A couple of weeks ago I was walking in Covent Garden when I came upon a shop selling beautiful shirts. I did not know it then but it was the shop/studio/workshop of Pauline Burrows, a talented British designer and shirt-maker. Pauline introduced herself and very kindly offered to show me her collection and this week we were able to get together to talk about her designs.  Our conversation took place in Pauline’s shop in Covent Garden. All the pictures in this article were taken there.

The shop
Pauline has a shop/studio just off Covent Garden’s Seven Dials. Tranquil, light and airy, it has a quiet ambience that feels just right for the important task of buying stylish hand-made shirts. PB makes and sells shirts for both women and men and her tailoring team are right there in the shop, in the tailoring workshop below the shop. PB has an off-the-peg range which is seasonal ands has some standards, some classics and some prints. She also has a bespoke service on site, once again for both men and women. What is special is that all of PB’s shirts, retail and bespoke are handmade by herself and her team of tailors, right there in the shop. Everything you buy here is an individual craftsman tailored product. It is so good to find this in Covent Garden, which is now largely given over to multinational brands.

PB History
PB is a fashion designer for both men and women and moved into menswear some 15 and some years years ago. She saw a need for more colourful, creative and original men’s shirts. I remember that time well and also remember how few designers were creating well-made fun shirts for men, so her timing was pretty near perfect.

She sold her first shirt collection to Les Deux Zebres, which at that time was a pioneering menswear shop in London’s Covent Garden. The two guys who founded and ran Les Deux Zebres were the forerunners of the upscale menswear stores we have today. They hosted a range of small collections, had a marvellous eye for quality menswear and helped promote several great menswear designers. Their store closed a few years back but their menswear was inspired. Not only shirts, PB worked with Les Deux Zebres on a signature range of luxurious black dressing gowns, which were lined with a black-and-white zebra print patterns.

PB’s shirts were soon picked up by stores such as Harrods and Corniche in Edinburgh, who knew that there was a market for English craftmen-made shirts that were both creatively individual and made of high-quality fabrics. PB’s shirts were soon stocked at Browns of South Moulton Street, whose reputation for stocking and selling edgy and stylish British designers has no equal.

As her reputation grew, she opened her own shop, in the OXO tower, near London’s Gabriel Wharf, at Waterloo. She moved from there to her current shop seven years ago. Over that time she has refined her style and further developed her range. Along the way she has grown a dedicated following of men, both in England and America, who know that PB’s definitive style suits them.

The shirts
These shirts leap off the rail at you. Look at the blue eton-collar shirt below. All of the shirts are made in exclusive fabrics, chosen by Pauline. Most of her shirt fabrics are Italian, along with a few very high quality swiss cottons. Fabrics are richly coloured, luxurious or have interesting weaves and patterns. In fact they often have all of those qualities. The eton-collar is a rich royal-blue, with a depth of colour that can only be achieved by using the best fabrics and dyes. It has a pin-point weave which makes it feel substantial, silky and soft at the same time. It feels alive to the touch.

Each shirt is handmade and of course hand-finished. The shirt below is a luxurious heavy linen in a beautiful and unusual steel-blue. If you look closely you will see that all of seam-threads on the breast pocket (and the right side of the placket) are “pulled” from the seam, to give a slightly unstructured look to the shirt. To get this effect each one of those threads had to be carefully pulled by hand. The effect is original and quirky and is a clever, creative way of emphasising the hand-made qualities of the shirts.

Pauline Burrows Steel Blue Linen Shirt

The Linen shirt below illustrates PB’s design signatures really well. Her shirts are beautifully made to a very high standard, with micro-fine stitching, very carefully proportioned collars and cuffs. Though not shown in this photo, the shirt has squared-off tails, so it can equally be worn in or out. The overall effect is to produce a linen shirt that is both casual and beautifully smart. Many linen shirts err on the side of casual to being downright sloppy. PB’s linen shirts have a finely- tailored structure that enables them to keep their shape, while still looking relaxed.

