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I started working in my Fathers tailoring business at age 15. My Father had worked from a young age for the late Sir Montague Burton (1885-1952) the 'Tailor of Taste'.At the age of 16, I left school and took an apprenticeship at my Father’s company.
I had the choice of entering the trouser room, the jacket room, the cutting room or to become a designer. The first two were full of women and terrified me! The designer element did not float my boat as it was upstairs and isolated from the rest of the employees, plus the holier than thou attitude of the company designer did not appeal to me.
The cutting room was male dominated and in tailoring at this time the 'cutter was king ' - I decided the cutting room was my destiny. I began learning about preparation of cloths, pocketing and melton under collars and generally laying out material and other smaller menial jobs.
My direct boss at the time, Mr John Watson, trained me how to use shears correctly. He used to slap my hand with a dog-leg yard-stick every-time I lifted my thumb from the shears bellowing "thumb down, not up!" Mr Watson was the cutting room manager – he was a great cutter and very good at his job.
Along with my good friend and fellow apprentice Darren Barker I also had to stay behind for an extra 3-4 hours per week on an evening for extra tuition in the cutting from Mr. Watson. We didn't get paid for this either, and we did it for the love of the company. This did not bother us too much as Darren and I always used to go to the pub afterwards for a pint, and we used to have a great time after work so it always seemed to make the unpaid overtime worth it!
After a long time training and learning, I was eventually let loose on cutting the trimmings for the trousers and jackets ( trimmings are the small ancillary parts required to make the garments ).
My next step was to mark in the garments for the other cutters. I had been with the company two years by this time and my wage had increased from £30 per week to £1.67 per hour. As a comparison my friends working in the construction trades earned more bonuses on top of their salaries than my entire take home month's wage.
I was taught comprehensively on how patterns were made, how these patterns went together and how to alter stock patterns to make them fit irregular shaped figures.
The first job I marked in was a nice super-100s grey 2-piece for myself ( the first job for all apprentice cutters in our firm was to make their own garment ). I progressed to cutting with the "Misters" where I stayed for a further three years, cutting my teeth with professionals who varied in age from forty to nearly seventy years.
All the cutters at the company were former employees of Montague Burton ( the menswear tailors and outfitters ) and they all were very skilled cutters, in fact they were as good as I have seen ANYWHERE and BETTER than some I have seen on Savile Row.
One particular cutter was able to cut a marked pair of trousers out without even closing the blades of his shears. His shears were razor sharp and he would push them along the chalk lines extremely fast. Was he any good? You could place the trousers he had cut out on top of the pattern they were marked off and they would fit EXACTLY, every time, boy was he good!
I loved the cutting room and the company, there were very few days that I did not laugh so much my stomach hurt listening to the tailoring stories from the older cutters and being the butt of their jokes. I miss these days, they were the best time in my working life, I was part of a team and it created true friendships that still last.
I was then pulled from the cutting room and thrown into the jacket room and taught how to make jackets. The range of different styles was immense. There was the normal run of the mill two piece suits through to shooting garments with bellows patch pockets and 'action' pleats in the back. At the same time I was being trained a real skill that few today possess, which was how to press jackets 'off ' by hand, even though the place was full of pressing equipment.
Pressing is an art, a touch that can not be explained, you feel the cloths requirements and they are all different. To say a good presser can make an average garment look outstanding is an understatement.
After I had finished with the jacket and pressing room, I went into the trouser room for more of the same, which to be fair was far easier than the jacket room. By this time I was conversant with every garment made in every style and every fabric, - I was also attending day-release college.
The core business of the company at this time was really the wholesale market, we made for the large tailoring firms in the UK which ranged from Marks and Spencer, Centaur Clothes to the high-end designer suits.
As well as being one of the very last people in the UK that GENUINELY cuts and makes all my own garments on site, I am familiar with most of the production methods of modern factory garments, from lay marking, cutting on Eastman knives and bandknives, a machine with a blade some 20feet long ( which cost me a severed chunk off the top of my left index finger ) to machines and manufacturing processes.
Running alongside these wholesale lines we had a made to measure and full bespoke section. I cut my teeth on all three lines.
