Anderson and Sheppard Apprentices

Jennie and I have been working on a navy blue velvet smoking jacket cut by Leslie Haynes,  it has been really fun to work on the jacket for this project.I always get excited when Craft Week comes...

Over the course of my apprenticeship I've worked on countless men's garments of all shapes and sizes. The way we approach each garment varies depending on the cloth, size, shape and style.Also in that...

My mentor Jennie and I visited the Abraham Moon & Sons mill last Monday. I had used their cloth to make the tweed jacket I displayed at the Dumfries House Wool conference earlier this year in Septembe...

Last Friday I attended the first ever wool conference held at Dumfries House in Scotland. The event was organised by Campaign for Wool and it gathered the key members of the wool industry encompassing...

I am currently making a jacket for a special event that is coming up next month and with every project or idea there is some sort of inspiration behind it. I always had the idea of using tweed to make...

Last Thursday was the launch party for the I Am London exhibition where myself and 59 other Londoners had our portraits displayed.The event was held at Central Saint Martin's building in Granary ...

I was recently selected to participate in the I Am London exhibition; staged by Historic England  the wonderful presentation celebrates the cities unique and complex identity.  The exhi...

For the last 18 months Matthew, Max and I have been working on completing our ABC Level 3 diploma in bespoke tailoring.The course consists of two main units:Unit one deals mainly with various working ...

When the jackets come back from the fitting, it is our job as the coat makers to give shape to the fronts.The tools used for this job and in general on any stage of the making process should be chosen...

Over the past few months I've had the opportunity to learn a wide range of new techniques. Jennie, my teacher works on a lot of specialist formal wear and I've been lucky enough to be able to assist h...

Philip Parker from Henry Poole, Su Thomas from the Savile Row Bespoke Association and Savile Row and Newham College Assessor Sue Fraser joined 61 apprentices and young tailors from many bespoke tailor...

One of my favourite fabrics to work with is linen; its firm almost tacky texture makes it easy to manipulate and mould. Although it can be tricky at times, particularly when the weave is loose.This pa...

I am currently canvasing a Seersucker cloth for a standard single breasted jacket. The thin all cotton furrowed fabric is woven in such a way that causes the threads to bunch up, giving it its wrinkle...

A short film for the Artist:Artisan exhibition directed by Joshua Bullock for So It Goes.www.soitgoesmag.com/filmsVisit the Artist:Artisan exhibition at the Maison Mai Non Gallery at 14 Greek Street, ...

Artist:Artisan, the collaborative exhibition between Savile Row apprentices and Central Saint Martins Fashion MA Graduates took place on Tuesday evening at the Maison Mai Non Fashion gallery in Soho.T...

We had the opportunity to visit the Soho Revue Gallery in Greek Street where “Artists: Artisans”, the collaborative exhibition between Savile Row apprentices and recent fashion graduates f...

Fashion gallery Maison Mais Non will be hosting a collaborative exhibition: “Artist:Artisan”, between a selection of Savile Row Houses, and recent graduates of the Masters Fashion pro...

During the last few months I've been learning how to make the different types of fittings. I began by learning how to close the shoulders of the jacket and distributing the fullness evenly. After the ...

The New Year brings me into the start of my 8th month as an apprentice coat maker at Anderson & Sheppard.  I’m excited to get even more experience this year, having learnt so much last year...

After studying at the London College of fashion, I started training as an apprentice coat maker under Peter Giorgiou in September 2013.After completing my studies at the London College of Fashion, I w...

The Anderson and Sheppard workroom at Foubert's Place has been around for about 8 years. I have been there for just over 4 years, first as an apprentice coat maker and now as a self-employed coat make...

Liberty and I were featured in the latest issue of Lula magazine, for a piece focusing on the new generation of Savile Row bespoke suit-makers. They asked us all sorts of questions, and we were includ...

One of the delights of working in a busy workroom such as the Anderson and Sheppard Academy here on Fouberts Place is that as we are training we get the opportunity to see and work on a wide variety o...

At this time of year we start to see a real shift with what is being ordered or coming back to us after a fitting. It might be the middle of summer but we are often working on garments that will be wo...

The year before last I took part in the Golden Shears. It was a great experience and I really enjoyed doing it. When the opportunity came to work on gaining a Coat making Diploma, I thought it would b...

Two years ago I sat in the audience at the Merchant Tailor’s Hall watching Sunna compete in the Golden Shears 2011 competition. Having been inspired by what she had achieved, in early 2012 I dec...

After over a year of preparation and many hours of work, the day had arrived. I went to the Merchant Tailor’s Hall early to soak up the atmosphere – trying to ease some of my butterflies. ...

We often have a collection of spare collars here in the workshop. They tend to be the result of a customer changing his mind on something, for example wanting an extension collar on a tweed jacket bec...

It’s now four years since I started at Anderson & Sheppard, and my apprenticeship finishes next month. From then on I will be self-employed and on my own – I’ll still be here, at Old...

The collar stand that a particular customer has varies with the length of his neck. It can range from an inch to an inch and a half, depending on what best suits his proportions.You would think that r...

I put together the chest of my second coat today. The first one was a few weeks ago – the people here chop and change the jobs they do day-to-day, no one just does one task, so I’ve been w...

I’ve gradually been mastering the sewing on of a collar, ready for a fitting, over the past few weeks. Overall, the making of a fitting (such as the basting shown above) had improved to the stag...

Last week I talked about the inspiration for my entry in this year’s Golden Shears competition: a three-piece outfit comprising pink moleskin breeches, burgundy woollen waistcoat and grey herrin...

As I wrote in last week's post, I entered the Golden Shears competition this year and had been working on my entry for the past few months. Here are a few details on what inspired me.I decided to make...

Last week was the Golden Shears competition, which pits apprentices and tailoring students around the country against each other. Apparently there were 80 entries, and I got through to the last 24 tha...

In a previous post I talked about the difference between the dry iron I use for most work and the steam iron outside with the vacuum table. I thought it would be interesting to mention more ways the d...

I usually use the dry iron on my bench for pressing the parts of the jacket I’m working on, but occasionally I will use the vacuum table outside (pictured here).A dry iron, as the name implies, ...

I started at Anderson & Sheppard as an apprentice coatmaker over in Foubert Place a few months ago. I had been studying at London College of Fashion: I was at the end of the first of my two years on t...

When a coat comes down to me to put together, ready for a forward fitting, I need to baste the cloth, canvas and other parts together as well as sew other seams permanently. On the front section of a ...

One of the first things I had to learn was cutting and arranging all the extra parts of the coat that aren’t cut upstairs – the pockets, the lining and the flaps. It’s called fixing ...

I’ve just finished basting a coat for a fitting. The last part was attaching the collar, which is just the backing of canvas and melton at this point. I cut them both out using a cardboard patte...

The first thing you need to learn if you’re going to work as a tailor is how to use the thimble. It goes on your middle finger and pushes through the needle that’s being held in your thumb...

I suppose I’ve been interested in working with my hands my whole life. My mother and father pushed us to be creative when we were children. We had a huge table full of coloured paints, threads, ...

When I get a suit down to put together, one of the first things I have to do is assemble the various parts of the canvas. The canvas that we put in our coats is made up of three different parts: hairc...