Established in 1985, Mark Powell, one of London's most iconic and influential bespoke tailors. Renowned for his classically inspired tailoring, combined with experimental cuts and styling, he was one of the first to successfully bridge the gap between the traditions of Savile Row and contemporary street style.
Photography Charl Marais, Styling Minna Attala, Grooming Mary-Jane Gotidoc, Model Dylan Garner @Elite, Clothing throughout by Mark Powell Bespoke
Over the years Mark has dressed countless celebrities from the worlds of film, television, music and sport including George Clooney, Harrison Ford, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, George Michael, Bryan Ferry, Naomi Campbell, Tom Jones, Take That, Scary Spice, Jonathan Ross, Daniel Radcliffe, Usher, Paul Weller, Keira Knightley, Martin Freeman, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Sean Bean.
He has designed costumes for the British films 'Absolute Beginners', 'Shopping' and 'Gangster No.1'. He had a starring role himself in the BBC documentary series 'Soho Stories' and was recently a judge and mentor on BBC 3's 'Young Tailor of the Year'.
Basically I was into fashion from a young age, I had my first Levi’s when I was six years old, so it was sort of in me even then. I was a little bit young to be a proper skinhead, you know I’m talking around the time 1971-72. I was always one of the most stylish kids in school, by the time I was 13 the first thing that got to me was early soul-boy style, sort of around 1975, very influenced by David Bowie and all that sort of stuff. I started to go to tailors to have everything made up when I couldn't find it.
Nowadays they call them vintage, in those days we called them second-hand shops. You would go to second-hand shop to find the great 40s, 50s, even 60s suits, so that sort of graduated through to when I was 17 and 18 years old. Now I sort of doodle these trendy or fashionable things that have happened, so I was pretty ahead of the game with vintage I suppose. I had a sort of Rockabilly style and people kept asking me where I got my clothes from, so I started to think maybe I could do something with this. It boiled out of the idea in the early 80s when you could still do this sort of thing.
You would go to second-hand shop to find the great 40s, 50s, even 60s suits
I worked in up-market retail to start with, basically it was there I got my first job in 1985. I worked for a company on Kings Road called Robot that sold 50s inspired clothing and shoes and I managed their shop in Floral Street. I got my third shop in Archie Street, Soho, in 1985 and that's how it all began. So it was sort of a personal interest and then became something I really wanted to do, it was a PASSION always really.
My clothing is nostalgic inspired but I always make sure it still looks modern and contemporary, so it doesn’t look part costume or something you see in a Bugsy Malone film, if you know what I mean. I have done some pretty avant-garde stuff with women’s wear and have even done some interesting stuff with tailoring. I have far less one domination than most tailors, because I express fashion style through tailoring. My tailoring is more about style firstly, which is then about the craft of tailoring, you know. It’s fine being into the craft of tailoring and that goes without saying, it should be of right quality, it should be well made and it should be well cut. There are others who try to copy what I do normally but when someone over details things then it just loses what it is. I used to do flare-cuffs, but there are those tailors who have copied it and made it look like a funking Concorde wing. They don't know how to get the balance between exaggeration, subtle details and styles. I suppose it all comes down to detailing while still having a dandy edge, but equally not looking like a costume.
I never really had investment in the business
Most high profile thing ever I did was to work with George Clooney and Harrison Ford. I dressed George Clooney as Thomas Jefferson and Harrison Ford as Abraham Lincoln, I had good knowledge of 21st Century stuff, they were quite interesting projects. I suppose the biggest highlight I have celebrated would be George Michael for the Charity Aid concert, probably the best George Michael has ever looked. He was wearing that black and white tartan suit, and the Spice Girls when they met Charlie (Prince Charles) and Scary (spice) planted kisses all over him. Bryan Ferry, The Killers, most recently Keira Knightly and Usher, there's a lot them. Too many highlights almost, sports personality of the year Bradley Wiggins looked great in my clothes. Paul Weller in Vogue looked great and generally getting him reinvented and into tailoring again, funnily enough he started off being known for tailoring and he his been used for some campaigns wearing tailoring. Lots of highlights on commercial and corporate levels, the collaboration with M&S, it was a cheesy commercial and it was nice to do something with 'The Queen Mother of the high street'.
Now is quite an interesting time, because never really had investment in the business brand. But we are taking the business forward with investment and basically doing what we were doing obliviously, the tailoring itself is still the key to the PR of the business. We are going to build the ready-to-wear side of the business up a lot more. It is pretty amazing that someone could really have a lifestyle with just tailored clothing. We’re going to try ready-to-wear stocks in the shop, and we are already doing made-to-measure shoes, a shirt range, and the knitwear and ties. We are just going to build up a lot more and in about 6 years it’s going to be worth doing a wholesale. We were selling to Liberty and some incredible people before the credit crunch happened. But the difference now is that we are going to be spending a bit more money on Marketing and PR, which sadly you have to accept is the way forward because there is so many people out there selling shit products with great PR and marketing which does very well for them. So we are going work on building social networking with a bit more strategy and also prove that I am still so much into young style, which is what I was doing in the 80s and will be so cool now. Three buttoned Edwardian style is coming back around, the button is going to be low on jackets. We show it in one of the shoots, and waist coat things that have always been Mark Powell and at the moment are fashionable and that’s great for me because I can start doing something Mark Powell is known for. I got a lot stuff that I am not even expressing. It should be interesting period the next couple of years for me...
