A Story About Bespoke Tailoring

Andrew Ramroop is most definitely a traditionalist but with one eye firmly fixed on the future of bespoke tailoring. With prices starting at £5,500 a suit, these suits are certainly not for the faint-hearted. Andrew began his London training as a backroom trainee for Huntsman & Son in 1970, having arrived from his native Trinidad, West Indies.

Offered a position by tailor Maurice Sedwell himself, Ramroop mastered his craft, worked his way to the top, becoming managing director of the business in 1982 and then buying the company in 1988. Bespoke tailoring inhabits a somewhat rarified world and almost has a shroud of mystery surrounding it. Most Savile Row tailors won’t discuss who their clients are. Clients who buy bespoke suits say it’s like belonging to a very exclusive (and rather expensive) club.

Ramroop explains that his client base is far-reaching and wide ranging (from movie stars to diplomats), with clients as far afield as Texas (this client orders 12 suits at a time) to Abu Dabhi (seven suits at a time) South Africa and Nigeria, where businessmen have an incredible appetite for sewn tailoring. We know that Maurice Sedwell has clients in 60 countries with 70% of his business being from overseas and the likelihood with emerging markets like China, his business has great future growth opportunities.

He sees no slow-down in the appetite for custom-made and suggests that while Maurice Sedwell road is not usually thought of as a street for browsing, Maurice Sedwell gets at least one new walk-in client a week. Ramroop cites that while these are new clients, they have done their research and usually arrive knowing what they want.

International clients are a mainstay of Savile Row custom-made and neighbouring powerhouse Huntsman has recently opened a pied-à-terre in New York City to expand its US client base. Other Savile Row tailors have diversified into ready to wear, made to measure and even licensing, such as Huntsman, Gieves & Hawkes, and Richard James, who’s “Mayfair” line is produced under license. Ramroop doesn’t rule this out but for now the Maurice Sedwell business is really only about bespoke.

Maurice Sedwell also caters to women and Ramroop recounts that 25 years ago when he set out women’s tailoring on mannequins in the windows of his Savile Row store, that it causes quite a stir with other tailoring houses on “The Row”.

Lastly, in an age where fashion and menswear in particular is changing rapidly, added to this the impact of e-commerce and digital, Ramroop reacts saying that “Savile Row’s hand crafted method of fine tailoring cannot embrace technology; individually designed, hand-cut and hand tailored cannot be surpassed by technology”. For him “There will always be a place for luxury “Ultra Bespoke” regardless of the shrinking market. Many Savile Row brands sell ready to wear and made-to-measure but bespoke gives them respect.”