Woman takes top tailor job at Savile Row's Gieves & Hawkes

Gieves & Hawkes has appointed its first woman as head cutter.

Kathryn Sargent, 35, will take the top job at the Savile Row bespoke tailor, which traces its roots to 1771 and counts Admiral Nelson, Sir Noel Coward, David Niven and Prince Charles among its customers.

The promotion for a woman who was born five years after her predecessor started his career in Savile Row marks the end of the traditional culture where the head cutter expected to be addressed as "Sir" by his juniors.

Ms Sargent, who is from Leeds but lives in Docklands, has worked in Savile Row since 1996.

"It's all I've ever wanted to do, it's my dream job and I will continue to do it for the rest of my career," she said. "I've always liked men in suits, my Dad used to get suits made in a local tailors in Leeds. He even did the gardening in a suit."

Ms Sargent says she has rarely encountered sexism, but in the early days of Savile Row the few women who did have jobs there were known as "kippers" as they worked in pairs to fend off the advances of cutters.

Now three out of four of the apprentices at Gieves & Hawkes are women.

Ms Sargent spends three or four sessions consulting customers for a suit that will cost between £3,500 and £10,000 and will take up to 10 weeks to make.

She says her dream would be to make a suit for Barack Obama.