Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
First black tailor on Saville Row and first to receive an OBE; founded the Saville Row Academy; named Black Business Person of the Year 2017.
On the island
Eight records
I am very, very proud of my background and there's so many stories in Calypso's. They're love stories. They're actually political. It's a narration of our life in Trinidad and challenges sometimes and what we're proud of. And so the first of my choices is a Calypso. I'm pleased to say it's a portrait of my country, Trinidad and Tobago.
because of my belief. That Academic attainment, certainly high academic attainment, does not necessarily prepare you for success in life. And I love the beat. It's fantastic. It speaks to me.
My mother used to play me a song by Jimmy Cliff, Time Will Tell. And uh she used to go to different priests at different so many different churches. And she would come home and say to me, Never mind. One day. things would be better.
The box is very much to a large extent, I came here at the age seventeen. It's an autobiographical account of my journey and my life here in the early days in London.
It's a Man's Man's Man's World
I saw James Brown perform. It was the first time I'd seen I think it's called strobe lighting, where's the flashing light and looks as though he's dancing in slow motion. My goodness, this was super impressive.
the upbringing that I had and the values that my parents taught me I had heard of Les Crane, a D J. who had recorded a poem. Called Desiderata. And when I heard it, it really, really impressed me. And I used it as my Bible in Inverted Commas to navigate my own life.
Maria La O is a song of chosen because it's it's an operatic piece and you would not associate opera with the West Indies, and most certainly not Trinidad, the birth of Steelpan and Calypso. However, the Latin American influence and the Spanish influence in the Caribbean is very prevalent during and after the war.
Bridge Over Troubled WaterFavourite
My sons They have given me a lease of life. That I am looking forward so much. to be engaged with their growing up, to be a part of their life with Simon and Garfunkel Bridge Over Troubled Water. This song speaks so much about parenting, about challenging, about relationships.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:15What is it that makes Savile Row so special?
What makes Sabelro very special is his tradition, its history, it's the pinnacle of Sartreal excellence.
Presenter asks
4:45Did your parents emphasize the importance of working hard and presenting yourself well?
Their view was that the pathway to success is becoming academically attained. I rejected that. because I just did not want to go to school, partly because the school teachers weren't very kind to us. We came from the hills and we weren't expected to amount to anything in life. And so they never paid us much attention.
Presenter asks
11:25What were your dreams at that stage [when you sailed to England at 17]?
It was probably an unrealistic dream. and I sailed to Southampton not knowing anybody.
Presenter asks
13:08What was it like leaving your parents?
The keepsakes
The luxury
The height of luxury for me is having a steel pan and teaching myself to play the steel pan. But I want a soprano tenor steel pan, which is the lead pan, the one at the front.
It was very, very difficult leaving my family. I was probably the second person that ever left the village, and so there was a huge fanfare. Here I am. with so many people to see me off in the docks of Puerto Spey, waiting for the boat. They didn't turn up. And so my parents said to me, Oh, you wait here just in case the boat does turn up. and everyone left.
Presenter asks
17:08What was the reality that met you when you first knocked on doors to get a job on Savile Row?
I wanted to work at James Barnes Taylor. He had a a card up in the window, Taylor wanted. I went in. We said yes, you can start on Monday. He liked the suit I was wearing and the one I took with me. I said I had made them. I started on Monday and almost exactly the same thing happened the one day that I actually spent at the tailor learning to make jackets, because another guy saw the card in the window and he came in the day I started at Anthony Sinclair.
Presenter asks
21:16How hard was it to find a job [after graduating from the London College of Fashion]?
I could not get a job at the front of a shop. And this is where probably the act of racism came in, but I did not recognize it. I just felt that I wasn't suitable. So I didn't take umbrage at being turned down. But one boss said our customers would not take kindly to a foreigner. But if you wanted a job in the back room, we can take you. And I had at least eleven appointments in in really the the top tailors. No one would give me a job at the front of a shop. And so I was determined to get to the front.
“I didn't sail to England or to Europe. I sailed to Saville Row. I wanted to be in the Olympics of tailoring.”
“We're taking what is something that's essentially flat and creating sculpture, creating a three-dimensional form with it, that it actually fits around a body. It's sartoreal art.”
“Its rock of eye is a natural talent. An ability to recognize the difference between good and perfect.”