Glasgow City Heritage Trust invites you to join Alis Le May for a walking tour to discover the former premises of Glasgow’s most beloved tailors and dressmakers of decades past. You will learn about the craftspeople who kept Glasgow in style for generations, and as we explore Alis will explain some of the fascinating processes that go into making a ‘true bespoke’ suit.

After the tour you will have the opportunity to learn some bespoke tailoring skills for yourself. Alis and her apprentice Abby will instruct you in the basic stitches required to make a suit, how to make a bespoke jetted pocket and (time permitting) how to sew a hand sewn buttonhole – the sign of a quality, handcrafted garment! We will do this in Alis’s tailoring studio (4 Rogart Street) which will give you the opportunity to experience a working tailors studio. We will take a short train to Bridgeton to do this but we will provide a train ticket for this. 

Glasgow’s shopping streets were once filled with local businesses, offering its citizens a wide variety of locally crafted products. As recently as 1968 there were over 30 bespoke tailors in the city centre, providing excellent fit and personal service to a broad range of clients. With the rise of globalisation, clothing production moved off the local high street and went overseas, reducing the cost of clothing, changing buying habits and making it harder for local businesses to compete. 

Today, Alis Le May runs the only remaining ‘true bespoke’ tailoring businesses in Glasgow. She maintains heritage techniques which have been practised for centuries, and makes everything in-house from scratch. Alis is a passionate advocate for revival of locally-made clothing economies, and co-runs Clothworks Glasgow C.I.C – a social enterprise focused on teaching hand sewing skills. She is also training an apprentice, Abby Gray, who she hopes will one day go on to start her own bespoke clothing business in Glasgow. 

Some experience of hand sewing (or a similar handcraft) would be preferable. Lunch & materials will be provided.