Fen

From Savile Row to Railroad Street: That is the unlikely career trajectory that young British tailor Siân Jones has followed—and is glad that she did.

Scion of a family of craftspeople, Jones has carried on family tradition, mastering the needle and thread, a skill that gained her early entrée into the world of English high couture.

“My family were all craftspeople, they all mastered something,” she related. “When I was young, I knew I wasn’t academic and wanted to something with my hands,” she said. “At age 10 my family moved to France. I couldn’t speak French so my mom sent me to a specialized school where I found I was good at sewing.”

France was followed by enrollment in Bedales School in Hampshire, England, a prep school with an unconventional curriculum that emphasizes learning by doing. “While I was there, I focused on fashions and textiles,” she said. “When we graduated, we had a show to let people come and look at our projects and I was invited to work in London.”

At the tender age of 18, she went to work for the London firm Thresher & Glenny, a firm with a long tradition of making barristers clothing and military uniforms. She worked there for a year before entering the London College of Fashion where she graduated with first-class honors.

While in school she continued to work on Savile Row, the go-to location for shoppers looking for exquisite quality. With her degree in hand, she turned her back on a career in fashion design however.

“I knew if I went into the fashion industry I would just draw and design and I like to work with my hands,” she said. So she became an apprentice cutter with the 150-year-old firm Dege & Skinner which crafts clothing for the Royal Family. She soon transitioned to coat making but began to find the world she occupied to be “superficial and shallow.”

“I thought it would be my dream job but Savile Row is not for women, it’s very archaic,” she reported. “People get a certain mind set and they didn’t want to train a girl. I really had to convince people that I was in it for the long run. It was really, really hard and after a few years I had had enough.”

She listened to family members who told her that if she really wanted a change she should consider Camphill Village Copake, a communal farm in rural New York where some 230 people of many cultures and gifts live in a peaceful, rural setting. On its 750 bucolic acres, adults with developmental disabilities, students and long- and short-term volunteers live and work together.

“If you want the opposite of Savile Row, then go work on a farm in Upstate New York,” Jones said.
She intended to stay for only a year but fate intervened. She met her future husband, who was involved in the Hudson NY restaurant scene. The two moved to Hillsdale NY and, when the pandemic hit, she began sewing for herself, rediscovering her pleasure in the act of creation.

“It gave me an opportunity to kind of fall back in love with tailoring and sewing outside of Savile Row,” Jones said.

Through her husband’s connections she began to meet potential clients and realized there was a market in the Berkshires for her talents. “It was pure luck,” she said. “I met someone who was getting married and made a dress for her. Then I made another. I realized there was no one in upstate New York doing bespoke clothing.”

In 2022, as the nation emerged from the pandemic, she established FEN initially fitting clients in her own home. By June 2024 she was well enough established to set up a storefront at 3 Railroad Street where she welcomes clients seeking bespoke garments, fashioned in classic styles.

“When it comes to design, my personal taste is simple, classic,” she said adding that she avoids trends. “There is no sense in designing for one season when a piece can last a lifetime. Classic tailoring is ageless, and everyone looks good in it.”

She does not want the Savile Row ethic to permeate her business, however. “I don’t like being compared to Savile Row,” she says. “Savile Row is so steeped in tradition, like a men’s club. It would probably be pretty intimidating for most people to walk into a Savile Row establishment. I want people to feel they can just walk into my shop and ask questions.”

Walk-ins might choose to purchase some of the sample garments on display or be inspired to make an appointment for a fitting. If she is free, she may be able to do a fitting right on the spot although she noted that she becomes busier in the summer when the tourist season picks up.

Clients should not be in a hurry to get their garment. “Right now, it is eight to 12 weeks for me to create a finished piece. It’s important to enjoy the process and there might be two to five fittings if I need to make alternations. The goal is to get it right, not fast.”

Clothing purchased off the rack, made for a generalized profile, is often ill-fitting. “I’ve always loved fashion and used to go shopping in London but nothing would fit,” she said. “There is nothing worse than going in and trying on a garment and having it pull here or pucker there. Women have more complicated figures and you have to adjust for their measurements and posture. My goal is that they walk out with something that fits properly.”

With a six-to-eight-week lead time, now is not the time to seek summer garments. “They should always think about the next season,” she said. “In the summer, they should plan their fall wardrobes; in the fall, for their winter clothes.”

Given the rural character of the Berkshires, Jones has tailored her business to reflect the region’s relaxed lifestyle. “The commission doesn’t have to be for a three-piece suit,” she said. “For $350 you can get a shirt that is in your measurements, your design and you choose the fabric. You can order a pair of trousers that fit correctly—or that are baggy in all the right places if that is what you want. Or you can order a coat to walk in the winter woods.”

The quality of the fabric is the most important thing, she asserts. To that end she only works with English mills that produce fabrics of 100 percent natural fibers. “You have to consider what the client is doing, how they will wear it,” she said. “Cashmere is wonderful and can last a lifetime but for a more active individual you might want something that is a stronger weave.”

Business is now brisk enough that she subcontracts some of her work to European craftsmen. If, for instance, she creates a shirt for an individual who wants five garments in the same design, she creates the first shirt and sends the specifications to England where the additional shirts are made.

“I was able to reach out to tailors in England which has helped me to produce more orders,” she said.

And she is eying yet another niche market, sewing wedding attire for grooms and groomsmen. “I would love to tap into that,” she said.

Her shop is currently open Friday through Sunday, 11AM to 4PM. “I was doing Thursdays, but I am not sure of that,” she said.

Contact her at FEN@fenbespoke.com.