Three Hours as a Butler Apprentice

Arrive in ordinary clothes. The butler bows you in, takes your bags and leads you to the wardrobe. The order of dressing and the moment of settling the white gloves are called one by one. In the mirror you check the line of the body, then touch on where to stand, the length of a step and the distance to keep; the turn towards the other person, the angle and pause of the bow, the way a tray or a glass is carried. Teapot, three-tier stand and silver in white gloves teach the stillness of the hands.

—Alone, or with others

Alone, you can examine your own stance and hands in peace. In a pair or more, watching one another open a door and offer tea shows how differently the receiving side and the received side see the same moment. There is no need to hurry to look good. A few words from the butler about where the hands go and which way a step turns, and each movement is tidied as it is made. By the last photograph your stance will not be the one you bowed with at the start.

The complete outfit means coat and waistcoat, shirt and tie, white gloves and shoes. Button by button, the show of the waistcoat, the collar, the seat of the gloves: the butler checks each in turn, and sets the line from the side as well as the front. What you wear is the butler's daytime dress supervised by the association: a black morning coat over a white shirt, a long black tie without pattern, a grey waistcoat, and trousers in black-and-grey stripes.

—Sizes are asked before booking

Sizes and types are few. Send height, build and shoe size before you book. As a guide, men from 160 to 185 cm and women from 150 to 160 cm in height, shoes from 24.0 to 27.5 cm; other sizes can be discussed. Because there are smaller outfits for women, anyone can take part. A change to a tailcoat can also be requested at booking.

The butler opens the door for you and confirms your wishes and the sizes for the attire. In the wardrobe the butler helps you into the coat, the waistcoat, the shirt, the tie, the gloves and the shoes. A look at the line of the body in the mirror, and you move on to where to stand, the length of a step and the distance to keep; then turning to face someone, the angle and the pause of a bow, carrying a tray or a glass, and then the teapot, the stand and the silver in white gloves.

—The photograph and the keepsake

A commemorative photograph in the residence is included in the three hours: the butler photographs you in the finished morning coat. The experience ends with the keepsake. Food and drink may be brought in, but no meal is served. For two or more there are pair and family plans, arranged after checking the types and sizes of attire. There is also a plan of three six-hour visits.

Offering tea, you turn the cup to where the hand will come. Opening a door, you clear the way and then bow. Since the butler explains the reason for each position and not merely the sequence, your own movement and the way it looks from the other side join up. This is also the very first threshold of what we teach students of the main programme at the Japan Butler Academy.

—Three hours will not make a butler

Three hours do not make a butler. But wearing the attire and standing for someone else shows what a butler watches for in the field. Before welcoming a THE BUTLER butler into your home, or while wondering whether to aim at the profession, I believe this experience is of real use.

Fees, the eight plans and the conditions of the pair and family plans are on the apprentice page of Queen's Butler's site. Here I have kept to the substance of the experience. Nothing special need be brought; the full outfit is provided by the residence.

—Open to anyone

Like the studio, the experience is open to men and women alike. The butler opens the door, bows, and carries you through the change from everyday clothes to the morning coat. A butler starts from a single fastened button.

A full morning coat is not put on merely for appearance. Once the front is buttoned, the collar set and the gloves drawn on, almost everyone straightens without being told. That dress settles posture is learned fastest by wearing it.

—Sleeve and hem are adjusted

At the dressing stage the butler adjusts sleeve and hem. If the measurements are off, no amount of correct posture looks composed. Time is spent here because it changes how the following two and a half hours appear.

—The gloves go on last

The gloves go on last. Putting them on immediately before touching a vessel is the order of this house, and there is a reason: from the moment they are on, the hands move for the objects rather than for oneself. It is a device for learning that change in the body.

We do not claim anyone becomes a butler in three hours. Seven headings are touched on, but one is enough to carry away, and that one is the order: look, then move.

—It is not the angle we watch

Practising the bow, most people worry about the angle. What we watch is not the angle but whether the other person's position was checked before the head went down. Bow before they have looked up and the courtesy reaches nobody.

—It works outside the house too

The sequence works outside the house too. Setting a cup before a member of your family, handing papers across a desk at work. See where their hand is before you set it down. That alone changes how it feels to receive. Carrying the movements home means this.