Customers
PB’s shirts have a sophisticated and enthusiastic following. Many of her bespoke customers are American, who re particularly drawn to her innovative cut and excellent taste in fabrics. Men who dress more creatively, (both for business and for leisure), are drawn to the shirts because of their exceptionally fine tailoring and the originality of their cut and finish. The shirt-making process results in a unique pattern for each customer, called a “block”. Once this is made PB’s customers can, and do, order shirts from her from all over the world.

The shirt tailoring process
This is the easy part. Go to the shop. You can drop into the shop and if Pauline is free she will measure you up. You can also call the shop (details at bottom) and set a time to get measured and fitted.

There are three main PB shirt fits (blocks), in varying degrees of slimness and shape. P. gets new customers to try these designs on, which allows her to get a first approximation of size. She then measures customers to get the exact dimensions of the pattern she will make for them. This becomes the customer’s block. It takes 30 minutes to do this.

The next stage is designing the shirt. Customers choose from the high quality Italian and Swiss fabrics that Pauline stocks. Once the fabric and colour is chosen, customers can choose from amongst PB’s original designs. Once again there are ready-to-wear samples of the shirts to try on and see how the shirts look on.

Making the first shirt takes two to three weeks. The customer tries the shirt on. If there are minor alterations then they are done quickly and the shirt is ready to wear. From that point onwards customers can buy shirts, either in person or by phone. New shirts will be cut to the bespoke pattern that the tailoring team keep for each customer. PB also has a swatch fabric service for existing customers. Further shirts take two weeks to make.

Shirts cost from £165 each, depending on fabric. A block, if necessary, is a one-off cost of £75.00. Often this is not required as a block can be created out of one of the three master blocks, with minor modifications.

The ready to wear collection
PB’s collections are seasonal and she gets her inspiration from colours, shapes, the many fabrics she discovers. Each collection contains some solid colours, some standards (the current one includes a seriously cool black shirt, with a rich silky sheen to it), some prints and some boned-collar shirts for business wear.

Here is a stripe from the current collection.

Pauline Burrows striped shirt

More than shirts
Pauline also makes raincoats for men. These are very modern, dark and sleek, made from a dense but light cotton. The cotton is interwoven with an invisible metal thread, which gives the coat a subtle metallic sheen and a substantial luxurious feel.

Recently added to the collection are cotton and linen summer jackets. They had not arrived at the time I wrote this article but are in store now, so if you are in the market for a stylish summer jacket put the shop on your list.

Who wears these shirts
These shirts really appeal to men who understand quality and creative style. There is something almost Japanese about the quality of the fine tailoring of Pauline Burrows shirts, they have the ability to “lift” your look to a new level. Think shirts for a very important date, work social event (the ones with management present), or a semi-formal occasion such as a dinner party.

They will certainly get you noticed, as their colours and design touches combine to create a shirt which is pretty much unique. Their sense of fun make them ideal for a social occasion and their quality makes them ideal for a occasions which are “important fun”. The shirts also look great under a suit. If you want definitive design that people will notice, here is your designer, and here are beautiful shirts.

The shop and the designer
London is a great city for style. We think of Savile Row and Jermyn street but there are some really modern and creative tailors working independently, right across the city. In my view as a long-time stylemeister I think Pauline’s work stands with the best of them. And it gets better, I am looking forward to seeing Pauline’s summer jackets in the next couple of weeks, and I know she has other ideas still to come to fruition. So we will write more as time goes on.

So great style, very relaxed, go check it out. Just so you know her on sight, here is a picture of Pauline, looking very good in one of her own shirts.

Pauline Burrows

Details

Pauline Burrows makes original ready-to-wear and bespoke shirts for both men and women.

Pauline Burrows
13 Shelton Street,
Seven Dials,
Covent Garden,
London WC2H 9JN

Tel +44 (0) 20 7240 9722

Opening Times:
Mon-Fri  11.00 – 19.00
Sat       11.00 – 18.00
Sun       Closed

Email: mailto: pb7dials@mac.com

www.paulineburrows.com