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See our slideshow of London's Bespoke Tailors.
Today, with the hindsight of having reached the pinnacle of his craft and the lauding and admiration of loyal customers, including fellow tailors like Bill Glass, Sexton is demystifying the trade and making the practice more democratic. He’s getting rid of an unmistakable Savile Row trait, the staid and solemn showroom, in the process. “This is much more relaxing than going into some of the places on the Row,” says Spooner of the laid-back atmosphere in Sexton’s petite atelier in posh Chelsea, which mercifully lacks the needless pomp and pantomime of the Row’s stuffy stalwarts.
Sexton made the move to Beauchamp Place, he says, because of the astronomic rents on the Row and because “this street has a long history of fashion, especially ladies fashion, and we have a strong bespoke ladies clientele.” The location—his website playfully announces, “You can take the boy out of Savile Row, but you can't take Savile Row out of the boy”—isn’t the only thing that’s different about Sexton’s label. According to Spooner, most tailors “have the same house style, which means they all give their clients the same look. We instead, try to understand who people are and then try to match their clothing with their individuality.”
See our slideshow of London's Bespoke Tailors.
Achieving that is, of course, hugely time consuming and quite costly, a point Sexton takes issue with. “It’s not a serious investment, it’s a sensible one. With our suits, even if you put five, ten pounds on, we can enlarge it. You can’t do that with a ready-made suit.” But the reason Sexton’s handiwork is in such demand has more to do with his incomparable aptitude than with rudimentary tasks like enlarging waistlines.
According to Spooner, Sexton’s customers “Are people who’ve had a few suits made on the Row and want something more—something that’s more exclusive and more importantly, distinctive.” They include everyone from Rupert Murdoch and George Soros to Jack Nicholson and Bernie Eccelston—a clique that can easily afford clothing that’s meticulously fashioned by his practised hands. “We’ve discovered that there’s a budding dandy in everyone and we try to give them a bit of panache to help them do that,” says Spooner. “Additionally, we can help compensate for their irregularities and help them accentuate their better attributes, so if someone has a large neck, we can bring that down or if someone is slightly portly, we can make them appear taller and slimmer.” Adds Sexton, “We don’t have a set formula or a set pattern, we let the customer lead.”
Sexton—who also makes distinctive shirts and has just teamed up with Milanese shoemaker Riccardo Freccia Bestetti to market a line of handsome handcrafted shoes—is expanding his portfolio beyond bespoke: he is applying his technical finesse to a ready-to-wear collection that’s set to launch in Milan this fall and appear in New York and in London shortly thereafter. “We’re taking on a wardrobe approach,” says Spooner, “not just selling suits, but a range of products, including made-to-measure, that we’re calling ‘Gentleman’s Diary.’”
Despite the whirlwind surrounding these nascent expansion plans, I am promptly called in a fortnight after my second fitting to pick-up my finished suit, a light grey flannel number with brown buttons, side vents, peak lapels and a ticket pocket. It is, in a word, beautiful. All the measurements and queries have resulted in a lovingly contoured piece of nine-ounce fabric that flows and follows each and every curve, angle and abnormality of my admittedly irregular body. “I’m extremely happy with it,” he says of the finished product and what is now the most expensive two-piece item in my wardrobe. “But just remember,” he warns with a sly smile, “It’s my suit. It’ll always be my suit. We’ll just share it.”
Read on for a list of the ten most prestigious tailors in London.
See our slideshow of London's Bespoke Tailors.
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