SHIRT LADY OF JERMYN STREET

March 15 2013

The White Shirt was the cause of some celebration in Jermyn Street recently. Given that it is so ubiquitious, one would hardly have thought it warranted a celebration, yet bespoke shirtmaker Emma Willis was moved to recognise its importance among her exclusive clientele as well as in keeping her workforce busy.

“We can’t make them fast enough,” she reports. “Once the discerning Englishman only wore ivory, but now white is the key shirt in the best dressed man’s wardrobe.”

In an area that was once, like Savile Row, a male preserve, Willis has reinvigorated the bespoke shirt field since setting up shop there some 14  years ago. Many of the illustrious shirt names of the past have forsaken bespoke or gone out of business, leaving just Turnbull & Asser and Hilditch & Key offering bespoke services in Jermyn Street, with Budd just off in the Piccadilly Arcade.

The arrival of this attractive blonde lady prepared to take gentleman’s measurements was bound to cause a frisson of interest and attract today’s equivalent of the Jermyn Street dandies. This long narrow throughfare on the other side of Piccadilly from Savile Row was once where Regency bucks-about-town had their rooms, drawing shirtmakers and others selling gentlemen’s requisites to the area.

It remains a masculine-dominated retail street, though shirts and ties have long since been augmented by wine, fragrance, cheese, footwear and other luxury specialities. These are mainly small, exclusive outlets, with long histories. Tricker’s Shoes, for example, started life in 1829, the cheese emporium of Paxton & Whitfield in 1779, Floris fragrance in 1730, and in 1707 Fortnum & Mason opened for business.

Emma Willis not only is a female newcomer but had no earlier links to the area or with shirts. She studied at the Slade School of Art and to earn a crust on leaving there, took up selling shirts door-to-door, particularly around City offices. Her success at such a gruelling entry into the work field persuaded her to set up her own shirt business – and before long she had bought a factory in South London from Turnbull & Asser, inheriting a skilled cutter there, and then sold that to set up a new factory near her home in Gloucestershire to cope with her steady development.

“I have a superb team now,” she says. “I’ve taken in young school leavers and trained them and they are so enthusiastic. I hope to grow the factory, as we are now on Mr Porter. And our online business is very good.”

The online service provides a huge array of fabrics and style options from which to choose, covering shape, fit, length, sleeves, fronts, collar and cuffs, pocket or no pocket, monogram... “We have not had one return,” she says with some pride. Most shirtings are Swiss, some silks from Italy, some linens, and available in exclusive patterns. For those who prefer, a personal bespoke service is provided in the Jermyn Street shop.

Younger customers are going for a more tailored fit, with a firm collar line that keeps its place when worn unbuttoned. “They want narrower arms, a shallower hem.” And though the white shirt may be the all-round favourite, there are plenty of unusual colours and patterns available, including a few florals each season that always sell, she reports.

Very much a hands-on worker, and dividing her week between Goucestershire and London, it would suggest little room for extra curriculum duties. Yet she has received a Morale Award from the British Forces Foundation for the work she does through her charity, Style for Soldiers. Since establishing this some 4 years ago, she has visited the Headley Court rehabilitation hospital in Surrey each month, providing soldiers with shirts and now also custom-sized walking sticks.

The morale boost that a beautifully made and fitted shirt can give will be understood by anyone who appreciates the power of clothes to lift the spirits. And a hand carved ebony walking stick at the right height, engraved with regimental badge and initials, is so much better than the NHS  version.

So in addition to adding fresh zest to Jermyn Street, Emma Willis is providing a generous measure of  style for many badly injured young British soldiers.  As one of them commented: “We’re soldiers, remember,” says Captain James Murley-Gotto of the Scots Guards. “We like to look smart.”

Anyone wishing to support this charity, funded entirely by the shirt company, with help from customers and friends, may send a cheque made out to 'Style for Soldiers' to Emma Willis, 66, Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6NY or for online donations go to the British Forces Foundation website at www.bff.org.uk.

At top, Emma Willis taking measurements at Headley Court hospital; and a selection of shirts that indicate the variety available. Prices start from £240 for bespoke. There is also a ready-to-wear collection and accessories. www.emmawillis.com