I studied History of Art and Architectural History at the University of Edinburgh and I ended up in the shirt industry by mistake, when I took a job working in a shirt factory as a sewing machinist to earn money while applying for jobs in the museum sector. 

I had some limited domestic sewing experience already: when growing up I used to watch my mother making dresses, always desperate to have a go with her sewing machine or get my hands on the shears. In one university holiday I interned with a dressmaker who also had a waistcoat brand, and it was there that I first used an industrial sewing machine, and where I caught a glimpse of pattern cutting beyond home sewing techniques. This unlocked a new way of thinking about clothes - 3D items created from 2D paper templates to fit 3D forms, and how these templates can be manipulated to create different designs. Having picked up the pattern-cutting bug, I began to make clothes for myself in my room at university and bought a sewing machine. Determined, and perhaps a little overambitious, I took on projects I had no experience in: making a ball dress for one sister, and then a wedding dress for another while working full-time in the factory, plus seven bridesmaid dresses, then another wedding dress, a further four bridesmaid dresses, a page boy’s outfit, a baby’s cot, cushion covers, curtains, children’s aprons, bibs, chef’s hats, wedding hats, the list goes on…

I was always inventing and making things as a child. I vividly remember the day when I made a pair of slippers out of some foam, feather fringing and a stapler - looking back they were frightful, but the very fact that I could put them on revealed that I could make things that were not only beautiful (as I thought they were at the time) but could actually be used or worn. Fast forward to my degree, when I learned the importance of the interaction between Vitruvius’s three qualities of good architecture - form, beauty and function - a balance I consider carefully in my work today. 

I left the factory to move to London and work in an office for a few years, but the desire to be a maker never left me: to create, be practical and produce something tangible, useful and beautiful in my work. I eventually left the office environment to pursue a career in shirt making on my own. I spent a long time learning how to cut bespoke shirts and, through extensive research into pattern-drafting techniques as far back as the 1800s, as well as trial and countless errors, I eventually settled on my pattern draft for cutting bespoke shirts. 

As a bespoke shirtmaker, my interest lies in the architecture of clothes, and in producing beautifully made shirts out of the highest quality materials, which fit properly. I use traditional techniques resulting in quintessentially English shirts, made in England.