No. 14 Wickham Row, London
Custom tailored suits for men, drafted to a paper pattern that exists for your body alone and made by hand in England. Twelve weeks. Three fittings. One cutter, who keeps your pattern for life.
Established 1948
House cloth · Charcoal herringbone
11oz · Glenrothie Mill, Selkirk
34
Measurements taken
3
Fittings before delivery
68
Hours of handwork, minimum
1948
Patterns kept since
The word is unprotected in law, so it is worth being exact about it.
A pattern is drafted on paper for you, by hand, from nothing. It is not an existing block adjusted at the seams — that is made-to-measure, and it is a perfectly good thing, but it is not this.
Your pattern is cut by one of three cutters, and that person stays with you. They will know that you stand with your weight on your left leg, that your right shoulder sits 9mm lower than your left, and that you keep a phone in the inside breast pocket. None of that is written on a size label.
The garment is then made in the workshop above the cutting room: canvas pad-stitched by hand, buttonholes worked with silk twist at roughly forty minutes each, and the whole thing pressed over a ham and left to hang for four days before you see it. Around 68 hours of work for a two-piece, and rather more if the cloth has a stripe to match.
The Collection
Everything below is a starting point rather than a product. Any detail can be changed, and most clients change three or four.
10–12 weeks · 3 fittings
Single-breasted, two button, soft shoulder
The house cut, and the suit four in five clients order first. A lightly padded shoulder, a high armhole, and a waist that follows you when you sit down.
12–14 weeks · 3 fittings
Six-button waistcoat, higher gorge, closer skirt
A formal register without a black tie. The waistcoat is cut to sit 20mm below the trouser waistband so no shirt shows when you reach across a table.
12–14 weeks · 3 fittings
Peak lapel, grosgrain facing, midnight blue
Cut in midnight blue barathea rather than black, because black reads flat under photographic light and midnight reads deeper than black in a lit room.
14–16 weeks · 3 fittings
Double-breasted, six on three, full skirt
Cut to go over a three-piece without straining the back seam. Hem falls at mid-calf, which is the only length that reads as deliberate in the rain.
8–10 weeks · 2 fittings
Three roll two, patch pockets, unstructured
The least formal thing we make and the hardest to cut well. No shoulder padding at all, so every fault in the balance shows immediately.
10–12 weeks · 3 fittings
High-twist worsted, unlined shoulder, packs flat
For clients who wear a suit in three time zones a week. Cut in high-twist cloth that recovers from a suitcase overnight without a press.
From first handshake to delivery
90 minutes
We talk about what you already own, what you wear it for, and what has never fitted properly. No cloth is chosen yet and nothing is measured. Most of this hour is spent watching how you stand.
45 minutes
Thirty-four measurements, plus posture notes: a dropped right shoulder, a forward neck, a fuller blade. The notes matter more than the numbers and they stay in your file for life.
One sitting
Two hundred and forty lengths in the book. We narrow it to five before you arrive based on the consultation, then decide every detail down to the button horn and the pocket count.
2 weeks
Your paper pattern is drafted by hand and cut by one cutter, who will keep it for as long as you are a client. Roughly 5.2 metres of cloth is struck for a two-piece.
Week 6
The garment arrives held together with white basting thread and chalk marks, no sleeves finished, no buttonholes cut. It looks alarming. This is the fitting where the suit is actually made.
Weeks 9–12
A second fitting on the near-complete garment, then the buttonholes are worked by hand — about 40 minutes each — and the whole thing is pressed over a ham and hung for four days before you collect it.
The Cloth Book
Charcoal Herringbone
Glenrothie Mill, Selkirk
11oz · Three seasons
Navy Chalk Stripe
Glenrothie Mill, Selkirk
12oz · Autumn to spring
Slate Birdseye
Ravenshaw & Daughters, Huddersfield
11.5oz · Three seasons
Stone Fresco
Pellandro, Biella
9.5oz · High summer
Ink Wool-Mohair
Pellandro, Biella
10oz · Summer, evening
House Midnight Barathea
Woven to our specification
12oz · Evening, year round
Mid-Grey Flannel
Bramwell & Sons, Stroud
14oz · Autumn to spring
Moss Donegal
Kilbarron Weavers, Co. Donegal
24oz · Deep winter
Fawn Covert
Ravenshaw & Daughters, Huddersfield
22oz · Deep winter
Olive Glen Check
Glenrothie Mill, Selkirk
13oz · Autumn to spring
From the client book
I had worn off-the-peg for nineteen years and assumed my right shoulder was the problem. It was not. It was every jacket I had ever bought.
Idris Fenwick
Barrister · Six commissions since 2016
The basted fitting is genuinely unnerving — it arrives looking like a wreck held together with white thread. Then it comes back and it is the best thing you own.
Hal Okonjo-Reid
Orchestral conductor · Midnight dinner suit
Nine years on, my first two-piece has been re-waisted twice and rebuttoned once. It has cost me less per wear than the shoes.
Anselm Boateng
Vintner · Wickham two-piece, 2017
No obligation, no deposit
Nothing is measured and no cloth is chosen. We talk, you stand up and sit down a few times, and at the end of it you will know whether this is worth twelve weeks of your patience.
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