During the summer my thoughts were solicited by THINK, a style magazine based in Dubai. It was running an article on the latest in bespoke tailoring and how a personal ‘image’ is so important even in the highly regimented worlds of international business and finance. It was especially encouraging for me that the magazine’s correspondent, Ashlee Beard, chose to mention the female angle to high quality tailoring, especially in the context of personal branding. I’ve already expl

I was thrilled recently to speak alongside a representative from the global brand Jaeger about women’s tailoring. We were both making a contribution to the Victoria & Albert Museum’s continuing series of lectures on fashion which has involved iconic figures such as Zandra Rhodes and Twiggy. Jaeger is currently celebrating its 125th anniversary. It is an iconic brand which has always specialized in the use of natural fibres, including the so-called noble fibres such as angor

I have a number of autumn/winter trousers in production at the moment. As I was putting the final hand stitches into a blue birdseye wool pair it struck me how, in a small but symbolic way, this garment had contributed to the emancipation of women in the workplace. Courrèges ‘in mid-sixties Europe was a major influence in transforming the combination of matching jacket and trousers into “acceptable formal wear for daytime professionals” (‘A History of Fashion’ J. Anderson

“Annie Hall” hit the mark perfectly some 30 years ago in the eponymous film by Woody Allen. From top down, her combination of trilby, shirt and tie, waistcoat and chinos hooked a generation of women into the masculine look. Although she was by no means the first person to do so. Think of Marlene Dietrich and the allure of her androgynous cross-dressing. It seems that every autumn the fashion press re-visits this theme of masculine dressing and it appeared again in the Lon

In the midst of a hectic time here in the studio; a royal wedding in Monaco, early planning for the shooting season, and gowns for the BBC Promenade concerts, I received a call to participate in the filming of a short documentary for the Japanese national broadcasters NHK. They wanted to know more about the tailoring tradition and Savile Row from a woman’s perspective. They were very much aware of how the demand for tailored clothing is changing among women as their professio