When Kathryn Sargent, the first female master tailor in Britain, meets a new client in her London atelier she needs to “get to know their body”. So she asks: what’s your daily diet? Is your weight stable? Do you work out? These days she is toying with adding a new question. Does she mean: do you dress to the left or the right, sir? “No, I never ask that! It’s the pen. Are you on the pen?”
Caroline Andrew, who, like Sargent, is one of a growing breed of female British tailors who make bespoke suits for both men and women, wrestles with the same issue at her Mayfair studio. “American customers are happy to admit they’re taking weight-loss drugs like Ozempic or Mounjaro. But the Brits aren’t so open. If they suddenly drop three sizes, they tend to say, ‘I’m just eating really healthily.’ ”
Kathryn Sargent, the first female master tailor in Britain
SAM WALTON
Open or not, more wealthy consumers are injecting appetite suppressants and slimming down, and that is very good news for bespoke tailoring, a trade in which Britain still leads the world. Savile Row, the home of bespoke, is attracting new customers who want to spend thousands of pounds on wardrobes that show off their new figures. Existing Savile Row clients are doing the same and also paying for alterations to now-baggy old garments.
“It’s great for business — up 20 per cent year on year,” says Rosie Holden of Gormley & Gamble, whose atelier is on the fringes of the City. One in four of its clients, new and existing, is taking weight-loss drugs. “Women are aiming for a size 10 to 12,” she says. For men, it’s between 48 and 52 on the commonly used Italian scale.
Tailors are used to navigating changing body trends. “I’ve been through boob jobs and bum lifts with my female clients,” Andrew says. The pen is different, she argues, “because while the desire for big boobs and bums has faded, it looks like weight-loss drugs are here to stay. Clients tell me they feel so good they will be on them for ever.”
Many men and women who have “suddenly hit their weight goal” are going bespoke for the first time. “They’ve slimmed down, saved up and think, ‘I can invest in new clothes now,’” says Jemma Hunt, Holden’s business partner at Gormley & Gamble. A number of clients are experimenting with new fabrics. “They tell me, ‘I’m going to wear a thick velvet dinner jacket for the first time,’ ” Sargent says.
Caroline Andrew has altered the way she makes and sells suits to account for weight-loss drugs
Many existing customers who have lost weight are replacing their old suits with the same styles and colours in smaller sizes. But some are opting for a new look, one with a more cinched waist, or a double-breasted jacket because they feel the extra fabric will no longer make them look chunky.
Print and lighter, more vibrant colours are becoming more popular than the plain darks customers may have chosen in the past for their slimming effect. “We tell some clients, ‘These new colours are going to light you up,’ ” Holden says.
Weight-loss drugs are also transforming the way tailors make new suits. Most increase the seam allowance in new jackets and add side adjusters to trousers to make it easy to let them out if a customer lowers the dosage of weight-loss drugs and gains a few pounds. Many are also changing the cut of jackets to reflect their customers’ new posture. Men who lose a lot of weight tend to walk more upright, enabling tailors to create a more powerful, less hunched silhouette.
The business model is changing too. Andrew recommends that clients invest in slightly different-sized suits in their new slimline wardrobe, just in case, over time, they put back on a little of the weight they have lost. She also suggests two pairs of trousers with each suit for men, “one a flat-fronted, fitted pair, and the second slightly larger on the waist and seat, where weight usually goes first, with pleats. This gives you flexibility for 5 to 8 kilograms [11-18lb].”
As well as ordering new suits, Savile Row regulars want to have clothes altered. “Some have already invested hundreds of thousands of pounds in their wardrobes and are loath to let clothes go,” Hunt says. Alterations can run to several thousand pounds for a single suit.
Sargent’s work
SAM WALTON
In cases of extreme weight loss, however, suits can’t be rescued, Sargent says. “The jacket can end up too long and can’t be shortened because the position of the pockets is fixed. The ‘rise’ of the trousers [the measurement from the crotch seam to the top of the waistband] may also have to be completely remade.”
Weight-loss drugs may be popular — and profitable for Savile Row — but they are controversial. Critics say it is unclear if they pose long-term health risks. Some users report chronic nausea that prevents them from working, yet still continue taking them. The jabs are also expensive, costing up to £400 a month.
• Life as a woman on Savile Row: ‘I was treated badly but now it’s an advantage’
Tailors are careful not to judge clients. “Everyone is slightly vain,” Andrew says. “Also, there’s a lot of pressure on women and increasingly men to look good. There’s lots of things that you can do to tweak your looks. If you can afford it, and want to do it, you can do it.”
True. But the effect of weight-loss drugs is spilling on to the catwalk, with “Ozempic hips” becoming a noticeable new trend. During the four main fashion weeks in September the low-rise trouser silhouette returned, along with the protrusion of hip bones, either poking out of waistbands or outlined by a tight dress. A recent audit carried out by Vogue Business of 198 shows and presentations revealed that just over 97 per cent of models on the catwalk this season were a UK size 4 to 8. Only 2 per cent could be categorised as “mid-size” (a UK 10 to 16) and fewer than 1 per cent were “plus size”, a British 18.
After so many years of the fashion industry paying at least lip service to body positivity and “plus size” models becoming more popular on the catwalk and in ad campaigns, Holden concedes that “it does feel like we’re going backwards”. But she recalls a recent conversation with one new female client. “She told us, ‘I’ve been on every single diet. My portion sizes are normal. I exercise. But I just cannot shift the weight. The pen has sorted that out.’ Now we have sorted out her wardrobe and she looks and feels fantastic.”
For now, less is definitely more for Britain’s tailors.
Source link