Clothes! Been a huge fan of all clothing styles since i can remember. My old man was a trouser maker, so it's in my blood.
Photo of Suggsy wearing the midnight blue mohair suit I made him recently at the Madness gig at The Astoria. The suit is my 'signature cut' which is exclusive to Threadneedleman and incorporates the Zagonda link on the slightly flared cuff,(just out of shot).
Author and good friend Paolo Hewitt has been a long time customer of mine. His new book on the one and only Paul Weller is a great read
Paolo Hewitt by Jason Buckner
Sasha Behar, who was on the BBC recently in Messiah, and also played Maya in Coronation Street. lovely lady Sasha, been in the shop a couple of times.
Robert Elms of BBC London 94.9 fm, is a recent client to the shop.
"Dear George,I just wanted to say thanks again for my brilliant suit. I wore it for the first time on Monday to a posh do and it felt fantastic.I'm now planning the next one."Best
Robert
Client of mine, and all round nice fella, is World Champion Cruiserweight David Haye, seen here previewing his fight verus Jean Marc Mormeck on Sky TV wearing the grey suit I made him recently. Below that is the knock out punch that won him the title. Well Done David my son.
Get Your Own! | View Slideshow
The local magazine, Southwark life popped into see me recently, here's he little article that appeared.
Dean Powell (centre) is a client of mine. Dean works for boxing promoter Frank Warren, and is seen here between Joe Calzaghe and legend Sugar Ray Leonard
Steven Scott, World and European Double Trap Shooting Champion 2003. Steve's a recent client of mine and he has high hopes for himself in the 2008 Olympics.
I'd like to meet:
WHAT THE PUNTERS SAY...
Dan Cashdan "A wonderful service, personal and attentive. George provides the perfect balance between giving sound advice and encouraging client creativity."
Professor Bo Reimer "Second suit here, and just as good as the first."
Nick Andrews
"What a fabulous experience, my first ever bespoke suit and probaly not my last. Really enjoyed the friendly chat and advice."
Dean Martin
"Wonderful experience!! My first and not my last. George is a true craftsman and a true gent!."
Ian Turnbull
"Thanks for the suit - the only Man in london who knew what i was talking about. This could be an expensive relationship!."
Ed Humphrey
"So Pleased with the suit. You are very patientand have made a work of art."
Simon Robertson
"A thing of beauty is a joy forever. F*cking magic lad"
Ed Gray
"Better than I ever imagined. A greta experience from start to finish. Thanks George."Steven Bonner
"Superb and patient service from a first class gentleman tailor"
Simon Taylor
"Wonderful Service, great suit"
Andre Thiery
"Excellent, lets customer find his own style, very happy with the suits"
Gareth Briggs
"Brilliant!, I'll be back very soon"
Peter Bell
"Found via the internet, a very pleasant experience and a lovely suit"*****
Further info. on cloth/fabrics available and prices please ring me on 020 7701 9181 or contact me through MySpace or my other website which www.threadnedlemantailors.co.uk
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Music:
Stevie Wonder, Marvin, John Holt, early Tom Jones (oh yeah), Paul Weller, Aretha Franklin, that Darron J Connet aint too shabby
Editor V4.4
Movies:
The Harder They Come and Quadrophenia spring to mind...
Television:
Who gets time to watch television?...I'm too busy making clobber and being interviewed by Paolo Hewitt..
INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE DYER
PAOLO HEWITT: How did you get into the tailoring business?GEORGE DYER: I loved dressing up as a kid. This was the Sixties. My dad was a trouser maker and he made my school clothes. My mum used to take me to the school shop and I would always choose something the other kids wouldn't have. For example, I'd buy a blazer that was bigger than my size so I could put a vent in the back, that kind of thing. I always liked unusual things. Through your clothes you were trying to make a statement and although I don't want to call myself a rebel, I wasn't conforming.I left school round my 17 th birthday, which was round about '71 or ‘72. The old man said to me, alright boy, you have left school now the one thing I am going to tell you to do is go out there and find a trade because I don't want any criminals in my house. He thought that if you didn't have a trade you would go into crime. We had an upbringing which was strict so you listened to your parents. I loved clothes but I also loved music but my dad wouldn't let me get into the music scene because he used to be a musician and play guitar in nightclubs and stuff and when you're a musician you're around drugs and drink and he didn't want me to get into that, so he said anything but. So I took up tailoring.PH: What was your first job?GD: I managed to get an apprenticeship with a company in Fleet Street. It was called Dombey and Sons. They put a broom in my hand and told me where the kettle was and told to get on with it. After a while, they saw I could take instructions so two months down the road I was asked if I wanted to go tot tailoring college and learn the trade Which I did. I went to the London College Of Fashion and Clothing Technology in the Barbican. It was a three-year course. What I learnt there was craft tailoring which was everything pertaining to sewing, different stitches, how to make pockets. Then you had to learn padded construction, textiles, fabrics, all aspects plus you had to have an ability to design something. I got out of there with a City and Guilds degree.PH: Was Dombey a big company?
