The first female tailor to ever open her own store on London's historic Savile Row today told the Evening Standard that she was “pinching herself” at the prospect.
Kathryn Sargent’s name will now stand alongside other legendary designers such as Hardy Amies, Henry Poole and Ozwald Boateng in W1.
It was 213 years ago that tailors started to descend on the Mayfair street and it is now synonymous with dashing elegance and style.
Sargent, 41, previously worked at Gieves & Hawkes for 15 years (where she was the first woman to be made head cutter at a Savile Row tailor) before opening her own store on Brook Street in 2014. She has made bespoke suits for the likes of the royal family and David Beckham.
The suits come with a suitably snazzy price tag. A bespoke two-piece suit will cost upwards of £4,200, while made-to-measure suits start at £1,500. Sargent also intends to make tailoring for women at her shop.
“I have been very welcomed,” she told BBC Radio 4 this morning. “Savile Row is very much a community and women are welcomed into the business. It was very unusual, some 20 years ago when I started, for me to be in the cutting room and for me to be training but I have had a lot of positive feedback and a lot of support from my colleagues on Savile Row.”
She says she was an anomaly while studying, telling the Daily Telegraph that there “weren’t many women doing menswear at college.”
But with more visibility of female talent on the inherently masculine street, hopefully we will soon see more women’s names above the doors on Savile Row.
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