Thomas Mahon (tailor)

Mahon was born in Carlisle, Cumbria, and grew up in the small village of Corby Hill, Cumbria. He was educated at the local village school and went on to the former grammar school, White House in Brampton, Carlisle. He entered the tailoring trade by taking a summer job at bespoke tailors S. Redmayne Ltd. He stayed at Redmayne and completed his apprenticeship whilst studying industrial pattern construction and grading at a local polytechnic. After seven years of training, he left Redmayne for London and furthered his skills as a striker (apprentice cutter) to Dennis Halbery at Anderson & Sheppard of Savile Row.[2]

In 1995, Mahon started his own bespoke tailoring company called Steed Bespoke Tailors with Edwin Deboise, before going independent in 2001. In 2005, he began his weblog English Cut with aid of cartoonist and internet entrepreneur Hugh McLeod to promote his business and share his knowledge of the traditional tailor's craft.

Mahon credits his weblog with helping build his business to the point where he had to temporarily stop accepting new clients in 2007.

Mahon is married to his wife, Claire, who also studied tailoring, fashion, and design at University College for the Creative Arts at Epsom. They have three boys: Patrick, Francis, and John. In his spare time he is a keen sailor and teaches sailing and navigation with the rank of Petty Officer in the Sea Cadet Corps, the UK's Naval Cadet Force.

English Cut built a worldwide client base and reputation and sought to expand the business and its services. In late 2012, Mahon began working with Christian Irving, a long time friend and colleague who wished to offer a high quality, affordable, made to measure tailoring service. Mahon then began searching for a suitable high-quality manufacturer and found a manufacturer in Japan. Mahon supervised this new service for the next four years. He visited Japan in May 2017, two months before leaving as founder, head cutter and creative director of English Cut.

In 2015, Mahon was approached to sell a 20% stake in English Cut Ltd to Todd Enright on behalf of White Winston LLC, Boston, MA. Although the purchase was never completed, a loan note from White Winston was enforced as the main creditor on 31 July 2017. Mahon was invited to stay under new terms but found the conditions unacceptable and left the same day.

Mahon returned as head cutter and creative director of Redmayne Ltd.

His bespoke tailoring is still available on a limited basis whilst training his apprentice Eden Lewis since 2015. A full made-to-measure service followed in the autumn of 2017.

• Savile Row Tailors, English Cut: The Weblog of Bespoke Tailor Thomas Mahon