Bespoke Tailor moves into new premises.

http://www.sousterandhicks.com Geoff Souster is moving his business in Park Street, Luton and opening in Woburn under a different name, Souster & Hicks. It will be the second major development in his business this year.

(PRWEB) August 8, 2004 -- In January Mr Souster formed the new Souster & Hicks company with three master tailors who run the well established Denman and Goddard bespoke tailors in Londons Savile Row. The name Hicks & Sons -- from a business absorbed by Denman & Goddard in the 1900s -- has been partially resurrected into the new name, for the shop within a shop in New Burlington Street.

Hicks & Sons was incorporated in 1797, making it the second oldest name in the Row". The new set-up changes the direction of the Savile Row shop. With Mr Souster as its managing director, Souster & Hicks has begun to supply made to measure tailored suits to complement its bespoke garments, promising prices that will surprise most visitors to Savile Row".

Made to measure suits starting at 600 have long been a major element of the business run by Mr Souster in Luton, where handmade suits average around 1,200. A fully hand crafted in Savile Row starts at 2,000. Geoff Souster was one of the first UK tailors to introduce modern computer cutting systems and to reveal that he was using them for made to measure garments. Now his new business is unashamedly promoting made to measure techniques alongside the best of traditional hand sewing, for quality clothes at lower prices.

It is a sign of the times in which bespoke tailors talk of working in a dying industry" because of their inability to recruit young tailors to succeed the ageing craftsmen of earlier generations. But nonethless for Mr Souster it is exciting times. I have to admit it is a bit of a dream seeing my name in Savile Row. It has changed a lot, with many more made to measure shops now, but it still carries the prestige," he said.

Mr Souster, 53, whose wife Laura and sons, Scott, 27, and Wesley, 21, help run the local business, was born and bred in Luton and has worked in the town for 38 years, as employee and entrepreneur. He says it will be a wrench" to leave, but the terraced Georgian building in High Street, Woburn, offers more work-space and a location closer to the prosperous community of Milton Keynes which already provides a number of customers.

Mr Souster, who attended Dunstable Road primary and Luton Grammar schools and, briefly Denbigh High School, started out in his teens as an apprentice with W. Bell & Son in Castle Street -- one of 30 or so bespoke tailors in Luton in the years when there were no stores selling ready to wear suits. A five year apprenticeship augmented by training at the London College of Fashion was followed by a stint with one of the great names of Savile Row, Kilgour, French, Stanbury.

Then Mr Souster went to work for Leslie Andrews of Manchester Street, Luton -- an Oxfam shop today -- where he learned the art of cutting cloth. After nine years he broke away and started his first business with his wife Laura in John Street, Luton, in 1978. Expansion to George Street followed with partner Gerry Butler in 1982 and then came a second shop in High Street, Dunstable, in 1983 ,with partners Michael Fensome and the late Denis Dymond.

The business enjoyed many years of success achieving a turnover of over 1 million. But it was always a very competitive world. Hit by the recession, Geoff Souster Mens-wear went out of business briefly in January 1992 until Mr Souster restructured and formed Sousters in February 1992. Today he reckons he has got the formula for ongoing success taped. He said: We have researched our move to Woburn with our customers and we know that we get very few people who just walk in through the front door because they see the tailors sign. When you are buying at our prices, it is a pre-determined process and many people travel long distances to reach us, after discovering our website, Sousters.co.uk.

We believe they will be just as ready to travel to Woburn as to Luton." Bespoke tailors pursue two roads to a mastery of their craft -- one is hand sewing and the other is cutting, Mr Sousters skill, which is more difficult than it sounds. He explained: Its easy to make a beautiful looking suit but all that effort is wasted if it doesnt fit properly." Mastery of figuration, noting the idiosyncracies of each persons body shape during measuring, is crucial to the process. Round shoulders, or a dropped shoulder, are just two of the problems that a skilful tailor will do his best to disguise, and that process starts in the cutting of the components for the suit or jacket.

When Geoff Souster has completed his work with tape, chalk and shears, the pieces of cloth are given to experienced jacket and trouser makers. Customers who are happy to settle for made to measure garments at lower prices buy into a different production process. Measurements are tapped into a computer and transmitted to a manufacturer in Norwich where a state of the art cutting machine cuts out the shapes ready for machine assembly. This keeps the costs down considerably," said Mr Souster, although the same care goes into the figuration when the measurements are sent over".

Made to measure garments compete on price with ready to wear garments which are not tailored to individual shapes but common sense does not always determine where younger men, particularly, will choose their wardrobe. Mr Souster said: We are up against the power of the designer label, the Armani suit, for example, where the quality is usually pretty good. But some of these customers will come our way in their late 20s as their tastes change." He believes that computerised made to measure tailoring will be the future that his sons inherit when he retires. It is just not possible to recruit young people as tailoring apprentices even when you tell them they could make 30,000 to 40,000 a year later in their careers. They all want to be designers and be famous," said Mr Souster.

His bespoke craftsmen, two jacket makers and a trouser maker, are 65, 67 and 64 years old, respectively. When these tailors are gone, bespoke will die. Its the same throughout the industry. There will be no-one to do the work any more," said Mr Souster, who once had hopes of becoming a professional footballer but has gained immense satisfaction from his second choice. It is a people business that brought him into contact with such famous customers as the late Bob Monkhouse, TV presenters Matthew Kelly and Eamon Holmes, and recently Canadian ballad singer Michael Buble.

http://www.sousterandhicks.com

Souster & Hicks opens in Woburn in early October. Until then it is at 97-99 Park Street - tel 01582 721666.

Story and picture courtesy of Luton Business Monthly