As part of our Fashion group’s suit project, they were super lucky to receive a visit from renowned Brighton-based tailor, Gresham Blake. Their mission is to explore, reinvent and redesign all aspects of what we think we know of the humble suit.
On Gresham’s arrival he shared his back story and how he first got into world of fashion. It was his mum who first taught him to use a sewing machine, which ignited a passion for creativity leading to him studying a foundation art degree at Brighton University. In his gap year he made a couple of suits for some celebrity friends of friends and knew that tailoring was for him. Word of Gresham’s talent spread fast and he quickly rented a space to allow him to put all of his designs down on paper. He sold his first few suits for a couple of hundred pounds but soon realised that once a price has been set lower than it should be, it’s difficult to raise it.
It wasn’t long before Gresham was making a series of small but scary steps in his career. He was one of the first tailors to offer made-to-measure suits, using existing patterns and making minor adjustments to fit a person more comfortably. Gresham quickly built up a reputation for his traditional and bespoke suits. As much as he enjoyed this particular type of clothing and tailoring, it was very time consuming, hence some of his expensive price tags! He later moved onto producing corporate-wear filling a big gap in the market by offering a new range of products.
Master tailor Gresham explained the tediousness of working to seasons, one way around this is to “just do exactly what you want to do” he explained! When working in a demanding and time consuming industry, you also need to find hobbies. One of Gresham’s interests is in exciting and innovative (and some times extravagant) photo-shoots to showcase his work (some have cost up to £8000!). Gresham’s clients tend to be younger than him and his brand has a bit of a cult following, his passion comes from wanting to make clothing that he can’t go out and buy anywhere else. Some of his clients include Rizzle Kicks, Plan B and Banksy!
Gresham was very keen to see some of the students’ designs, sketches and mood boards! Out of the kindness of his heart, Gresham is donating some A4 layout paper to help our budding fashionistas with a new sketching technique. We want to thank him for his time, and look forward to his return when our students have finished their project!
If you’ve got a keen interest in the fashion industry and would like to meet some of the experts, take a look at our Level 2 Fashion course.
