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| Sarah Wilkinson military tailor at Dege & Skinner of Savile Row |
Dege & Skinner’s military tailoring specialist Sarah Wilkinson joined the bespoke tailoring and shirt-making company based in Savile Row in 1983. During her forty year career she has worked on some striking pieces of military tailoring including uniforms for the Royal Family, The Yeoman of the Guard, the Guards regiments and The Royal Company of Archers, which acts as the Sovereign’s official bodyguard in Scotland. She was a trailblazer for women working on Savile Row and has been forty years at Dege & Skinner, who hold the Royal Warrant for work on these specific and historic uniforms.
Sarah told me that, in her teens, she was determined to find an apprenticeship in tailoring but, as was the attitude in the early eighties, she was told many times that tailoring was a man's trade. She persevered and eventually was offered an apprenticeship my Michael Skinner, then Managing Director at Dege & Skinner, joining the company at the age of sixteen and starting in August 1983.
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| The intricate work required to make a Yeoman of the Guard uniform |
She trained in both military and civilian tailoring, from making naval uniforms at the time of the Falklands War to attending the Queen's Birthday Parade and seeing the uniforms she had made being worn for The Trooping of the Colour.
Sarah began to specialise in military uniforms, attracted by the wide variety of technical skills required to produce their unique shapes, sew their quilted linings and attach the ornate braids with which they are often decorated.
Examples of Sarah’s work include:
- The Royal Lancers uniform that featured in Victoria & Albert Museum's 2014 exhibition titled 'What Is Luxury?' and now part of the official archive at the Museum.
- Prince Harry's wedding day frock coat when he married Meghan Markle in 2018; as well as the attending Page Boys who wore miniature versions of Prince Harry's Blues & Royals Mess Kit.
- HRH Prince Louis' doeskin tunic that worn at the Coronation of His Majesty King Charles III in 2023.
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| Sarah Wilkinson shows more of her military tailoring work at Dege & Skinner |
Sarah is always busy as their work is so niche and she finds herself making uniforms for non-military clients attracted by their colour, design and the skills involved in their construction. Above all she feels great pride in looking back over her work of 40 years, which has helped establish Dege & Skinner as a leading military as well as civilian tailor. As the owner of two bespoke suits from Dege & Skinner I can confirm the exceptional quality of their work.
With many thanks to Sarah Wilkinson and Dege & Skinner
