Neil Fennell has fashion sense

Dec 10 2010 By Jon Perks

Neil Fennell went from car worker to top tailor in the space of three years. Jon Perks got the measure of him.

As career changes go, there can be few as extreme as Neil Fennell’s.

In the space of five years, the 44-year-old from Stratford-upon-Avon has gone from working on the production line at Rover in Longbridge to crafting bespoke suits for the likes of rugby scrum-half Andy Gomarsall, TV presenter Dave Berry and singer Plan B through his tailoring service, October House.

From cars to stars, you might say.

Originally from Sheldon, Neil’s intriguing story began, like many men in the Midlands, in the motoring industry.

“I was on the production line... yeah, I was a nut and bolt man, fortunately I got out before it all went a bit nasty,” he recalls.

“Me and my younger brother just loved our clothes, and every month we spent many hundreds of pounds in Bakers and Stoodi Bakers and we always got new outfits to wear around the clubs. We were obsessed with fashion, we used to get the train to London to buy outfits – we were like a pair of women.

“People ask me where did it come from, this love of clothes. I think some it is from my dad, who used to work the door at clubs, and he spent hours cleaning his shoes and getting his suit ready and he was obsessed, and I think there’s a bit of that which rubbed off on me, that type of care and pride in clothes.”

It’s one thing having an eye and passion for fashion, but another to cut it (pardon the pun) as a top tailor. Neil’s graduation from amateur obsessive to professional tailor grew from a frustration of not being able to always buy what he wanted.

“You’d try and buy an outfit and it was either out of your price range or you could buy the 42-inch jacket but they only did a 36-inch trouser, so I’d get rather frustrated by it,” he says.

“I went to a jobs fair and spoke to people about setting up your own business, and I thought I’d love to make clothes that I love and hopefully people also love and give them the option of a bespoke suit without stinging them with ridiculous amounts of money.

“My business plan was to offer those options for people on smaller salaries – it might be a one-off for their wedding or for the office.”

Enthusiasm and aptitude were not in short supply, but Neil still needed a little help to pursue his dream – which came in the form of a former Burton menswear factory and TV presenter Dave Berry.

“It’s quite a strange story,” Neil admits.

“I trawled the internet to see if there were any tailoring courses, and obviously there was in Savile Row but you needed this and you needed that [qualification]. In the end I was introduced to someone in Yorkshire who worked from the old Burton factory and he said ‘come up and meet me’. I didn’t know what to expect, and he put his arm around me and said, ‘You’re not a cutting tailor but you know the front end about style and what complements a man’s figure’, and we got on really well. I was up there every other weekend and even booked a week’s holiday up there working with the guys.”

Soon Neil was ready to set up his own bespoke suit company, spending the first two years learning the industry, knowing what cloths to use, making suits for family and friends in small runs of one or two suits a month.