The generator above shuffles the whole bank. Below is the rest of it, laid out block by block, so you can read the words before you paste them anywhere.
Hero lines
- Cut, sampled and made here
- Two collections a year, no more
- A studio, not a brand deck
Everything starts as a calico toile on a stand upstairs — the flat sketches come later, if at all.
Small runs of forty to eighty pieces, cut from cloth we can trace back to a mill we have visited.
Studio visits by appointment, Wednesday to Friday, 11:00–17:00. Ring the bell twice, because the machines are loud.
Team bios
Ottoline Marsh — Founder & designer
Ottoline trained in tailoring, spent six years in a large house learning precisely what she did not want to do, and opened this studio in 2017. She still cuts the first toile for every style herself. She works to loud radio and will not be apologising for it.
Kaspar Ndlovu — Pattern cutter
Kaspar has cut patterns for twenty-six years and can tell from a photograph where a sleeve head has gone wrong. He grades every size by hand rather than letting the software do it, and the difference shows up most clearly at a 20.
Suki Abrantes — Studio manager & machinist
Suki runs the production board, orders the cloth and sews the samples that go out to buyers. She is the reason deliveries arrive in the week we promised them. She holds strong views on interfacing and is very happy to share them.
Quotes
“Three fittings, and the jacket sits properly on my left shoulder, which is lower than my right and had never once been acknowledged out loud by anybody in a shop.”
Beatriz Nkemdirim, Made-to-measure
“Ottoline said, “you will have sweated through that silk by eight o'clock”, and talked me out of it entirely. The dress I ended up with is the one I still wear.”
Halvard Osei, Occasion commission
“We had our patterns cut here for two seasons and the specification sheets were the first ones our factory did not send straight back with questions. That alone was worth the fee!”
Lucia Trentham, Independent label
FAQ answers
How long does a commission take?
Eight to twelve weeks for a first piece, six for a repeat once we hold your pattern, twelve months for bridal. We do not take rush work at the end of a collection cycle — February and September are honestly not the months in which to ask us.
What does a made-to-measure piece cost?
Jackets start at $1,150, dresses at around $780, coats from $1,400, with cloth costed separately at roughly $40 to $120 a metre. We take a third at the first fitting, a third at the second, and the balance when you collect.
Where does your fabric come from?
Six mills we have visited in person, plus deadstock bought from larger houses in lots of 80 to 200 metres. We will tell you the mill, the composition and the weight of anything you are considering. If we cannot trace it, we do not buy it.
Can I come and see the studio?
Wednesday to Friday, 11:00–17:00, by appointment — it is a working room with pins on the floor and a cutting table nobody can walk around. The collection Saturdays in February and September are open to anyone. Both are worth seeing, for quite different reasons.
Closing lines
If you have an occasion in ten months and a photograph you keep returning to, bring both of them in. The first conversation is free, takes 45 minutes, and ends with an honest answer about whether we suit each other.
The studio is above the courtyard on the second floor — no shop window, no sign, just a bell and a stairwell. Wednesday to Friday, 11:00–17:00, and by arrangement in the evenings.
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