BESPOKE SERVICE
“It’s not unusual for us to work on suits that were made in the 1970s and still look good. As
virtually everything is sewn by hand, we are able to unpick the stitching and re-make it.”
hand, we are able to unpick the stitching and re-make it.” Sargent’s own watch of choice is a Cartier 21 Chronoscaph, which was a Christmas present in 2011 from her boyfriend. This has superseded a Baume et Mercier with a pink and beige coloured face that was a 25th birthday gift from her mother. “When I took it to be serviced the salesman asked me what I did for living. He was intrigued because when they took the back off they had never seen a watch in such a state. There was so much fluff from the wool cloth I
had been cutting. Needless to say, I will be having the Cartier regularly serviced and cleaned because of this.”
Although the bespoke suit
takes, on average, a couple of months from start to finish, Sargent argues that for her clients the process actually saves them time. “Even if they had the inclination, many of my clients do not have the time to go round even high-class menswear stores trying to find something they like and something that might fit them. By coming to me, they can get exactly what they require, it will be unique to them, it will fit perfectly no matter what shape they are and it will perform brilliantly for years. They will have something that is theirs alone, something distinctive and unique.” Just like the person who
graduates from an average watch to a high-quality watch, once someone has tried bespoke, it is very hard to go back to off-the-peg dressing. As every garment is cut and made from scratch, the possibilities are limitless. Just as fine watches run from the quietly refined to the blingtastic, so Savile Row suits can be discreetly elegant
or outrageously flamboyant. It is all down to the client’s wishes.
AN INSULAR INDUSTRY? Despite this unique versatility, up to about 10 years ago, deservedly or not, Savile Row was seen by some critics as an inward- looking, old-fashioned, even irrelevant curiosity. Its customers were growing older and their sons were more likely to buy expensive ready-made designer labels than hand-made clothes. Additionally, few young people wanted to devote years of apprenticeship to learn what appeared to be a dying trade. Realising the inherent danger, the industry itself ditched long-standing rivalries and formed Savile Row Bespoke, a trade association that has managed to represent bespoke tailoring as the ultimate expression of luxury dressing. Savile Row has been invigorated, its relevance reconfirmed and now there are far more applicants than places for training positions with London’s top tailors.
As part of the recent advance, women are more obviously visible in Savile Row these days. While
traditionally they have been some roles for females in the industry, they have tended to be hidden away in the workshops, performing specialist sewing tasks that required small, nimble fingers. Sargent’s appointment as head cutter at Gieves & Hawkes in December 2009 was a manifestation of a more modern attitude that has helped update the bespoke industry’s rather fusty image. But, as yet, she has been the only female head cutter on The Row. Sargent, takes a keen interest in developing the latest crop of tailoring talent. She is a judge for the bi-ennial Golden Shears competition for apprentices and newly qualified tailors who have to display their skills by designing, cutting and sewing entirely by hand an outfit. The workmanship is extraordinary and the top prize in the last two competitions has gone to young women.
A LEARNING CURVE Sargent herself was a Golden Shears prizewinner in 1998 when she took the womenswear award. She acknowledges that the triumph got her noticed on Savile Row and
far left; Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl Of Burlington who laid out Savile Row in the 1730’s, left; Regency style icon Beau Brummel, above and right; pages from an 1885 edition of The Tailor and Cutter, right; tailoring style from a 1938 edition of The Tailor and Cutter, above right; ”Derek”, Kathryn’s mascot, far right; a sharp Savile Row suit from 1956;
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