by Adria Mirabelli
London’s Fashion hub and arguable boys club, Saville Row, gained its first womenswear shop back in September 2020. Making history as the first women's contemporary tailoring house with a shop front on the street, it has since been met with rapid rise of success.
Although only a short while since its opening, the success of the female-led tailoring brand has been demonstrated through its recent upgrade. Their London Atelier space has relocated from 19 to 32 Savile Row meaning it now occupies one of the largest storefronts on the esteemed street.
The Deck is a contemporary made-to-measure women’s tailoring brand founded by Daisy Knatchbull. Previously working as the communications director at Huntsman, a well-known tailor on the Savile Row that served as inspiration for The Kingsman films, Knatchbull recognized the massive gap in made-to-measure luxury suiting for women. Naturally, Knatchbull decided to fill this gap.
Having worked to create strongly silhouetted suiting for women, the aim of each item is to make their wearer feel powerful in their bodies. By offering made-to-measure services for each client, the model allows for more sizing inclusivity and customisation. In the London atelier, all patterns are cut by in-house female pattern cutters.
The brand’s current campaign titled, “Tailoring the Trailblazers”, features women who are leaders and innovators in their respective fields. The women are immaculately styled in the various cuts of suiting available at the house. Each person who is profiled has shared what they believe it means to be a woman, with answers varying from vulnerability, to strength and freedom.
A historically male-dominated street known for its long history of tailoring, Savile Row was ironically named after Lady Dorothy Savile, wife of the third Earl of Burlington.
During the 19th century the street was occupied by prominent men in society at the time, such as politicians and playwrights. In 1790, bespoke men’s tailors began to open up shop and, in 1846, Henry Poole arrived. Poole is credited as designing the first men’s dinner jacket.
The 1990s introduced the new bespoke movement with Oswald Boateng, Richard James, and Timothy Everest being notable tailors of the period. A young Alexander McQueen would even later train as an apprentice on the famous street.
However, despite this rich history of tailoring and craft evident on Savile Row, there hadn’t ever been a dedicated tailoring house for women until The Deck was born only 2 and a half years ago.
The tailoring house’s name is inspired conceptually by the idea of a deck of cards and the four suits within it. The Deck’s garments are produced in majority by a family-run tailoring studio in Porto, Portugal with limited one-off bespoke pieces made in London.
The speedy growth of The Deck’s women-focused atelier on esteemed tailoring street, Saville Row, marks an exciting future in the world of bespoke British fashion.