The first pre-apprenticeship course approved by the Savile Row Bespoke Association (SRBA) got under way in London in January 2025. Ten students, nine from the UK and one from Canada, began the three-month Pre-Apprenticeship Bespoke Tailoring program at the London Academy of Bespoke (LAB), the association's official training partner. The SRBA reported on 30 January that the group was two weeks into the course.
The course teaches the skills students need to apply for full cutting, coat-making and trouser-making apprenticeships with SRBA member houses. By the end of the second week, the students were completing their first quarter-scale draft patterns and had moved on to the coat baste, the loosely assembled first version of a jacket used for an early fitting. All of LAB's teachers are Savile Row-trained.
Why a pre-apprenticeship
The SRBA announced the plan in June 2024, when it named LAB as its official training partner and an associate member. The aim, the association said, was to supply member houses with prepared candidates for in-house apprenticeships. LAB was founded in 2016 by Victoria Townsend, who completed her own SRBA apprenticeship in 2012. It is based at 19 Savile Row and is due eventually to move to purpose-built, rent-free space in the redeveloped former police station at 27 Savile Row, which Westminster City Council approved in May 2024.
The SRBA requires every member house to employ at least one apprentice at all times, and more than one hundred people have graduated through its apprenticeship scheme. In July 2024 the association said 33 apprentices were working at the ten bespoke tailoring businesses on Savile Row, and that the pre-apprenticeship would come with bursaries.
“the apprentices coming to us really have the aptitude and attitude to become world-class craftsmen.”
Mark Henderson, chairman of the Savile Row Bespoke Association, July 2024
Other routes into the trade
The LAB course is one of several entry points. Newham College in east London advertises a free, full-time Level 1 bespoke tailoring course for 16- to 18-year-olds at its East Ham campus, which includes visits to Savile Row and master classes from Savile Row tailors, and a part-time Level 2 course for adults that builds on it. Both were listed for September 2025 starts.
What happens next
Because of strong interest, LAB said it was considering running the pre-apprenticeship twice a year. By February 2026 the third course had begun, and in October 2026 the SRBA said the intake had doubled to two parallel groups of ten.
For people who commission suits, the course addresses the trade's long-standing worry about who will make them in future. A bespoke suit passes through a cutter, a coat-maker and a trouser-maker, and each of those skills takes years to learn. Our guide to how a bespoke suit is made explains each stage, and how long a bespoke suit takes covers the timeline from order to delivery.
