The ‘Barrington Ayre’ Experience

A Conversation with Tom Wharton, founder at the bespoke, luxury tailors Barrington Ayre.

As the Cotswolds is humming with the preparations for Cheltenham Festival in March, punters will have an eye on the odds as they don their outfits for the event synonymous with the very best Cotswold country style.

With style on my mind I excitedly headed over to Cirencester to meet Tom Wharton, founder at bespoke luxury tailor ‘Barrington Ayre’. We chatted bespoke clothing, sustainability and Cheltenham Festival.

I encountered Barrington Ayre last summer on social media with an image of ‘Strictly’ dancer Nadiya Bychkova wearing a delicately salmon coloured three-piece suit. It stopped me in my tracks; the colour for starters – unusual, soft and summery. Also, the exquisite cut and fabric. Gently striking a balance between Nadiya’s strength and femininity, both powerful and beautiful.

I then blissfully scrolled through Barrington Ayre’s vast catalogue of work. Struck by the rich colours, classic cuts, fabrics and styles. But mostly by the confidence of all those elements blended together. Barrington Ayre straddles the line between classical and modern with refined skill and grace. Unsurprisingly, I have joyfully been watching them ever since.

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I sat in the showroom on a luxurious bright blue Chesterfield sofa feeling awestruck, whilst Tom disappeared to make tea. It’s an old building with lots of character. The room is well ordered and mesmerising with delightful wood panelling. There’s an opulent drinks tray, fabric samples, photos of clients, and examples of work neatly adorning different corners. You’re propelled back in time to a place where refined elegance was the norm, minus the fusty antiquated stuffiness. It felt joyful, intriguing and relaxing - I happily sat back drinking it all in.

Tom is an immediately warm and open person with buckets of enthusiasm for what he does, and we chatted easily.

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Me: Lots of people will have no experience of buying a bespoke item of clothing – what does that process look like?

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Tom: Our goal is to make it a relaxed and enjoyable experience. I worked at Savile Row and even I found it intimidating. Quite often they’re making a judgement on you as soon as you walk through the door.

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Me: Money or no money? 

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Tom: Exactly! That’s just not we do here – we welcome everyone, and it’s meant to be a fun, laid back, positive experience. We usually have our dog Monty here tottering about and encourage people to bring theirs – we’ve had a gaggle of gun dogs in here before, all extremely well behaved of course. We’re very open and easy.

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Me: I love that. I went to Oxford Street in London on Saturday to look at the last of the sales. It was awful. Hot, busy and completely lacking in joy. You’re the opposite of that and fast fashion of course!

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Tom: Absolutely, there’s a sense in high-street shops that they don’t really care about you as an individual. It’s just sell, sell sell. I find it hideous. We put the individual right at the centre of everything.  

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Me: I feel that contrary to fast fashion; your work is about the slow joy of savouring something really special and beautiful.

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Tom: It really is – that’s the idea. It’s not just the clothing with fast fashion, it’s the fabric. Good quality fabric is everything.

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Me: - I couldn’t agree more.

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Tom: In fact, if any of our customers are in Scotland near the Lovat Mill where we source some of our tweed, the mill welcomes our customers in. They’re brilliant. They stop what they’re doing and show our customers the process and where the fabric is made. Unlike fast fashion, our clients can see exactly where their clothes begin and if their fabric is to hand, they show them their fabric. It’s an additional means for them to savour the experience with us. It’s the same with Fox Brothers and co in Somerset, they’ll always welcome our customers in.

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Me: That’s wonderful! It’s a million miles from the anonymous and sometimes badly made clothing from high-street fast fashion.

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Tom: It’s the absolute opposite – plus wool is sustainable, it’s hypoallergenic, it regulates your body temperature and if you buried it in the ground it would decompose gently within 3 -4 months. It’s sustainable. Polyester takes 20 to 200 years to decompose.

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Me: Yikes that’s terrifying. It makes the idea of bespoke clothing rather than mass produced, even more attractive. So, if I came to you looking to have my first piece of bespoke clothing made what would that appointment look like?

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Tom: I’d start with you. We’re creating an exclusive one-off piece that’s completely personal to that individual, so I always begin by asking them about themselves. You’d come in and we’d have a good chat, talk about what you do, where you live and most importantly how you’re going to wear the clothing and what you’re going to use the clothing for. I even ask people things like are you a hot or cold person? They look surprised, but it matters because it’ll have some bearing on the fabric. Also, will you be travelling a lot, is it a one-off piece or will it have high usage? The details really matter. We’ll look at colouring because that’ll have a bearing on fabric, then I’ll get out the fabric samples and begin to go through them and talk about ideas. They might have some ideas and we’ll talk about that. Though if I know something won’t work, I’m very straight with people and say so.

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Me: I can imagine that frankness is really important. So how long would that first appointment be? 

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Tom: Exactly… about an hour. I’ve done this for 15 years, and 40 minutes is the longest a man can look at fabric before he starts just blindly choosing anything. There’s very definite shut off point. Women can look for a little longer.

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Me: Ha ha, I can imagine! What next? 

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Tom: Then we’ll measure them. After 4-6 weeks, they come back for a fitting to see how it sits. Then we’ll see if there are any tweaks that are needed. If it fits well, we’ll send them away to wear the item for three months. See if it’s working, let them get used to it and to let the item mould to their body and soften. Then they might come back to us and say they need some changes and that’s fine. That’s what we do.

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Me: It sounds like a dream; I don’t know a woman who wouldn’t want this experience. So how are the orders all in for Cheltenham festival?

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Tom: We stop taking orders about 6 weeks before the festival.

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Me: And what are people wearing this year, Tom?

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Tom: Well obviously the classic tweed suits for men and this year for women there’s a lot of high waisted trousers.

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Me: Oh really, I can’t wait to see the outfits. Do you prefer dressing men or women?

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Tom: Honestly it has to be the women, there’s more scope to try different things and more colour choices. But to be honest with you, I love it all.

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I leave Barrington Ayre with a spring in my step. I thoroughly enjoyed chatting to Tom. He exudes the energy and passion of a creative, but he’s also finely tuned to the detail and balance of things. It’s inspiring. Bespoke clothing is obviously a luxury, but it occurs to me that there’s an important universal message for all to be gained. That poorly made fast fashion is depressing, soulless and helping to decimate the planet. I realise the slow joy of well-made clothing from good, sustainable fabric will not only help save our planet but also our minds. It feels like never before has the saying ‘buy less and better’ seemed quite so significant.

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