To mark five decades of the prestigious Golden Shears Awards, Savile Row is hosting a two-week celebration during London Fashion Week 2025, honouring its long-standing role in promoting British tailoring talent and craftsmanship. British tailoring has long been embedded in the luxury world of the most discerning clients.
On the Row, tailors train for upwards of 13 years to refine their craft. Attention to detail and delicacy are paramount to the creation of a Savile Row suit, a garment whose historical and cultural value is profound. In this iconic showcase, Savile Row’s houses have come together to proudly display work from past entrants and winners of the awards, underlining the industry’s enduring commitment to apprenticeships and to training the next generation of bespoke tailors.
The Savile Row Bespoke Association
Savile Row is synonymous with the finest tailoring in the world, a reputation earned over more than 200 years. At its heart lies bespoke tailoring, and today “The Row” remains home to the greatest concentration of bespoke businesses globally. These include historic names such as Gieves & Hawkes (founded in 1771), Henry Poole (1806), and Norton’s (1820), as well as modern innovators like Hackett (1983), Richard James (1992), and Richard Anderson (2001). Today, more than 150 working tailors operate on the Row. The commissioning of a garment typically takes three or four appointments: initial consultation, a first baste (a loosely stitched outline for fitting), a forward baste (finalising fit, buttonholes, and details), and a concluding appointment to ensure perfection.
Additionally, between 50 and 60 hours of craftsmanship, often more, depending on the cloth and the client’s requirements. Savile Row has been at the epicentre of men’s fashion for over two centuries. Military coats, bridge coats, blazers, all trace their origins here, shaped by the Row’s naval and court-dress heritage. Its extraordinary clientele has included kings and queens, maharajahs, princes and princesses, film and music icons, as well as professionals and entrepreneurs.
The Savile Row Bespoke Association (SRBA) was founded in 2004 to protect and promote the art of handcrafted tailoring. Its ten member companies are all headquartered on the Row, with garments cut by master cutters supervising production. Apprenticeship training remains central to the mission: over 100 certificates have been awarded since its inception, each presented at Merchant Taylor’s Hall in the City of London. SRBA member The London Academy of Bespoke (The LAB) continues to play a crucial role in introducing and supporting apprentices across the Row. To commemorate this legacy, Savile Row now presents a free public exhibition uniting its tailors in honour of five decades of craftsmanship, creativity, and future talent, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Golden Shears Awards during London Fashion Week.
Threads of Legacy: 50 Years of the GSA
This September, Savile Row will transform its storied windows into a living gallery, marking the 50th anniversary of the Golden Shears Awards (GSA), often described as the Oscars of tailoring. Running from 15-27 September 2025, the two-week celebration honours five decades of nurturing British tailoring talent while looking out for the future. Across the Row, tailoring houses including Henry Poole & Co., Huntsman, Richard James, Dege & Skinner, and Clothsurgeon will present creations from past and present winners. A stunning party took place to celebrate 50 years, attended by the who’s who of tailoring with exquisite canapés by Elliott Grover at 45 Park Lane and of course, Savile Row gin.
The London Academy of Bespoke (19 Savile Row) will also stage a dedicated exhibition tracing the award’s history through garments, stories, and archival pieces. This year’s competition drew nearly 90 entries, with 25 finalists competing for three prestigious prizes: the Golden Shears, the Silver Shears, and the Rising Star, each accompanied by a cash award. Beyond the trophies, the awards reflect the patient craft of apprenticeship: years of repetition and discipline before apprentices are entrusted to design and create independently. As the 2013 winner, Emily Squires recalls, the Golden Shears offered her the rare chance to step away from the routine training to design freely, making all decisions on cut, cloth, and detail, a process that ultimately shaped her career.
The legacy of past winners underscores the importance of the award. Many institutions of Savile Row, such as Roxanne Jones at Dege & Skinner, while others, like Rory Duffy, have gone on to international acclaim, even founding academies of their own. Ichiro Suzuki, Silver Shears winner in 2011, credits the competition with launching partnerships that continue to define his work in Japan. At the centre of it all lies the competition’s iconic trophy: a pair of golden tailoring shears mounted on mahogany, a symbolic prize reflecting the workbenches upon which generations of apprentices have sharpened their skills.
Presented by The Pollent Estate, custodian of Savile Row, in collaboration with the Savile Row Bespoke Association, this anniversary showcase celebrates not only the garments but also the culture of mentorship, artistry, and dedication that continues to define the Row. For visitors, it is a rare opportunity to experience the evolving story of British tailoring, one stitch and one golden trophy at a time.
For more information, visit the Savile Row Bespoke website.
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Images (featured and in-article) courtesy of Matt Crossick/PA Media.