THE BIG INTERVIEW


Despite the fact that the Savile Row Academy does not advertise, demand for places is high. “We believe if you want to learn the skills of a high-class


tailor, you will find us,” says


Andrew Ramroop


WHY, TEN YEARS ON, ANDREW IS PROUD TO HAVE SET UP THE


SAVILE ROW ACADEMY By Cindy Lawford


W


ith the founding of Savile Row Academy in 2008, Andrew Ramroop thinks


The idea for a


tailoring academy came about when Andrew Ramroop realised the training he received was no longer available to aspiring students


he began his most important work: “To provide the tuition for the rest of the world, that is really my calling in life – to share knowledge,” he says. In one way or another, he has been teaching for a long time, ever since he attended courses at London College of Fashion in the early 1970s. He recalls: “Because I could assimilate information quickly, many students on the course would come to me after class and I would explain what the teacher meant.” He became so good at instructing others in the tailoring arts that, before he left LCF in 1974, he was offered a full-time teaching position. He declined it in favour of a career on Savile Row, but he continued to teach part-time for 12 more years. In truth, Andrew has never stopped teaching. In 2001 he was honoured as a distinguished professor of tailoring by the London Institute and, in 2004, by the University of the Arts London. He has represented the United Kingdom five times at the World Congress of Master Tailors and, in 2017, he delivered the keynote address to the World Federation of Master Tailors. Several of his apprentices now hold full-time positions on Savile Row, including Daniel Haworth, who became head cutter at Maurice Sedwell aged 22, making him the youngest cutter on the Row. Another is Davide Taube, now head cutter at Gieves & Hawkes who, during the four years he worked under Andrew, won the prestigious Golden Shears award for Best Menswear.


The idea for a tailoring academy came about when Andrew realised the training he received at LCF was no longer available to aspiring students. He saw tailoring standards were dropping and students simply could not acquire sufficient skills to find immediate work after completing their degrees, despite the money spent on them. These fashion and tailoring students are, in his view, simply “unemployable”. Andrew tried for several years to gain support for a Savile Row training academy from other tailors and


I have always taken the view that it’s better to train people and risk losing them than not train them and they stay


bespoke shoemakers but there was insufficient interest and many seem to have expected his venture to fail. He was even told by one tailor that, by setting up an academy to export Savile Row standards to the world, he would be “diluting the trade”. He says he then replied, “Sharing is an obligation.” He remains frustrated at the unwillingness of some tailors to pass on their skills. “One of the biggest fears in the industry is that if you train people, they will leave you,” Andrew observes. “I have always taken the view that it’s better to train people to the highest possible standard and risk losing them rather than not train them and they remain in your employment.” In the end it was Andrew’s own customers who loaned him the


money he needed to start the academy. He found space for it by relinquishing the rent he was receiving from other tailors for two of his back rooms so that they could be used for instructing students. Beginning with only six students in 2008, the academy has since provided formal training to 164 students, benefiting now about 30 students a year. It offers a 10-month course that includes advanced modules in pattern cutting; fitting and remarking; trouser and waistcoat making; and coat/jacket making. The course is not cheap, ranging from £16,900 for UK and European nationals to £19,950 for everyone else. Full completion of the course wins students a Bespoke Tailors Certificate. A five-week course in men’s pattern drafting, cutting and fitting is also available in the summer, costing £6,000.


Despite the fact that the Savile Row Academy has never been advertised, the demand for places is high, with six applicants for each place. “We believe if you want to learn the skills of a high-class tailor, you will find us,” Andrew says. Students come from all over the world. There is no skill-level requirement to gain admission, just a great sense of passion and dedication to learning the craft. The academy aims “to take you from an embryonic stage and train you into a skilful tailor”, he says, remarking that there have even been those who arrived “without an idea how to hold a needle and thimble”. He is confident that all of his certified students are employable, ready to start their own business or create their own collection. Andrew likes to remember that, back in the 1920s when his former boss, Maurice Sedwell, first sought an apprenticeship, he was discouraged by people who told him the invention of the sewing machine meant “there isn’t a future for handcraft tailors”. Demand for high-quality bespoke garments will never go away, in his view, and he hopes to expand the academy next year, perhaps offering a shirt-making course in the near future. “I’m in a hurry to share what I know,” he says. The Savile Row Academy needs more space to grow, and Andrew’s main obstacle to that growth is the cost of simply being on Savile Row, the staggeringly high rents that, like all the other tailors, he is faced with. He had to pay over £264,000 in rates and rents to his landlords for last year alone. By congregating on one street in Mayfair and giving it an international fame, “Savile Row tailors have created a rod for their own back,” Andrew says, “and they need to unite to protest the rents that endanger their very existence there.” n


SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE 35


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