What goes on “Behind the Seams” at a bespoke suit tailor’s workshop? Welcome to Part 3 of the series: vignettes into the day-to-day life at Henry Herbert. (Have you missed Part 1, and Part 2?)
This is one of the work tables at our London workshop. During the week, you will often find this table heavily loaded with swathes of cloth that have been ordered, ready to be cut. The cutting table is often draped in cloth, held down by weights, whilst our tailors strike a pattern. Bespoke suits and bespoke shirts are made to each gentleman’s individual measurements, or his personal “pattern”. No two patterns are the same!
On the shelves above the work table, you see just some of the fabric books we have – for bespoke suits, shirts, trousers, linings, waistcoats, overcoats, dinner suits, morning suits and jackets. Many of these will travel together with our tailors, when they are out at client appointments, to ensure that no client is ever short of shirt and suit fabric choices – cottons, wools, cashmere, flannel, tweeds in all imaginable colours and patterns. At Henry Herbert Tailors, we use only the finest British fabrics, sourced and woven in the UK. Our experienced tailors will guide you through the thousands of suitable fabric types and colours available.
Tidy boxes to stash our bits and bobs – buttons, pins, chalk, scissors, safety pins, measuring tapes, spare bits of fabric (we never know when those might come in handy), needles / thimbles / plasters (we find those tend to be needed in threes). We are particularly fond of the appropriate wording on these boxes: “expert tailoring”, a daily reminder of the highest Savile Row standards that we work to.
Finally, we like to keep our guests comfortable when they visit us. Dogtooth and Prince of Wales check work well on furnishing and accessories too, we find! You can either visit us at our Savile Row (Mon-Fri 9.00-5.00pm) or Gray’s Inn Road premises (Mon-Sat 8.00am – 8.00pm), or we can visit you wherever and whenever is good for you, with our Savile Row by Scooter service.
