I had a really enjoyable evening at this year's Golden Shears Awards at Merchant Taylor's Hall in the City of London. Established in 1974, it's a bi-annual competition, championed by the Merchant Taylors Company, for tailoring students and apprentices. This year it was judged by a panel of celebrity and industry expert guest judges including model David Gandy, TV presenter and model Jodie Kidd, Atonement film director Joe Wright, designer Oliver Spencer and British GQ's deputy editor Bill Prince.
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| The Golden Shears won by Riki Brockman (Gieves & Hawkes) |
The competition was won by Gieves & Hawkes apprentice Riki Brockman (above) whose entry, a coyote brown dungaree with beige zipped waistcoat and single-breasted jacket in mid brown, displayed the mix of tailoring skills and creativity that marked the whole competition. Despite a profound respect for men’s classic tailoring, Riki’s main inspiration comes from the street and workwear.
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| Silver Shears awarded to Jorden Barratt (Couch & Hoskins) |
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| Matthew Erik-Beale (UCA Rochester) won The Rising Star award |
The competition was created to support young aspiring tailors from universities, colleges and in apprentice schemes while promoting the art of bespoke tailoring. The 2017 finalists included entries from London-based tailors and colleges such as Thom Sweeney, Norton & Sons, London College of Fashion, Huntsman, Anderson & Sheppard and Kathryn Sargent, with a handful from further afield such as Leeds College of Arts, Rochester, Hertfordshire and Glasgow.
It was truly exciting to see so much young talent and enthusiasm for bespoke tailoring. Tailors tell me that apprenticeships are heavily over-subscribed, so the view of the future of the profession has to be optimistic given the keenness with which young people want to work in it. I've been highly impressed by the apprentices I've met - their skills are always accompanied by creative instincts and a fascination with the technicalities of their trade.
The Silver Shears were awarded to Jorden Barratt, an apprentice at Couch & Hoskins in the City of London for her design of a short black riding cape with silver braid detail, tail coat with embroidered lapel and black trouser, and the Rising Star accolade was won by Matthew Erik-Beale, a student currently studying at the University of Creative Arts in Rochester (all shown above).
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