In Conversation: Mr Paul White, Personal Tailoring Consultant, Hackett

Accompanying my move to produce more industry focused features, such as my 'Spotlight on the store' series, I'm also embarking on a project to give my readers an insight into the young, new and powerful up-and-coming voices of the luxury tailoring and bespoke world.

With this in mind let me introduce you to my first voice Mr. Paul White, the newly appointed head of Hackett's personal tailoring service at the company's soon to be opened new flagship store on Regent Street. Paul is at the forefront of what for many is an exciting new movement in luxury tailoring and menswear. He's young and a talented craftsman, yet business minded, with a clear idea of the direction that bespoke tailoring and luxury menswear needs to take in order to keep growing and innovating as an industry.

Paul has Savile Row running through his blood, having trained for two years in Andrew Ramroop's Savile Row Academy before being apprenticed to Mr Ramproop himself at Maurice Sedwell, Savile Row. Paul has always been very appreciative of his training and the pedigree that a Savile Row apprenticeship brings with it: 'I was very lucky to get an overview of every element of the business'.

But crucially, it was the 'business' of bespoke tailoring that Paul had on his mind, and his move to Hackett marks him out as one of the growing breed of young tailors who are fast becoming the future driving forces behind the development of the London bespoke tailoring industry. Paul has been recruited by Hackett to help make changes to the company's personal tailoring service which will attract a younger clientele and he was only too happy to share his thoughts on the best way for the bespoke tailoring industry to do this.

'Many young men feel like they'll be inadequate or intimidated by the prospect of using a tailor. The fundamental thing that needs to improve is accessibility, to build the confidence of young men that bespoke tailoring is for them, and not just for them in a few years, that it is for them now'. According to Paul, the tailor is a medium for the customer, 'the paintbrush on the customer's canvass'.

'There should be no compromise and the customer should feel confident enough to be artistic and creative in designing his own tailoring'.

As both a young dandy and a tailor, Paul appreciates better than most that 'what you wear is a daily version of outward self-expression' and that it is the role of the  tailor to fulfil this for the customer, no matter what his personal taste is. 'Bespoke should be the realisation of exactly what you picture in your mind, and what's going to work for you'. A large part of Paul's role at Hackett is to illustrate to prospective customers and particularly the younger, trend-setting market, that this is what Hackett can provide.

The task for the bespoke tailor is to give his customers the confidence to know that they'll come into the shop be welcomed, and walk out with a garment that is exactly what they envisioned, with all the benefits of cloth, fit and construction that come with bespoke tailoring. This understanding has to be passed onto the developing entry level market, and to Paul, this means 'ensuring that we don't just advertise the possibility of bespoke tailoring, but what bespoke tailoring actually is, and the benefits it brings with it'.

'A brand like Hackett has the opportunity to bypass the traditional reserve of tailoring, make the market more aware of its benefits, increasing accessibility for our younger, and more establish customers alike'.

Its incredibly exciting to meet someone like Paul, who places the craft of tailoring first and remains true to its traditions. What is equally exciting, is that fact that many young voices in the craft, like Paul, appreciate that for the institution of British bespoke to keep going strong, the industry will have to innovate and accept that as well as a craft, bespoke tailoring is a business too.