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Chris Georgiou, Bespoke Tailor

September 27, 2014
by the gentle author

“I’ve worked seven days a week for forty-five years – each morning I come in about half eight and stay until seven o’clock,” tailor Chris Georgiou assured me, “If I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t do it.”

Contributing Photographer Colin O’Brien & I were standing in his tiny tailoring shop situated in one of the last quiet stretches of the Kings Cross Rd. “You don’t want to retire,” Chris advised us, thinking out loud and wielding his enormous shears enthusiastically, “The bank manager round the corner retired and he’s had three heart attacks in three years and he now he takes thirty-five pills a day. He came to see me. ‘Chris, never retire!’ he said. A friend of mine, a tailor who worked from home, he retired but after a couple of years he came to see me, ‘Chris,’ he said, ‘Can I come and help you for a couple of days each week? I don’t want any money, I just need a reason to walk down the road.'”

Chris shook his head at the foolishness of the world as he resumed cutting the cloth and thus Colin & I were assured of the unlikelihood of Chris ever retiring. And why should when he has so many devoted long-term customers who appreciate his work?  As we discovered, when a distinguished-looking gentleman came in clutching an armful of striped shirts that matched the one he was wearing and readily admitted he was a customer of fourteen years standing. Thus it was only a brief interview that Chris was able to grant us but, like all his work, it was perfectly tailored.

“I started out to be tailor at twelve years old, to learn this job you have to start early and you need a lot of patience to hold a needle. My mother was a very good dressmaker and she made shirts, that’s where I got it from. In Cyprus, when you finish school at twelve years old, you must choose a trade. I always liked to dress smart, so I said, ‘I’m going to be a tailor.’ I came from a poor family and I couldn’t have gone to college.

So learnt from a tailor in our village of Zodia. First, I learnt to make trousers and then I learnt to make a jacket, and then it was time to change. After that, I went to another place and said, ‘I know how to make jackets.’ I told lies and I got the job, and I started to learn the art of tailoring. Then I came here in 1968, under contract to a maker of leather wear in Farringdon Rd but, after a year, I told my boss I was going off to do tailoring. And I went to several tailors to see how they do it in England and I bought this shop from one of them in 1969, just a year after I arrived. At first, I used to get jobs from other tailors doing alterations and then I acquired my own customers. 95% of them are barristers and I have never advertised, all my customers have come through recommendations.

When I make a suit, it’s not for the customer, it’s for the people who see the suit. That’s my secret. They wear their suits in chambers and the others ask them where they get their suits. My customers come from the City. It pleases me when you do something good, satisfy your customer and they leave happy. You can’t get rich by tailoring but you can make a good living. I’ve made a lot of suits for famous people whom I’m not at liberty to mention but I can tell you I made a dinner suit for Roger Daltrey, when he got an award for charity work from George Bush, and I made a suit for Lord Mayhew. He brought two security guards who stood outside the shop. I made suits for both his sons and he asked them where they got their suits. He used to go to Savile Row but now he comes here.

I don’t go out for lunch, I eat food prepared by my wife that I bring with each day from East Finchley. She doesn’t see too much of me, that must be why my marriage has lasted forty years.”

“When I make a suit, it’s not for the customer, it’s for the people who see the suit”

“To learn this job you have to start early and you need a lot of patience to hold a needle”

“It pleases me when you do something good, satisfy your customer and they leave happy”

Photographs copyright © Colin O’Brien

Chris Georgiou, 120 Kings Cross Rd, Wc1X 9DS

You may also like to read about

Manny Silverman, Tailor

The Alteration Tailors Of The East End

Clive & Steven Phythian, Master Cutter & Apprentice

At Batty Fashions

10 Responses leave one →
  1. September 27, 2014

    I must notice this address to me. If Mr Chris Georgiou could make me well-cut trousers…?

    Love & Peace
    ACHIM

  2. September 27, 2014

    Back in the 90s I had a suit made at Chris Ruocco, who has a shop in Fortess Road, Kentish Town. He’s a little off your beaten track but an interesting character.

    I found the pictures in the fitting rooms facinating. He’s made suits for Spandau Ballet in the 80s, when they adopted a Mississippi gambler look (my interpretation) . And I think even a snap of George Michael was in there.

    He’s a real curiosity, like Blustons the ladies shop on Kentish Town Road.

    Great post by the way.

    DMM

  3. Pauline Taylor permalink
    September 27, 2014

    I admire anyone who can sew. I can’t even sew a button on without copious amounts of blood being lost!!

  4. isa permalink
    September 28, 2014

    I salute Chris Georgiou what a clever man and an interesting tale about the bank manager .Even if one has retired you have to keep busy and fill your day I like to volunteer ,but keeping active and having structure to your days is important.

  5. Ronald Wilkinson permalink
    September 28, 2014

    I’d love to have a bespoke suit. It would have to be the suit for every occasion. As a retired carpenter in Ojai, CA it would be tough to arrange.
    But these stories of working men are enjoyable. Craft is important and this is craft of the highest order.
    Thanks Ron

  6. Gary Haran Doyle permalink
    December 1, 2016

    When I first started work in London I lived in a £45 a week bedsit above the kebab shop next door to Chris. He made my first suit in 1992 and accepted 6 cheques post dated for £50 per month.

    Since then, in 24 years he’s made a dozen suits for me and as I have lived abroad tried others tailors but NONE of them have had the quality of the work that Chris has made.

    See you next week Chris!

  7. Robert Dore permalink
    December 5, 2016

    I have only one real regret about being a customer of Chris; and that is that I didn’t find him earlier.
    True old world craftsmanship and skill, allied to a “vast pool of both knowledge and experience”.
    One may go to Saville Row to see the sites, but whatever you do, go the Chris Georgiou for your suits.
    Robert Dore.

  8. June 16, 2017

    You have done an excellent work in passing out the message through this blog, keep up the good work!

  9. November 14, 2019

    This article has helped me in understanding this. Keep Writing.

  10. March 5, 2020

    Bespoke clothes are comfortable, a you want to wear them again and again.

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