INSIDE STORY

Our co-founder and Managing Director Sean Dixon ponders a few of the features of our fine new Clifford Street space and reflects on how we have come to be here.

We couldn't not have a portrait of Richard (above) here. We opened our first store on Savile Row in 1992 and we wouldn't be where we are now without him. He retired from the business a few years ago, but he remains with us in spirit and style as well as name. We are the only Savile Row tailor to have won the British Fashion Council's Designer of the Year award, and that is very much down to Richard's skill with colour and the progressive, design-led approach that he applied to tailoring. 

The first-floor fitting room (above) is sizeable but, importantly, it is also intimate. Having a bespoke suit made with us is a special, very personal process and the environment has to be conducive to that. We can advise with our bespoke tailoring, but we never dictate. To us it’s a collaboration, and we put the customer at the centre of the decision making so the final result reflects something of his or her character as well as fitting perfectly. 

This (above) is a relatively small selection of the cloth that we offer our bespoke and made-to-measure customers. We have some 10,000 British and Italian-milled examples in total, from incredible naturally-dyed tweed to perfectly lightweight linens and cotton seersuckers. We've always spent a lot of time sourcing the right cloth, and I have fond memories of flying up to Inverness to chose small runs of tweed when we first opened. as Richard once said: "A tailor is nothing without the cloth he cuts."

We want our customers to use this space and feel relaxed in it, so a bar (above) seemed like a good idea. Our shops have always been convivial, very sociable places that have forged friendships. I remember when Oasis, Elton John and Lord Brown all came in at the same time, and they all got on famously. An unlikely gathering, perhaps, but the thing is that we have always appealed to people with a certain attitude, rather than any particular demographic. I think our customers are the most adventurous on Savile Row.

This shot of the façade (above) gives you some idea of the size of what we now have here, which totals some 2,500 sq ft. A lot of our customers have been with us since we opened our first store and many of them have gradually moved from ready-to-wear tailoring to made-to-measure and bespoke, so there is a certain symmetry to the way we are set up. The ground floor now predominantly features our seasonal ready-to-wear collections, and there is more of a focus on bespoke and made-to-measure on the first floor, which is where the bar is too. Our cutters and tailors are all together in a beautifully light and fully-equipped workroom in the basement. And our admin and showrooms take up the top two floors. So it really is, as we have named it, Richard James House.

Richard James House opens today, Friday 1st March.

19 Clifford Street, London W1S 3RH. Monday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm