Darren Beaman is the Head of the Savile Row Tailoring Academy. He has been tailoring in and out of London’s Savile Row for over three decades. As one of Savile Row’s leading tailors, Beaman has worked with many tailors around the world. His private clients include royalty and various celebrities within the entertainment business. Beaman believes highly in the transfer of knowledge and expertise to the future generations of artisans in order to ensure the sustainable future of high-quality tailoring and the survival of associated businesses.
Beaman was an honorary guest at the Spirit of Damanino new store launch party on Sept. 11 held at the new location between Soi 20 & 22. Beaman and Singh will be working together over the next five years in collaboration to establish Damanino as a more globally recognized brand.
1. At what point did you realize that your calling was for tailoring and design?
My mom was a tailor. She worked within a tailoring company. Therefore, tailoring and sewing has always been in my life ever since I was a little kid. When I was 15, I cut out a pair of trousers. They didn’t fit anyone, by the way. But, it was still the go on effort that my mom reminds me about until this very day.
My father was a builder and for a couple months in my life, I went up on the roof with him. I found it quite cold up there. Ever since then, I decided I should always be standing next to a warm iron instead.
2. You are quite the talented master tailor and educator. To whom do you owe for your great qualities?
There are two guys to whom I owe for my qualities. My main teacher was Patrick Davey. He had four to five young apprentices below him and I was the top apprentice. He had this incredible skill of looking after five young, cocky-mouthed apprentices. He controlled and taught us so well.
The other guy was one of the senior cutters of a company called Anderson and Shephard where I did my apprenticeship on Savile Row, Mr. Colin Harvey. He was gentle to the point of advising and he was ruthless to the point where you messed up. What he did do was teach you what’s right and what’s wrong.
So, I kind of put it down to those two guys. If I’ve got any skills in teaching, it comes from Patrick and my tolerance in other people comes from Colin. They are both great masters in their own arts and I’m more than privileged and humbled to be a part of their lives.
Although, I’ve learned more from apprentice than I’ve learned from anyone else. They do something that no one else does. When you’re teaching someone, there is a wonderful question that they all ask – “Why?” Suddenly, you have to think Hmm, What is the answer to that?
3. As I’m sure you know, you are in a hectic business with many things that acquire your attention at any given moment. However, where do you believe a tailor’s prime focus should be?
The customer and the garment. Non-negotiable. At the end of the day, we are artisans. We create things and sculpt things around someone’s body. For that, we get paid. I guess I fell in love with my work when I was an apprentice. I haven’t fell out of love with it yet. I absolutely love my job.
4. Do you hold a specific style for each garment or does it vary depending on the customer?
It’s fashion. There is a certain element that the British have. Savile Row has a certain style – a natural shoulder, a particular type of lapel and a certain front. I think it’s important as a representative of Savile Row to keep to that. But that’s not to say I don’t change sometimes. I think it’s important to learn from all the different styles.
Equally though, we can’t say to the customer, “Sorry, you can’t have that style because I don’t like it.” There are going to be certain things, certain limitations that will force you to say to a customer, “Actually, we don’t do that well in that style.” For example, there’s a few garments in our house that I don’t think I’m particularly good at. You have to look after the customer and if that style means that you don’t take it on – then you don’t. Although, if you are a trained artisan, you should be able to do more than one style anyway.
5. How did you and Daniel Singh, the owner of Damanino, come to know each other?
About two to three years ago, this guy from Hong Kong kept emailing me. He was a bit of a pest – not a pest in a bad way – but as you can appreciate, I get a lot of emails. Eventually, he wanted to Skype me, which to date is probably the longest Skype session I’ve ever had. There was 101 questions and his baby daughter, who is now three, kept jumping up in the background. We got along instantly. We kept on chatting and every time we spoke there was different questions. So there was a learning process there.
We didn’t end up speaking for six months and eventually I told him that this wasn’t going to keep working. Something was going to go wrong and it would end up being my fault. If we were going to collaborate, I needed to come visit him and we needed to run it as a proper project.
So, over about probably a year we sort of played around with the idea of coming out here and in the last few months we actually put a program together and he sent some garments over to me. I looked at the cutting and could see what needed doing. I could see lots of things that were already really great too.
Dan has invested an incredible amount of money to bring me out here because he genuinely wants to be the best. We are going to start working with a five year program and I actually believe the guy. He is a great ambassador of Thailand and to his family. He is a good tailor for the trade. It’s not going to be easy to be the best but if he takes it abroad in the right way he is going to do great.
6. What are your first impressions of style in Bangkok? How does it differ from the other parts of the world in which you have worked or trained?
Skinny. Skinny clothes. Too tight.
7. Could you tell us what you like best about Thailand? During your trip to Bangkok, did you find anything that might inspire your designs in the future?
I like the people and the food – both incredibly beautiful. The people have been so lovely. It’s funny, I’ve been all around the world several times and I’ve got to be honest, this is one of the most enjoyable places I’ve been. It’s been great.
8. Lastly, do you see any difference in Thai gentlemen’s sartorial tastes compared to your usual British clients, anything that surprises you?
Not really. I see a lot of suits that are really smart but I think some of the fit isn’t quite right. I think that this is what we can bring to the table in the Damanino shop. I don’t meant to disrespect anyone, but I look at a lot of suits around here and I think If I had those shoulders on suit, I’d be taking it back to the tailors. What we can do is bring a wee bit of fit to the table. I think the style here is great but the fit it what we need to work on.