Oliver Spencer: relaxed British tailoring, without the formality

Who Oliver Spencer is

Oliver Spencer founded his brand in 2002, after abandoning studenthood for a stall at Portobello Market and then spending a decade building the formalwear label Favourbrook. He describes himself as a self taught tailor and shopkeeper, which is about right. The first shop was a single unit on Lambs Conduit Street in London.

The philosophy is stated plainly on the brand's own pages: quality needn't mean formality, casual needn't mean careless. Spencer's own description of what he is after is clothes that you can adopt and inhabit, clothes you can live in and do things in. He won WGSN's global Menswear Designer award in 2013 and has twice been nominated for Menswear Designer at the British Fashion Awards.

Where it is made

This is the fact that closes the sale on a tailored coat and almost no stockist mentions it. Oliver Spencer states that around 40% of the collection is made in England, with the rest produced in European factories, principally the UK and Portugal. Fabrics and yarns are sourced from artisanal British and Italian mills, and the buttons are corozo, cut from the tagua tree nut.

On sustainability the brand's line is buy less, buy better. Wool is procured from British or Italian mills, shearling has been phased out in favour of faux pile, and natural down replaced with a recycled polyester microfibre. On certification, Oliver Spencer says that ten of its suppliers either have undergone GOTS audits or feature GOTS certification on their websites. That is a carefully worded statement and it is not the same as Oliver Spencer being GOTS certified, so we are quoting it rather than rounding it up.

What we stock

Jackets and outerwear, shirts, knitwear and cardigans, trousers, and genuine tailoring at the top of the range. This is the most expensive of the British brands we carry and it competes with Private White V.C. and Margaret Howell rather than with the mid market.

Recurring pieces in our range are the New York Special shirt, the Kennard jacket, the Britten and Caradale cardigans, and the Finsbury and Lothian at the tailored end.

How Oliver Spencer fits, and the trouser trap

Oliver Spencer is true to size, with a deliberate option to go up. The brand's own position is that particularly with jackets, shirts and t shirts, trying a size larger than usual gives you a still more relaxed feel. Two sizes is worth trying if you can.

The thing that catches people out is trousers, because Oliver Spencer runs two sizing systems at once. The Orsman, Morton and Fishtail are sized by waist in inches, 28 to 38. The Utility is sized XS to XL. If you own a 32 inch Fishtail there is no published way to work out your Utility size, and nobody on the web explains it. Ring us and we will measure both.

The four trouser blocks, in the brand's own words: the Orsman is wide leg and pleated with a high rise; the Morton is a high rise single pleated trouser that sits on the natural waist and tapers from the knee; the Utility is a straight leg relaxed trouser with an easy rise; the Fishtail is a tailored tapered trouser, flat front, with a V notch at the rear waistband for movement.

Alterations, repairs and buying from Belfast

Oliver Spencer runs an in store alterations and repairs service covering everything from shortening sleeves and hems to more complex restorations. It is a London service, so if you are in Northern Ireland or the Republic it is worth asking us first about what can be handled locally. Our range ships across the UK and to the Republic of Ireland, and the same stock hangs at Rio Brazil in Victoria Square, Belfast.