The normal working week without overtime was 7.30am - 5.30pm. Monday to Thursday. On a Friday I used to cut for a friend of my Father's, Brian Holden. Brian had his own business making country wear, the real traditional country wear for shooting and game keepers.
Every style of country jacket was made, Norfolk jackets, breeks, shooting suits with every kind of pocket, back and style variation you can imagine and then some more, waistcoats, overcoats for shooting, it was unbelievable the amount of styles.
At Brian's I started at 8am till 5pm and used to cut all the garments to keep the girls going for the coming week, some stock clothing, some measure clothing and some bespoke clothing, along with ALL the trim for the jobs. Brian had me cheap!. He was a former manager for Montague Burton's and knew measuring and garments but not cutting. This never stopped Brian coming in to the cutting room ( sometimes several times a day ) giving me his opinion and saying "can you get that lay tighter"? ( which uses less cloth ) or looking, yes, looking through the rubbish for scraps of cloth making sure I was not wasting cloth!.
I stood this for almost a year from Brian until one day after taking yet more 'advice' from Brian on how to cut, I put my shears down and told him to do the job as he obviously knew more than me about cutting!. We got on fine after that, Brian never gave me advice about something he knew nothing about again.
I stayed with Brian for almost 3 years, I loved it. It was a sad day when I left.
I stayed with my fathers company until my father retired from the trade. The building was owned outright by the company along with everything in it and this was a considerable amount.
The workspace was 25,000 square feet, open plan. It was a sad day, but correct from a financial point. The company still had over 60% of the original people that had been there from the first day, not bad considering you always lose younger staff to marriage and pregnancy within the tailoring trade. I was 29 years old and had worked there for fourteen happy years.
It was impossible for me to take over the company - it employed over 90 staff - I had no idea how businesses ran only how to cut and make good bespoke garments, plus I was never asked, but looking back wish I had been asked, I would have taken a chance.
I started by myself working from home in 1997 making jackets for other tailors as an out worker and was at the sharp end. Long gone was a steady wage, I was now dealing with people that paid you when they wanted to, and more often than not the cheque would then bounce. Morals of a sewer rat spring to mind with trade making.
At this point there were machines and trim all over the house, in the
living room, at the bottom of the stairs, on the landing and at the
bottom of our bed, in fact I could not get out of bed without banging
my bare toes on my 70+ year old singer sewing machine I was using at
the time. (I have a new one now only 30 odd years old ).
During this out worker period I made for some good tailors and some bad tailors, ( I have made for some of the biggest London names in the trade ) but one thing I realised early on was that I could see that relying on other people's work was not the answer, and deep down I did not really like it, I hated it. It simply was a means to an end.
In October of 2005 with my wife of 21 years, four children and a
fifth child on the way, after nine years of trade work I finished my
last trade garment and decided to go it alone. I had not one stitch
of work to replace the trade work I was letting go.
Over the years I had made the odd suit for people who knew I was a tailor, and luckily all these were business men so I took the step of informing them that I was looking for customers of my own now. They very kindly told business colleagues and friends - the phone never stopped in January and February 2006 - with steady orders through spring all coming from recommendations. I am far from swamped but it is early days still and more importantly, I am back loving my trade.
I am now looking for new customers to grow my business. Not hundreds but just enough to give them my full attention and make a good living. I envisage a relationship between tailor and customer that will last 40 years and more - and I don't believe I will achieve this chasing quantity. I am true to my roots and my tailoring is the purest form, I CUT and MAKE all my garments personally.
It always amazes me when people rave about certain tailoring firms, they are only cutters, nothing more nothing less - they are NOT tailors. These cutters speak as if they made the garment when the truth is they only cut it out and passed the various parts to several skilled people to make it up for them. Cutters have nothing to do with the garment making apart from a few choice words at the fitting stages. Why rave over someone that merely passes your garment to a real craftsman, a tailor, and charge you for the privilege?
My ethos is below.
I am a great traditionalist - history and heritage are important to me. I want to maintain the traditions of bespoke tailoring for future generations and to eventually start passing on my knowledge, even though I have barely scratched the surface in my 25 years tailoring. |
