Meet the Maker | Emma Willis

Luxurious Italian linen and made-to-measure tailoring are at the heart of the boutique Emma Willis store, located on fashion thoroughfare Jermyn Street. Dream Escape meets Prince Charles' shirtmaker to discuss men’s changing style, classic cuts and the future of fashion.

Trained at the Slade School of Art, Emma Willis MBE entered the male-dominated tailoring world in 1989, designing and making men's luxury shirts, ties and nightwear.

Her elegant Jermyn Street store opened in 1999, and in 2010 she opened cutting rooms and a factory in a historic townhouse in Gloucester. Here, her team of skilled cutters and machinists work to the highest standards to create bespoke and ready-to wear shirts, alongside nightwear and socks.

Tailoring to Hollywood stars including Daniel Craig and Benedict Cumberbatch, as well as members of the royal family, Emma Willis adheres to the highest standards of English shirt-making. Single needle stitching, cross-stitched buttons and the finest of Swiss cotton are all used to create bespoke shirts for discerning gents.

Emma and His Royal Highness Prince of Wales at Bearland House

Sustainability is also at the heart of the company’s ethos as they strive to source all materials as close to home as possible, not only to keep craftsmanship alive but to reduce environmental impact and energy consumption.

While many fashion brands have migrated towards e-commerce and adopting disposable fashion practices, Emma moved in the opposite direction by opening a boutique store and manufacturing her own high-quality products in Britain. Her loyal customer base has stuck with her since the late ’90s and relies on Emma’s team for quality shirts and style advice.

“With a small privately owned bespoke shop, people come expecting a very personal service, which we hope we give,” Emma explains, talking to Dream Escape.

“All the choices are bespoke, you really can choose your own colours, your design and your cut. People know that we make our own products and really enjoy the quality of the fabrics and how we make things. How we sew our seams, how we sew on our buttons, what our buttons are made of.”

“Most people, particularly men, take great pleasure in finding out the backstory of their clothes and what they're wearing.”

Emma points out that part of the appeal of her shirts is that customers can see and feel the fabrics as part of an overall retail experience. “People want to feel beautiful fabrics, something tactile, you can’t do that online.”

“If something is made especially for you, you have to go to a physical store, and I think that people still enjoy the social experience of shopping and going to nice shops."

Since her store opened in the late nineties, Emma has observed that men’s fashion has evolved, along with their lifestyles. “Fashion has become more casual but not as much as people predicted.

“My business started in ’89 and so I've seen with shirts, it's become much more tailored, the style for men,” explains Emma. “I think that goes a lot with the fact that men spend a lot more time in the gym than they used to, and they want to show off their figures. Whereas there the style in the eighties was very baggy with full-cut shirts.”

Along with high-quality clothing, Emma also has a firm commitment to local manufacturing and employment and offers full training to her staff.

“We make everything ourselves in Gloucester, that's the philosophy I’ve always had, I like to employ locally,” says Emma. “We train as well; it does take a little bit more time and money to do that, but you get great loyalty.

“They also learn in the way that you make, so they don't come and bring different ways of making, or bad habits.”

Emma also hires and trains people in Gloucester, which has a very high refugee population. “We have employed several refugees who have been a great addition to our business. We have employed Syrians, a lady from Hong Kong, a Chinese lady and a young girl from Ukraine has just joined us,” says Emma.

“That's what we enjoy doing, creating a happy workforce; it’s so important for the whole business because you want people to stay. We won’t be able to maintain that sort of quality unless we have long-term employees because the longer you're making something, the better you get at it, and the more beautiful you make it.”

Beautiful bespoke shirts and talented staff helped Emma navigate her way through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Customers remained loyal during this tumultuous period and her ethos of local manufacturing paid off at a time when international supply chains were severely impacted.

“We're strongest post-pandemic than we've ever been, the people who make close to home and have their own production have been absolutely fine,” Emma explains. “We have really benefited because customers have been able to continue to rely on us to produce for them.”

Emma points out that if suppliers are on the other side of the world, you have a lot less control as a business. She hopes that the disruption caused by the pandemic might encourage businesses to produce closer to home and commit to more sustainable practices, as it starts to make more economic sense to stay local.

Style For Soldiers photo by Boo George

“That's the only thing that's going to influence people, for all the talk of sustainability and wonderful work conditions. If money can be made mass producing at the other end of the world, gobbling up rivers and spoiling people's environments, it will be done,” she says.

“It’s beginning to properly make sense to do it closer to home, which is so much better for the environment and it's very good for the economy.”

“Ultimately, it’s consumers that will drive change in the fashion industry as they start to demand better practice.

“I hope that it will have an impact on the fashion business now that young people are very well informed," says Emma. She points to the increased popularity of vintage and secondhand clothing among younger consumers.

“It’s more appealing to buy preloved now, and it’s probably going to have a lovely, positive impact on the environment.”

Emma Willis measuring at Headley Court Military Rehabilitation Hospital

Alongside sustainability and reducing environmental impact, charity is also close to Emma’s heart. She launched the charity Style for Soldiers after visiting wounded soldiers at the Military Rehabilitation Hospital who face unwanted medical discharge. “I just thought what on earth can I do to help? There were a lot of casualties returning and I couldn't get it out of my head,” she says.

“I kept thinking ‘what can I do’ and then about two weeks later, I thought well, I could try and go to the military hospital and make them all a shirt to fit.”

Emma returned to the hospital every two months, measuring the wounded soldiers for a bespoke shirt as a gift of thanks for their bravery and sacrifice.

Emma Willis factory in Gloucester

“I saw the best of humanity, the kindness and the bravery,” says Emma. “They were such a lovely lot; they were humorous, they were so supportive of each other.

“I then had a letter from the head medical officer and he said, ‘you can come anytime’, the lads enjoyed that.”

Today, Style for Soldiers enjoys backing from several high-profile British companies, such as Marks & Spencer and Burberry and includes their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall among its patrons. The charity now aims to offer long-term support through smart clothing for soldiers, regimental walking sticks for the injured, and a series of reunion events and parties for veterans.

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“I can’t help feeling when reading this interview with Emma Willis MBE, that everything about her brand and the philosophy behind it sums up the very best of British. Based in the heart of luxurious St James’s, her service is exemplary, her standards of the highest quality and her devotion to sustainability and the environment admirable. Emma is a woman who has made her mark on what is traditionally a man’s world, given jobs and training to refugees and launched Style for Soldiers. She exemplifies and continues the very best traditions of bespoke tailoring that London has long been known for.” ⬥ sally@dreamescape.co.uk

WORDS | PORTIA JONES