NEWS
MAKING THE CUT
This year's winner was Maurice Sedwell apprentice Rachel Singer who impressed with her double-breasted Prince of Wales checked suit
H
aving passed the first stage of the competition, judged by a panel of top bespoke tailors, Rachel
went on to win the final, in a catwalk show held at the Merchant Taylors’ Hall in the City of London. Rachel's winning entry - a double
breasted Prince of Wales checked, tailored trousers suit, with long, cappuccino, cream wool coat and brown horn button detail - was awarded first place by a panel of celebrity and industry expert guest judges including model David Gandy, TV presenter and model Jodie Kidd, MBE Mich Turner, menswear stylist and writer Tom Stubbs and mens stylist Joe Ottaway. Up until 2015, Rachel was completely
self-taught in cutting and sewing. In 2015 she joined The Savile Row Academy where she was introduced to the bespoke process from cutting through to coat making. Following her time at the Academy, Rachel joined the Maurice Sedwell apprenticeship for coat making and in 2018 moved from the workshop to the shop floor where she now cuts coats and helps to train new coat makers. Rachel aspires to be a cutter who can confidently and skillfully cut for both men and women.
The Golden Shears Award was founded in 1974 by Robert Bright, the then President of the Federation of Merchant Tailors, to identify the best apprentice tailor in the UK, to encourage young people to join the trade - and to raise the profile of perhaps Britain’s greatest craft industry
D
ubbed the ‘Oscars of Savile Row’, the award is a bi-annual competition championed by the Worshipful Company of
Merchant Taylors. Tailoring students and apprentices from around the country vie for the Golden Shears trophy and £3,000 of prize money. The 2019 competition concluded on Monday March 18 at the grandiloquent Merchant Taylor’s Hall in the City of London, held by the livery company to celebrate the award and their connection with the tailoring trade, which dates back to before the company was honoured with its first Royal Charter in 1327.
Simon Cundey, chairman of the Golden Shears and managing director of Henry Poole & Co
16 SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE Twenty-four students and trainees
progressed to this final stage after intense competition following a nationwide campaign to attract the best young talent in the trade. The resurgence in interest in craft industry and bespoke tailoring in particular, makes this year’s competition the most keenly anticipated for several years. The standard was such that all the finalists can expect a bright future in the trade. The finalists presented their finished garments, shown by professional models on a catwalk, to a panel of top bespoke tailors and to an audience selected from the worlds of finance, fashion, tailoring and the industry’s
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