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I made this suit for my dear friend Tom, he wanted it for a wedding he was going to in Marrakech so we used a super lightweight beautifully soft silk/wool blend cloth, with minimal breathable lining and canvassing, so ideal for the hot weather. We also made cloth covered buttons which you can’t see in this photo. It’s completely hand made with hand sewn shoulder seams and hand made shoulder pads, finished with hand stitches and the buttonholes also sewn by hand.

Lovely photo!

One of many wedding suits made this year, Will chose a beautiful grey flannel and navy blue lining. (Many Thanks Will for letting me use this great photo on the blog.)

Shirt I made in exchange for a dubplate! the ORIGINAL MC ARMS HOUSE CHAMPIAN !!! (Tighten up crew / original 80s Jamdown Rockers)

Check the dubplate here: https://soundcloud.com/roots-hi-fi/sew-mr-tailorman-sew

An RAF uniform for the theatre, I also made (for the first time) matching britches and cap, more photos to come...

Another unstructured cotton jacket, great for the hot weather, no lining, no shoulder pads, just well cut cloth. I put white buttons on there to check the button placement but I think we’ll use horn buttons in the end, more photos to come…

A lesser spotted style of side adjuster.

This is above the pocket on the side of a pair of trousers, used to make the trousers a little tighter on the waist if required. With blue dyed real mother of pearl buttons.

A nice summer shirt.

We copied a lovely old shirt owned by the customer’s grandmother with ruffling on the collar and cuffs. The cloth is very lightweight, almost a voile, and the fit is slightly generous and airy, perfect for the summer.

The soft roll over button down collar, a classic American style, made in one of my favourite shirtings; a nice English pinpoint (similar to an oxford but with a finer weave). With real mother of pearl buttons.

I live not too far from Westfield shopping centre in Stratford and by some misfortune found myself there the other day. The above is a photo I took of a suit in the window of Zara, it's truly dreadful! I think it must have been designed for some sort of alien stick insect man, just look at those trousers!

Having had a quick look around at what's on offer, I'm afraid to say that from a tailor's point of view, it's looking pretty dire. Most of the middle range high street retailers like Zara, Reiss and the others were really not any better in construction than Primark, and the 'top end' stuff like Hugo Boss was really only marginally better.

Besides noticing the obviously rubbish construction and awful style, I couldn't help but notice that nothing is made in the UK, everything is made in developing countries like Bangladesh or China, while we Brits spend our time wandering around places like Westfield consuming vast amounts of the utter crap that it offers and at the same time creating nothing. No wonder our economy is up the duff! (I'm no economist but surely OVER CONSUMPTION + UNDER PRODUCTION doesn't add up?)

100% silk with silk lining.

Armhole.

I finished this rather snappy outfit recently for Despina in Cosi Fan Tutte at the English National Opera, I go to see the dress rehearsal next week, we'll see how it does on stage...

A few cottons ready to cut out, customers getting ready for the summer...

You really did an amazing job; it looks as if he was born in it; it doesn't look new, it doesn't look old, it just looks superb. The workmanship is out of this world.

Morag Cooke (The mother of one of my customers, Santiago Lago pictured in the last post)

Another happy customer!

Still some very minor alterations after the last fitting, lengthening of the jacket cuffs a touch, new slightly smaller shirt cuffs, but otherwise job’s a good’un!

Customer’s pattern for a classic double breasted jacket. We’re making an un-structured jacket out of cotton, with no lining, canvassing or shoulder pads, an extremely light jacket perfect for the summer. The button placement is slightly lower to lengthen the torso.

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