Sharp Suiter

There are no taxidermy busts mounted on the walls, no heavy wooden panelling and no Jeeves-like figure brandishing a tape measure and disdainfully taking measurements.

Instead, there are pops of colour everywhere: cheery silk neckties with bold geometric patterns, suits in hot pink and a growing collection of contemporary artworks. In the cutting room, a paper pattern hall of fame lines the walls, with names like George Michael, Benicio del Toro and even Andre Leon Talley among them. Walk down the stairs, and you’ll find yourself in Rich’s, Anderson’s ready-to-wear line, offering timeless, excellent-quality pieces for a lower price than bespoke. Savile Row and tailoring more broadly have a reputation for conservatism, yet shops like Richard Anderson are proof that you can honour deeply rooted traditions whilst appealing to the modern consumer. 

It’s clearly working, as this year, the shop celebrates its 25th anniversary, and a series of brilliantly crafted ready-to-wear pieces will launch throughout the year. But Richard Anderson isn’t innovating on just craftsmanship. Tailoring has been historically a male-dominated industry, both in terms of makers and clientele, yet a new wave of women tailors is resetting the Row’s sartorial standard. Knatchbull, the tailors set up by Daisy Knatchbull, has a wholly female tailoring team, and Ruby Slevin’s Banshee of Savile Row recently made history by being the first bespoke women’s tailor on Savile Row to show at London Fashion Week.

Molly Anderson, daughter of Richard, has worked at her father's business since 2019 and is one of the figures leading this new era of women's tailoring. Even as the Row's senior ranks remain overwhelmingly male, Molly is carving out space for the next generation — learning the craft from the inside and helping shape what the house looks like going forward. Because caught up with Molly at the shop to talk about her journey into tailoring.

Tell us the story of how you came to work at Richard Anderson.

I grew up with it. Dad’s career was in the background when I was growing up, but on the odd weekend, Mum would take us to London. At the time, it felt like another world: male-dominated, clothes everywhere, all these colours, everyone is a character. I think my dad hoped my two brothers would be interested in taking on the business, but neither of them were, so I asked if I could. He was insistent it wasn’t just going to be handed to me, so after university, he made me front of house, learning about the shop and the admin. When COVID hit, my dad looked at me and went “You know how to do everything, don’t you? Well, you’re gonna!” He taught me how to cut and strike in our garage and it went from there. It’s been the two of us for about seven years. Every day you are learning and you must be willing to get things wrong a lot of the time. I studied English at uni, where nothing was ever wrong; it was just, “Explain yourself, why do you think that?” Suddenly, I came here, and I had to learn how to be wrong, and that's the only way you can learn, really. Other cutting rooms have around 20 people, whereas we have just two, so it's really learning on the go. 

There is a vocational aspect to tailoring that is different from other areas of fashion. 

It is such a lifelong thing. It’s not just clothes, it’s everything else: looking after people; making friends with customers; knowing their lives; meeting their families. My dad's been doing it since he was 17 and he still loves it. 

It's evident Richard Anderson isn't some fusty, Victorian-era tailor: there's a lot of innovation happening here. How does your client base see innovation? 

You can't force it. The whole old-school, dark wood, stag-on-the-wall aesthetic works for some people, but what I love about Dad's place is that it's always been so bright, so colourful. From the get-go, he and his business partner Brian listen to what people want. 

When they first did ready-to-wear, people just laughed at them, but now it's massive, and everyone does it. During COVID, a lot of tailors panicked, whereas Dad just went, “Right, people want comfy clothes, so we’ll do things in jerseys and make comfy trousers.” If you sit down and think, “How are we going to innovate today?”, you're not going to do it. You just have to listen to people, see what the market's saying, see what your customers like, what other people are doing and see if we can do it better. You also have to be willing to do fun things. We've got sequin suits, velvets, leopard prints, and some people do laugh at us.

What's the most eccentric commission recently?

Brian Ferry wore a black sequin suit we did, which looked amazing on stage. Once we had leopard print cloth in the window, more of a display piece, and this customer comes in from Australia, and says, “I've got a wedding, the groomsman has told me I'm not allowed to upstage him by any means. I want that.”

How has your experience of infiltrating a traditionally male-dominated field been?

I have to acknowledge that because I was with my dad, who's a very well-known figure, my experience is probably very different from a lot of other women. My dad has always looked after me very well, but I do understand the door is incredibly closed, though it’s opening a lot more now. We have female-oriented shops, and many of our customers are very supportive of them. I do realise that we are incredibly outnumbered, hence why I'm on the board of Women in Tailoring, alongside many other big names in the industry, where we host events for young female apprentices. We are in a real moment where over half of the coat makers, people behind the scenes, et cetera, are women. 

You have other shops like Banshees of Savile Row and Knatchbull doing really interesting things with women’s tailoring. 

I think many women have paved the way before me, like Kathryn Sargent, Anda Rowland, Lindsay Taylor and Deema Abi-Chahine. There are still obstacles and it’s not always easy, but big strides have been made. Instead of there being just one person willing to do female tailoring, now there’s a whole multitude. When I first started working here, he said: “You’re front of house, we should make you something to wear.” He did it so easily. I asked, “Do you think we should be doing tailoring for women?” and he didn't even question it, whereas some just don't want to do it. As long as women get good training and it's not just lip service, we'll fly.

In your own tailoring, which eras do you like to draw from? 

I love looking at sketches from the 1920s, but at the moment, it’s probably the 1970s. It's those big lapels and big flares, and that moment in the feminist movement where you have women wearing suits in bold, out-there colours.

What suiting trends do you see coming about or what would you like to see come back?

I'm terrible at trends: I just wear what I like, so I have no idea! But I am seeing that when people dress up, they are putting on powerful clothing. The beige-ification aesthetic Instagram is lessening and fashion is getting more maximal and risk-taking. In our shop, we try to make the shape timeless, but we like experimenting with fabric. My latest suit has a conservative, businesslike shape but is in bright pink cotton. I like that people are going for big, out-there tailoring, and we're moving away from the jogging bottoms of Covid.

You can shop Richard Anderson's ready-to-wear collection here.