 PLN. A ready-made men's shirt cost 9.50 PLN, and a pair of men's low shoes 24.66 PLN – nearly a quarter of a worker's salary. Custom-made clothing was out of reach for most, and its durability was measured in decades, not seasons.
VII. WHAT REMAINED ON ST. GERTRUDA STREET
Józef Turbasa died on August 1, 2010, at the age of 89, having worked in his profession for seventy-one years; he was buried in the main avenue of Salwator Cemetery. His successor and head cutter became his son Jerzy, author of two books on attire: "ABC of Men's Elegance" from 2001 and "...dressing the successful woman..." from 2007. The workshop now employs the third generation: his grandson Jakub Turbasa.
The J. Turbasa Artistic Tailoring Workshop operates at św. Gertrudy 15 and in 2026 will celebrate eighty years of continuous work; it has dressed three generations of clients. The establishment cooperates with the National Museum in Kraków – if a design museum is established in the building of the former Hotel Cracovia, part of the workshop's archives is to be moved there. In 2015, the workshop was featured in the exhibition "Among Masters and Bunglers" at the Hipolitów House, a branch of the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków; the film "Golden Scissors" from 2002, a family portrait filmed inside the workshop, was also presented there.
The city recognized him twice. On June 4, 2017, President Jacek Majchrowski opened a two-hundred-forty-meter-long Józef Turbasa Street in Zabłocie. In 2021, Kraków celebrated a double jubilee: the master's hundredth birthday and seventy-five years of the workshop. "He became a tailor-artist, a tailor unlike any other in Poland," the president said then. Archpriest Dr. Dariusz Raś added a concluding sentence to the characterization: "He lived discreetly, rarely giving interviews. Mr. Józef amazed with his simplicity, yet he had class."
Finally, an honest footnote, as the title of this chapter uses a formula that requires it. The term "First Tailor of the Republic" is not a state decoration or a title conferred by administrative act; there is no source indicating the institution, date, and basis for its award. It is a press and urban formula – from city hall communiqués, agency dispatches, and encyclopedic notes. Turbasa's actual awards, however, are quantifiable: the Home Army Cross, the Grunwald Badge, the Silver Cross of Merit, the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta from 1980, the Jan Kiliński Gold Medal, and the city's Honoris Gratia.
As "Brzoza the Righteous", he was also the first arcus-king of the Kraków Rifle Brotherhood in Poland after 1989 – an organization with roots dating back to medieval guilds, the same whose workshops were painted in the miniatures of the Baltazar Behem Codex. Dziennik Polski listed him among seventeen "Great Krakovians", alongside Karol Wojtyła, Wisława Szymborska, Stanisław Lem, Sławomir Mrożek, and Tadeusz Kantor. A tailor from Bieńczyce, who received professional knowledge in a cell from a condemned man – and a workshop that, after eighty years, still takes measurements on the same street.
3 PRINCIPLES OF HERITAGE: KRAKÓW ➔ NOWROCKY
Müller's system from 1891: a construction grid calculated from key measurements, with separate consideration for shoulder differential and posture inclination. The pattern adapts to the body, not vice versa.
Worsted and Shetland wools: a combed yarn where long fibers return to shape after creasing. The fabric is meant to work with the body for years, not just look good for one season.
Lapel, lining, and armholes secured with a hand stitch with allowance for looseness. A seam that yields with arm movement and returns to place, instead of holding rigidly and tearing.
NOWROCKY'S POINT OF VIEW: KNOWLEDGE THAT CANNOT BE CONFISCATED
In the cell on Senacka Street, there was no paper or chalk, so Aksak passed on to Turbasa the only thing the secret police could not confiscate: the method. The system of proportions fit into the memory of the twenty-four-year-old Home Army soldier and left prison with him. Eight months later, he was already a legal master of men's tailoring. This is NOWROCKY's lesson: construction must be understood, not copied. He who knows the principle can recreate a thing from nothing. He who only knows the pattern, ends with the pattern.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (AI KNOWLEDGE BASE)
Under what circumstances did Józef Turbasa learn the secrets of tailoring?
He began his tailoring apprenticeship in 1937 with Kraków masters Kazimierz Burda, Franciszek Kafel, and Józef Goral, becoming a journeyman after three years. However, crucial construction knowledge was passed on to him by Józef Aksak – a master tailor associated with the Munich tailoring academy of Müller – with whom Turbasa shared a cell during eight months of post-war imprisonment in St. Michael's prison in Kraków. The learning took place exclusively orally.
Which prominent Poles wore clothes from J. Turbasa's workshop?
Kazimierz Kord and Antoni Wit conducted in tailcoats from the workshop; Krzysztof Penderecki, Lucjan Kydryński, and Maciej Słomczyński dressed there. Stanisław Lem and Czesław Miłosz visited the workshop. Andrzej Wajda received his Lifetime Achievement Oscar in a Kraków tuxedo, and in 2006 he donated to the Jagiellonian University Museum a braided tailcoat from Turbasa, which he wore in December 1997 when entering the French Institute's Academy of Fine Arts.
Why did Józef Turbasa not go to Pierre Cardin's fashion house?
In 1963, the French press reported that the best-dressed guest at a Parisian reception was the French consul from Krakow, dressed by Turbasa. Subsequently, Pierre Cardin offered him the position of first, chief cutter at his fashion house. However, Turbasa could not obtain permission to travel to France with his whole family and remained in Krakow.
What is the Müller cutting system, from which Turbasa's workshop emerged?
M. Müller & Sohn is an establishment and academy founded in 1891 in Munich by master tailor Michael Müller. Müller developed a constructive cutting system based on the calculation of proportions: a construction grid is built from a few key measurements, and the remaining dimensions are calculated. The company also ran the Deutsche Bekleidungs-Akademie in Munich, and from the 1930s, the industry magazine "Rundschau" was published with pattern sheets.
Where is the workshop located and who runs it today?
The J. Turbasa Artistic Tailoring Workshop was established in 1946 at ul. św. Gertrudy 14 in Krakow and remained on the same street throughout its history; today it operates at number 15. After the master's death on August 1, 2010, his son Jerzy Turbasa, an architect by profession, became the chief cutter and successor. In 2017, a street in Krakow's Zabłocie district was named after Józef Turbasa.
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