Casely-Hayford’s Tranquil Shop Is London’s New Tailoring Mecca

Have you ever seen so many women wearing suits? With the exception of the Square Mile, where the corporate two-piece still holds sway, I can’t remember a season, in street style terms at least, where so many fashion editors switched up their trusty jeans-and-a-blazer combo for streamlined teal, blush and navy tailoring. The same is true of the red carpet – see Lady Gaga living it large in body-swamping Marc Jacobs. We’ve dubbed it big suit energy.

So, where to go for sharp lapels, neat vents and superlative fabrics? Those women who have fallen for the easy elegance of a steam-and-go suit will be pleased to hear there’s a new tailoring mecca to which to set their style compasses: 3 Chiltern Street, and the new Casely-Hayford shop.

The brand has amassed a loyal following since it launched in 2009, helmed by father-and-son duo Joe and Charlie Casely-Hayford. If Joe provided the Savile Row expertise and industry nous (his Eighties-era eponymous brand boasted fans as diverse as The Clash and Princess Diana, before he enjoyed a spell as creative director of Gieves & Hawkes); Charlie, then a 22-year-old Central Saint Martins graduate, kicked the stuffing out of it. Its classic tailoring has always had subversive appeal – Joe, after all, was a cornerstone of Eighties countercultural cool in the menswear world – and there’s an up-all-night loucheness that offsets its sturdy seersuckers, wools and linens rendered in pragmatic cuts. These are 24-hour suits to be worn anywhere and everywhere.

The new shop is a similarly relaxed affair. When I visit on a sunny Tuesday morning, the effect is of a particularly soothing yoga session: the soft strains of Sampha tinkle through the air, bouncing off the freshly painted walls in calming hues of sage and teal. I am greeted by Maria, Joe’s wife and Charlie’s mother, who keeps the business side ticking over (full disclosure: their equally talented daughter, Alice, edits Vogue.co.uk, though had no hand in commissioning this story). Next through the door is the interior designer Sophie Ashby, who collaborated with the family on the space, with a brief to make it feel “like home”. Luckily, Ashby is also Charlie’s new wife, so there was no second-guessing. The mustard yellow fitting room downstairs, for instance, is almost identical to the colour in Joe and Maria’s living room at their home in Canonbury, and the walls throughout are hung with artworks by friends and clients.

This was Ashby’s first store project. “We did loads of research and were thinking about how so many shops are minimal and pared back, just white with rails. We wanted to create a calm, fresh envelope, and then pockets of intensity, some richness for the clothes to stand against,” she says. Her husband adds: “Often when I go to a luxury goods store, it’s an imposing environment. We wanted to create somewhere with warm lighting, inviting colours, where you don’t feel it’s a hard sell. It’s about the relationship between us and our clients.”

Cannily situated next to the Firehouse, the shop’s ground floor is a sleek showcase of Casely-Hayford ready-to-wear – all eyes on the double-breasted, poppy-hued, moirée suit by the door – set against panels coated in sumptuous offcuts of tailoring fabrics (the designers source theirs from the UK and Japan). One floor down is the intimate made-to-measure atelier for men and women (prices start at £995) the feature wall covered in a beautiful bespoke curtain patchworked from more offcuts, which sits alongside a marble-topped commode, vases, books and paintings by British artists such as Tomo Campbell.

This is where clients can luxuriate in the full Casely-Hayford bespoke, 3000-fabric-choices strong experience – its remits recently expanded. “We’re now slowly branching out into leather and suede, so we can make a suede trench coat or biker jacket entirely to your specifications, as well as shirts and trousers. So, we’re opening up made-to-measure to things outside tailoring,” says Charlie. “We’re also developing a lot of bespoke fabrics which has been incredibly popular, particularly for weddings. With my wedding suit, for instance, we made the fabric in-house. It took 3 months. It’s quite an unbelievable experience, and not really something you can get anywhere else.”

Special mention must go to the downstairs bathroom, where Ashby’s expert hand blended ashy blue walls with brass-hued taps atop a recycled plastic counter from Smile Plastics, made from recycled yoghurt pots. And the teal-hued metal staircase, which the family has spent the last few weekends threading with strips of fabric, weaving them into a Sheila Hicks-style tapestry. Indeed, the whole shop boasts gems that fans will recognise from Casely-Hayford’s old Seven Sisters studio.

Customers have already been rolling in en route for cocktails at the Firehouse. “What we specialise in is clothes that are formally tailored but also feel relaxed. That’s the ultimate combination, and the reason why people seek us out,” said Joe. Charlie, the brand’s ultimate ambassador, epitomises its modern philosophy. “I wear a suit every day, I wear it like it’s tracksuit bottoms,” he said. “I rarely wear a shirt – always a T-shirt and with trainers or boots. It doesn’t feel formal to me, and I don’t treat it like that. The majority of our clients are men and women who don’t have to wear suits every day,” he continued. “When they come to this shop, we want them to feel like they’re in our home.” The only problem with that approach is: they’ll never want to leave.