How Thom Sweeney Redefined Modern British Tailoring

On the top floor of Thom Sweeney’s beautiful townhouse on Old Burlington Street in Mayfair sits a bar called Sol’s – a perfectly formed little clubhouse for clients and friends and colleagues, which glows and hums with conversation and clinking glasses several nights a week. Perhaps this speaks to how Thom and Luke, the house’s co-founders, go about their tailoring business: as hosts and friends, first and foremost; the sartorial equivalent of those great hotel barmen of the continent, quick with a light or a joke or a piece of advice – or just a very good martini. Next year, Thom Sweeney will turn 20, following a slow and steady ascent from a basement in Mayfair to becoming one of the biggest success stories in modern British style. The two men say they’re not quite sure how they’ll celebrate yet – but they know it will definitely involve some decent food and drink.

Luke: I was introduced to the tailoring world through Timothy Everest at a very young age. At the time, tailoring wasn’t a young business. It was very old and stuffy in many senses.

And when I was first introduced to Thom, I thought: “Well, there’s another young guy that’s interested in tailoring.” He was training to be a cutter at the time, and there was immediate alignment. We were from very similar backgrounds. I think it was fate, us meeting at Timothy Everest.

Thom: Growing up, I remember my granddad was always immaculately dressed. That stuck in my head – how he always cared about how he looked and came across. And then, if I was buying a pair of football boots as a nine-year-old, I’d get really into the colours and the design and the make. That transcended into trainers and then onto the shirts– but always with an aspect of appreciating what it felt like and how it was made.

Luke: Our first-ever space was on a cul-de-sac on the wrong side of Oxford Street, called Stratford Place. We ended up taking a very small room. The rent was 500 quid a month. We had a mirror, a cutting board where Thom was cutting, and I was measuring and fitting guys. We had one jacket-maker in there who was making the handcrafted jackets. That was the first Thom Sweeney space. It was probably the most unglamorous basement in Mayfair. There was damp in the walls and it wasn’t great, but we made it work.

Luke: Savile Row is something we have to nurture, in some ways. We can’t lose sight of how important it is for London and for the UK internationally. I think it’s going to go through ups and downs like any brand, if we can call it that. But I think we have to take care of it and be proud of it.

Thom: I think the Brits do a good job when it comes to style. Take someone like King Charles when he travels abroad: it’s not only how he looks, but how he holds himself. The elegance that a well-dressed Brit can have is huge. I think that’s why we have such a good reputation wherever we travel. And we’ve really benefited from that.

Luke: I always say to our guys that work in our stores: we’re in the same business as hospitality, restaurants or hotels. We’re in the business of taking care of people, making them feel good, and giving them the best experience we can. The idea of Sol’s is very, very close to our heart. It’s something we’re integrating into our business very subtly and slowly. It was Thom’s idea, actually, when we first opened our shop on Old Burlington Street. We had this top floor of the townhouse that we didn’t know what to do with. Thom said, “Why don’t we turn it into a little club-room for our customers and take care of them?” We decided to name it Sol’s, after my father-in-law, who had just passed away and was very close to us. He mentored us in many ways. It felt fitting. He was a great South African hotelier; a great hospitality guy.

Thom: In many ways you could say that some of his character always ran through the business. Sol gave us one of the mottos that we say a lot to the guys in the store: “Blow away the customer.” Ultimately, that’s our job.

Luke: My dad was also an immaculately dressed bloke, and he’d always say to me, “It’s okay to be skint, but not okay to look skint.” I say that to my staff if their shoes are not polished or their shirt’s not pressed.

Thom: The company turns 20 next year, but we always tend to be looking ahead, really, which sounds clichéd – but you start feeling old when you’re looking back too much. It feels like there’s still so much to do.

Luke: The world is such a crazy place, and things can happen and move so quickly. You don’t want to get too fixated on stores or dates. But I think we’re going to get to seven to 10 spaces quite quickly now, and the ready-to-wear business has given us that opportunity to grow. Obviously, the bespoke is the heartbeat, and something we’ll protect and nurture and always champion, because that’s our DNA, and that’s what we’re about. So I don’t know where we’re going to be in 20 years’ time. Hopefully alive… That would be a good start!