extracts from "Meet the new kid on the block"

Steven Hitchcock, who has dressed Malcolm McLaren and Brian Ferry, is one of the youngest tailors working on Savile Row. So how come he's such a staunch advocate of old-school tailoring...

Steven Hitchcock paces around his antique wood-panelled room which overlooks Old Burlington Street. He finds it hard to stand still on the Persian rug that covers the floor for more than a few seconds before he's off trying to find something important to show you, or passionately telling you another story about the goings-on in the street (of which there are many)...

Oh and when he starts to tell you about his views and ambitions, you'll notice that his accent is proper London, almost cockney. But that's what endears people to Hitchcock, he's fervent, straight talking and a brilliant tailor.

However, unlike many of the other new firms that have set up shop over recent years in this prestigious quarter, Hitchcock is old school, determined to preserve the best of the Row's customs.

And the suits that Hitchcock makes are prices and designed with younger clients in mind but eschew trendiness or gimmicky production values. Indeed, he is making them using a method known to only one other tailor on the Row, and until now a closely-guarded secret.

Steven Hitchcock knows the secrets of this technique because he worked for nine years at Anderson & Sheppard, starting with a three-year apprenticeship when he was fresh out of school.

"But I don't want to be like so many of these new arrivals: they are not tailors at all, they're just stylists latching on to the Row," Hitchcock explains.

For a brief moment, Hitchcock has managed to create the world he dreams of, where men care about their clothes but not too much about fashion, and take care to mind customs and traditions. Andrew Tuck