Working day: Tailoring solutions for sharp dressers

Jan 20 2010 Liverpool Daily Post

SHAUN LAVIN is the director of Liverpool tailors Berkley Bowen, which offers a bespoke tailoring service.

Shaun, 49, lives in Wallasey with his wife, Fiona. This was his working day:

5am:I’m up early and start the day with a cup of tea. I choose and polish my shoes – good shoes, along with a good bed, are part of life’s essentials for me, as, if you’re not in one, you’re in the other, so I choose carefully.

5.30am:From there I take the train across to town – listening to uplifting tunes on my iPod as I go to counter the constant negativity in the day’s newspapers.

6.15am:After jumping off the train, I arrive at our showroom on Water Street and start sorting through the previous day’s orders. Although it is an early start, I find any problems can be sorted effectively at this quiet time of day. From here, I prepare for my selling and fitting appointments of the day.

8am:I speak to my head cutter regarding a problem with a client’s coat – he wants it very tight fitting under the armholes.

8.30am:My assistant, Lucy, comes in for a quick meeting. She needs to chase up some Harris Tweed fabric for a skirt we have on order.

9am: I pop out and visit a city accountant, who orders a medium-weight navy stripe suit and a black, lighter-weight suit. He lets me pick out five shirts to complement the outfits he has decided on.

10am:A barrister cancels an appointment due to a court appearance. Fortunately, he introduces me to an interested colleague who purchases a three-piece navy striped suit, so all is not lost.

11am:I make my way back over to Water Street, as I have a showroom appointment with a client whose mother is buying him a cashmere overcoat for Christmas. On the walk back over, the heavens decide to open and I realise I should have listened to Lucy when she said that I should take an umbrella out with me.

12pm:As it nears lunchtime, breakfast is feeling like a lifetime ago. I have a fitting appointment for a client’s new navy blazer.

1pm:I have an exciting working lunch with the dad of a world- famous male pop star. In addition to ordering some shirts from me, he gives me all the latest gossip that he has acquired from the music industry.

2pm:From music gossip to football stars. I have a shop appointment with an ex-Liverpool player – it’s his first time having his clothes made to measure.

3pm:I catch up with Lucy, who updates me on messages and emails that have come through over lunchtime.

4pm:My next appointment is with a new client, who complains she can’t find any decent suits in the shops. She chooses a grey birdseye jacket and two pairs of trousers and leaves pleased with her new purchases.

5pm:My last appointment of the day is at the showroom, with a recently-retired couple. The lovely wife has decided to treat her husband to his first bespoke suit.

6pm:After a long but productive day, I buy the paper and make my way to the station, praying that the train will arrive and hoping I remembered to set the timer on the central heating before I left this morning.