I started my apprenticeship in April 1960 with Kilgour French and Stanbury. My training was with a tailor who specialized in making coats. This also included overcoats, evening wear and waistcoats. Once a week I attended evening classes learning cutting.

 

After four years of training as an apprentice tailor (this was about the average time) I was able to start working for Kilgour's as a tailor. I was there for about a year and then left to work for a company called Chapmans in Piccadilly. Again, I moved on and acquired a work shop in Meard Street, Soho. I was 19 at the time and my mother had to sign the legal documents as I was too young.

 

I started working for Welsh and Jeffries in St. James where, at that time, a very young Edward Sexton was working as a cutter. I knew Edward from Kilgour's where he had been an under-cutter. Edward went on to greater things by joining Tommy Nutter and opened "Nutters"on Savile Row. In the early 70s, I worked for Peter Moore, Nutters, Haywards, the Helman Bros, Edward Sexton, Lew Fuirst, Bobby Valentine and Robbie Stanford.

 

In the mid 70s, I was involved with a theatre company and in 1976 won The Scotsman award at the Edinburgh fringe festival. At this time, I was working for Doug Hayward in his shop as an alteration tailor. This meant I could come and go as I pleased which allowed me to go to auditions, rehearsals or touring.

 

Haywards at that time was known as the celebrity tailors so I made and met everyone from Kirk Douglas to John Mills. You can name anyone in the film or theatre industry at that time and I'll bet we made for them, including the Bond films. By the 80s, I had acquired a work shop in Kingly St. and had started building up my own client base. In 1985, the FT gave me a great boost by writing about me in their Saturday paper. Around 1995-6, Doug Hayward put my name forward to run the bespoke business at Sulka on Old Bond St.

 

In 2000, I went to work for Dunhill and at that time I was asked by Stella McCartney to make the kilt jacket for Guy Ritchie and Madonna's wedding. When Stella opened up her flagship store in Bruton Street in 2003, she asked me to join her as the bespoke tailor and I've worked with her ever since.