G: Huge. They had 38 shops in and around London. In fact, there was a guy called Dickie Wright who was the manager of the Southend shop and his son was Steve Wright, the DJ.PH: What style were you into at this point?
GD: Well, at school it had been the Fred Perrys, the Ben Sherman's, the loafers, the Sta-prest, but now it was the big blown out afro and wide trousers, more of a soul boy thing. I leant more towards the soul music and the jazz whereas a lot of my boys were roots or Rasta boys. But I was a soul boy because I liked clothes and the soul boys liked to dress up as well. So I finished my apprenticeship and stayed on with the company for twelve, thirteen years. I worked in a number of their shops – Seven Sisters, Jamaica Road, Walworth Road, Peckham, Berwick Street. In those days everyone wore a made to measure suit. These were the times when people couldn't go into a bar saloon without wearing a suit so there was a big demand for made to measure. The gangsters were about then, the Krays, the Richardsons, and young people would copy them. People used to wear ties and look smart.PH: What was it like working in these shops?GD: There were some right characters. I used to work in Brixton and there was an old experienced cutter working there who liked to be called Dick. He used to come in with 40 Bensons every day and smoke them one after the other. One in, one out, one in, one out. I said to him can't you give that up? It's going to kill you. He said, Mate, if I give them up that's when it will kill me!PH: Why did you leave?GD: Got made redundant. The sons took over and made changes at which point my old colleague Jimmy Nash who had worked in a shop called Sydney Fox as a boy, was approached and asked if he wanted to take over. Within a week the owner had died and I went to work for Jimmy. He was great, Jimmy. He was another one. He had this saying. He used to say boy, remember, there will always be fat men and cripples! You heard stuff like that all the time. I worked with him for about another twelve or thirteen years in which time he changed the name of the shop to James Anthony. There was always faces coming in like TV presenters and stuff because a lot of celebrities lived in the area, Camberwell Grove round there.PH: Wasn't it about this time that the tailoring business took a bit of a nosedive?GD: It started when the designer jeans and cords and that lot came in. When Armani, Boss, Conran and Smith and all these people came about, the old boys wouldn't buy them because they were too used to made to measure suits not off the peg numbers. But once they've gone….PH: So you did 13 years with James Anthony?GD: It was there and at Dombey and Son that I learnt the trade and I have got a lot to thank them for.PH: When did you start your own shop?
GD: By the late 80s, business had declined at James Anthony and I could feel that my partner Jimmy could at any point say to me sorry mate can't afford to keep you on. So before that happened I got involved with two friends of mine who were involved in the theatre side of tailoring. I had met them at college and kept in touch so I approached them. Long story short, we found some premises, bought the lease and worked at my father's house making theatre garments. Unfortunately it ended up in tears but suffice to say I gained a lot of experience out of that. When I pulled the plug I got some money which was paid to me over a period of a year which is how long it took me to get everything together to open up my own shop which I did in 1995.PH: When you started out what were you offering that people couldn't get anywhere else?GD: Although suits aren't as popular as before there is still a market. When I started the shop people told me that tailoring was finished and ten years later here I am. What do I offer people? I have a skill which I want to keep alive and there is a direction which I want to go in. That direction is to make Mod fashionable suits, suits that a Mod can access from L550 onwards.PH: When you say a Mod suit what kind of design are you thinking about?GD: I think every generation should make his mark. Yes, I can give you the essence but I'd like the customer to also make his own thing and put his stamp on it. In that way, the history of Mod can continue. It shouldn't just stop in the 60s, the Mod style should develop and this is one way of ensuring that. The Mod suits I make are not 100 per cent accurate to the Sixties but do have the essence of them.PH: You're adding your own twists to the classic design?GD: Not just me, the customer as well. I want the input to come from both parts. When I make a suit for anybody I like to think that it is us who are creating that suit, that it is us who are making the masterpiece. And it can work in many ways. You can come in with a picture or a sketch and we can work it from there. Or you can buy material from me or bring in your own material. Doesn't matter. It's a partnership.PH: Okay, final question. What's the greatest Mod record ever made?GD: ‘As' by Stevie Wonder.A Mod suit with customer supplying own material starts at about £425.
With George supplying material, £550
Appointments on 0207 701 9181
Books:
I'm lucky to have been featured in two books, both written by clients of mine. The new one that I'm in is called The Mumper by Mark Baxter and Paolo Hewitt . It's the tale of seven South London men and their adventures in buying a race horse. I , of course, play thier tailor. It's a blinding book, very funny, but also sad in parts, plenty of light and shade, just like real life. It can be bought hereI also like anything enlightening. I'm keen on alternative medicine, so I'm always studying that. Books on Buddhism. That Fashion of Football, the first book I appear in, weren't bad either.
Heroes:
Marcus Garvey. Martin Luther King.John Lennon. Bob Marley
