WHEN Nina Penlington pivoted from her career in the British civil service to making suits as an apprentice to top tailors, she subsequently stitched herself into the fabric of London’s prestigious Savile Row, the historic street internationally regarded as the golden mile of tailoring, where bespoke menswear has been crafted for icons from Charles Dickens to Winston Churchill and Elton John since the 19th century.
Since leaving London in 2024, she’s launched her bespoke, eponymous tailoring brand. From her attic workshop in Budleigh Salterton, a town in southwest England, Penlington — who is gearing up for her second UK trunk show this February — spoke to Reuters about her time on Savile Row, what the future holds for suits, and why you shouldn’t dress for anyone’s gaze but your own.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: What first attracted you to tailoring?
A: I had a bit of a funny, kind of slow, strange route in. I grew up in North Wales in a seaside town, a bit bigger and less salubrious than (Budleigh Salterton). My mum taught me to sew when I was three years old. I had a little hand crank sewing machine and we used to sew together.
I was a civil servant out of university for five years or (so). I worked for a minister at the House of Lords, which is a bit bonkers. I really felt like I was in the wrong place. I was just so miserable. So I quit my job and I went back to the London College of Fashion, which used to offer a one-year hand tailoring course. It really showed you all of the bits and pieces and allowed the students to figure out whether they had an aptitude. It was a really great opportunity to get my hands back into sewing, but I realized it wasn’t really the sewing that was drawing me in. It was the pattern cutting and that side of it, really.
I graduated from that course and then just happened to get an apprenticeship at Dege & Skinner on Savile Row, which was astounding really because they’re so rare.
Q: You’ve worked for many of Savile Row’s top tailors. Who has had the biggest impact on your style?
A: I had six months in New York where I studied a bit at Parsons (School of Design) and while I was there, I heard of this job on the grapevine back in Savile Row to be a cutter in Davide Taub’s team at Gieves & Hawkes. For me, Davide is the best living cutter in the world. In terms of my outlook on my work, he’s my biggest inspiration for sure.
Q: How has it been to launch your own brand?
A: I feel like I’ve built relationships with people over the last few years that have made them really want to support me, but also customers who have found me or re-found me who were determined to help me through the really tricky stages of setting up a business.
I still don’t have branded hangers or covers for any of that stuff. One of my customers was laughing, he was like, “Well, I’m glad you were thoughtful and frugal enough to not go all in on that stuff now because you could ruin yourself by trying to be too glossy.”
Q: What did it take to develop your Beatles-inspired “Get Back” and rock ‘n’ roll Western suit styles?
A: So, let’s start with the “Get Back” suit. For me, it’s literally a ’60s West End tailored suit; it’s such a classic of its time. I had a customer who wanted me to make that suit around when the Peter Jackson (The Beatles: Get Back) documentary came out. Paul McCartney wears it with a really rummy (collarless) Granddad shirt half the time.
There’s nothing particularly special about it — it’s just a beautifully cut suit in a really classic color that McCartney wears super well. And for me, it’s a really easy shorthand to say to customers: If you want a classic suit from me, that’s what that is. It’s a way of communicating an idea of a really classic suit that can be worn in a beaten-up way.
With the Western Suit, I have a large wardrobe of Western shirts that I’ve been collecting over the years from a great lady who works out of Salt Lake City. The suit was just this idea in the back of my mind for a really long time. I couldn’t quite figure out what cloth to use. It was only when I found this overcoating twill. A really hefty 15 ounces (that’s) rugged and refined; as soon as I landed on that, it all came together.
Q: How do you think dressing for the female gaze versus the male gaze applies to suits and tailoring?
A: I’ve been re-learning this stuff in the last year since I started my own label because for a very long time I just personally felt that neither of those things should matter. You dress for you and tailoring is a great level playing field for that.
The male and female gaze is kind of important in terms of sales; I’ve got to figure out who’s looking at that and who wants to buy it. But for me as a person, I don’t buy into it. When I want to wear a suit, it’s because I really want to feel great and powerful. If I want to feel a bit more feminine, then I have a different part of my wardrobe for that and you can mix those two together.
If someone’s coming to me for the first time and they’re a bit unsure of what they want, I’ll ask them to go back and look at their wardrobe and see what they’ve already got and see what they can wear this suit with already, so you’re not having to buy new things just to wear this one suit.
Q: What does the future hold for tailoring and Savile Row?
A: Every five years or so, the same article appears in the same place — it’s basically a rewrite of “Savile Row’s dead, suits are dead” and it was happening long before the pandemic and working from home.
I think Savile Row and tailors across the world have done really well. We’re moving a lot quicker with fashion and garment making than we have. I always thought that we were quite glacial about how trends move in Savile Row, but now people are making overshirts and all of the things that you can wear in a bit more (of a) casual way. It’s not fashion — we’ve never been fashion — but we’re promoting the craft and sustainability.
People who enjoy wearing good quality garments are going to end up in tailoring at some point because the stuff you’re seeing in high-end luxury goods (and) department stores is nowhere near as well made as our stuff. I think people are starting to realize that going to some brand name and dropping three grand on a suit isn’t worth (it); it’s not the same as coming to someone and spending a little more than that on a bespoke garment that’s yours. — Reuters
The perspectives expressed in Culture Current are the subject’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Reuters News.