After four decades of making clothes for the great and the good, stylist and tailor Mark Powell (63) is Soho’s last man standing
As told to Jason Holmes You can find Mark's store at Mark Powell Bespoke, 10 Newburgh St, London, W1F 7RN. Visit markpowellbespoke. co.uk for more info
I WAS BORN IN KING'S COLLEGE HOSPITAL ON DENMARK HILL.
My mother was born in East London and my dad was from South London, but I spent a lot of time as a kid in East London with my mum’s family, so most people assume I’m an East Ender. I was interested in fashion since I was eight or nine. I didn’t question it. It was just something that was naturally a part of me. In the mid-1970s, I was one of the more stylish kids at school. I’d wear beads around my neck with a mohair jumper, drainpipe trousers and winkle pickers.
THE 1970S IN LONDON WAS A VERY STYLISH TIME WITH A LOT GOING ON. When I lived in Romford, aged 13 or 14, I used to travel up to the capital quite a lot. I kept my eyes open. When I was 17, I got into hairdressing and ended up working in a salon on Savile Row in Mayfair. A few doors along from the salon was the legendary tailor, Tommy Nutter. And of course, just around the corner was South Molton Street, which was an exciting fashion centre at the time. So a mixture of all of these things was inspiring me for the future.
CREATING THE LOOK… AND LANDING IN SOHO
Soon after, I was working in a gentlemen’s clothes shop on Conduit Street in Mayfair. It was next to the James Bond tailor, Anthony Sinclair. I’d go in and chat to the guys in there. By then I’d started to create my own look, which I wore every day, and people would ask me where I got my clothes from. That was when I realised that tailoring was my future. In 1981, my next move was to the famous Robot shop on King’s Road, and stars like Jack Nicholson, when they were in town, would drift in and out. That was normal back then. While there, I started to develop made-to-measure suits. It was then that I had my first inkling about getting my own shop. In the Covent Garden branch of Robot, I met a customer who was able to locate a shop for me. So that’s when I arrived in Soho, in 1985, on Archer Street.
I WAS 24 AND IT WAS AN EXCITING TIME AND GREAT FUN, but I didn’t take it too seriously. The Archer Street premises had been a shabby old sex shop. I took it over. I decided to transform it, lay it out like an old gentlemen’s outfitters. I had a barber shop in the back too, which added to the lifestyle aspect of the business.
