Meet the Quailors, Savile Row’s first group for LGBTQ+ tailors and their allies

Founded three years ago by Andrew Johnson, a freelance tailor, and James MacAuslan, a Cutter at Budd Shirtmakers, the Quailors was established as an organisation to unite and raise the visibility of tailors who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community on Savile Row. Last year, the group became the first contingent of tailors to march at Pride in London – under their own banner, handmade on Savile Row from exquisite fabrics (naturally).

Here, we speak to Johnson and MacAuslan about why they set-up the Quailors, why it’s important for the tailoring sector and the importance of allyship on The Row in Pride Month and beyond.

Walpole: How did the idea of the Quailors come about?

Andrew Johnson: Having been in the trade for quite a few years, I'd always wondered how many other gay or queer people there were in the trade. When I met James at an annual tailoring event about three years ago, we struck up a conversation about this. Off the top of our heads, both of us could only count about five people that we knew were queer and working within the ‘golden mile’ of Savile Row. We thought that there had to be more people like us out there and that’s where the idea of creating a group to bring the LGBTQ+ tailoring community together started.

Tell us about your first event as a group at last year’s Pride in London?

Johnson: Well, the first pride that we were meant to do was in 2021 – but, of course, that ended up being cancelled because of the pandemic. When we started to prepare for joining the event in 2022, I can actually remember having a conversation with James where we figured even if nobody else wants to do it, it would still be great for visibility if it was the two of us under the Quailors banner. As it turned out, we were joined by 22 LGBTQ+ members of the bespoke tailoring sector. 

You handmade the banner you all walked under for the Pride march. How did you go about that?

James MacAuslan: We got some really great support from the wider tailoring community to create our banner. Huddersfield Fine Worsted gave us the cloth for the lettering and Anderson & Sheppard gave us the cloth for the base. To create it, we hosted what I like to call a “stitch and bitch” session at Chittleborough & Morgan where we ate cake and made the banner together – so it was nice to get the whole community together and worked on it. Of course, the best thing was that then we were able to march the banner down the street in front of, I think, about one million people.

And how has the organisation grown since Pride in 2022?

Johnson: After last year’s Pride, it's expanded to become a fully fledged social group that hosts meet-ups throughout the year and now we have members from outside our immediate industry. Now, the Quailors isn't just solely queer tailors on Savile Row, it’s a collective of queer craftspeople including pattern cutters from the fashion industry and people who work in costume for the West End, for example. We have over 50 people in our Whatsapp group and hundreds of followers on Instagram, so there's to be a lot of support for us out there. This has definitely exceeded both mine and James’ expectations.

> Scroll down to see more images of the Quailors at Pride in London in 2022 in our gallery below.

MacAuslan: The thing that I’ve been really surprised by is the sheer number of young members that we've got. We have members who are in their mid 20s and I think our youngest member is 19. That’s important because, as an industry, the bespoke tailoring world has always struggled to attract young people into it. The fact that we've only been around for a couple of years and we've already got a majority of young people joining us is a great sign. It’s good because we’re being seen by young people as a good route into the industry.

Johnson: Yes, recently, quite a lot of students to have come to the Quailors as we try to use our networks to arrange work experience for young queer tailors looking to break into the sector. It's also a community where we share job opportunities amongst more established tailors in the group too when people move around between houses.

Why is the existence of the Quailors as an organisation important for your industry?

Johnson: Primarily this is a social organisation, but it’s also here to provide support and community to LGBTQ+ members of our industry which historically hasn’t existed. I consider this so important because of my personal experience. Back in about 2011, I got an internship at a tailoring house. On the first day of meeting the person that I was going to be working with, he said to me, “are you ‘poofy’? Because we don't teach that here.” That was a very difficult thing to hear. I found myself going back into the closet – I wasn't going to any of the socials and I didn’t want anyone to find out my sexuality as I thought this person would probably get rid of me and it had taken me so long to get this opportunity. I'd like to think that if anything like this happens to someone else, they've now got a group that they can call on.

It's really important, especially in 2023, that there isn't a workplace where someone should feel that they can't be themselves. Yes, it’s about being professional and doing your job, but you spend so much of your life working – and Savile Row is such a small community connected by close personal networks – that it's really important to feel safe to be your authentic self. That’s how you do your best work.

Do you think those sorts of attitudes are changing?

MacAuslan: Recently, our sector has had a big influx of young craftspeople and naturally that has caused a culture clash with those on The Row who might hold those sort of feelings, but has also forced any outdated attitudes to change quickly.

Johnson: And it’s important to say that while there is a perception that Savile Row and the culture about it is conservative, the vast majority of the people are really nice, warm and accepting people. So, I think the Quailors is also an opportunity to show our industry in a really good light because this perception means queer people tend to go more into the fashion side of the industry because it’s seen as more liberal than tailoring – and that’s not necessarily the case. If we can take the opportunity to show that members of the LGBTQ+ community are thriving in the industry, then that should serve as a great example to encourage more queer people and younger people onto The Row.

Also, I will say that there hasn't been single company or organisation on The Row that we’ve approached that hasn't tried to do something for us or given something, however small, to help the Quailors. It’s incredibly encouraging that it's all been really, really positive.

You’re marching at Pride again this year. Are you doing anything differently to last year?

Johnson: We’re making another banner this year, which we will march with in addition to the one we created last year.

MacAuslan: So many people have been really generous with us. The cloth for this year’s banner has been donated by Dugdale Bros & Co. The company has been really supportive of what we’re doing. We’re also hosting a pre-Pride event at The Deck courtesy of Daisy Knatchbull. Last year we made history by taking the trade to Pride itself, and this year we're making history again by bringing Pride to the Savile Row itself – and at The Row’s only house dedicated to women’s tailoring, which is groundbreaking in its own right.

How many people are you expecting to join you?

Johnson: We can take as many as 80 this year, but if we could double the amount of people we took last year, that would be great. 22 up to 44 would be really nice!

Do you have to be a member of the LGBTQ+ community to join the Quailors at Pride?

Johnson: Not at all – it's an open group when it comes to your identity or your vocation. We’d love to welcome anyone who works across the craft industry or students who want to get into the tailoring sector. We have journalists and photographers as part of the group, for example, because they love The Row and want to support it as well as our mission. First and foremost, it’s about having fun.

MacAuslan: In fact, the allyship element is crucial for us. Because the majority of those who work in our trade are cis straight white men, it’s important in order for us to demonstrate that we have people in our group who also identify in that way. It helps break down those barriers to access for the LBGTQ+ community even more.

After Pride, what does the year-ahead look like for the Quailors?

Andrew: Getting our calendar of meet-ups and socials confirmed, and looking into how we can use our connections to help arrange more internships for young people getting into the industry. 

MacAuslan: And visibility through events like Pride is always the best way to that. The more people that know who we are, then the more connections we’ll build and the more chances we'll have to be able to help others.

Follow the Quailors on Instagram or email James MacAuslan and Andrew Johnson for more info about the organisation (and how you can support them) on [email protected] 

Photos courtesy of Luke Alland. theexiledbrit.co.uk