A Tailor’s Unlikely Journey From Trinidad to Savile Row
For decades, the story was simple: Andrew M Ramroop, the Trinidadian-born master tailor who owns the storied Savile Row institution Maurice Sedwell, was celebrated as a pioneering Black figure in an industry that rarely saw his likes. Yet as a new biography reveals, Ramroop’s ancestral heritage tells a different, more complex story—one that connects a 14-year-old apprentice in the Caribbean to the storied ateliers of London.
Titled Bespoken: From Tunapuna to Buckingham Palace, the book is authored by Ashok Kumar Bal, a former civil servant. It was launched in Delhi over the weekend, with Sunil Sethi, Chairman of the Fashion Design Council of India, presiding over the event. The biography traces Ramroop’s life from his childhood in Trinidad’s Tunapuna region—where he was born Madan, the fourth of five siblings—to his apprenticeship under local tailors, his arrival in London in 1970 at age 17, and his rise to own the business where he once worked as an assistant.
Setting the Record Straight
The book’s most resonant thread is Ramroop’s decision to correct a long-standing public misperception. For years, he had been identified as Black in the media and even on his own company’s website. In a 1998 BBC documentary titled Black Firsts, he was introduced as the “first Black tailor on Savile Row.” Ramroop never publicly disputed these descriptions, telling the Indian Express, “I never felt the need to.” He added, “To be described as black… I always regard it as only my colour as opposed to being African.”
The catalyst for this correction was the book itself. “Ashok Bal has given me an opportunity to correct this in an important way,” Ramroop was quoted as saying. “A media interview or any other format is not deep enough. It may or may not get read. It is short lived. The book is permanent.”
A Heritage Reclaimed
Ramroop’s Indian ancestry traces to his great-grandmother Luchmin, a 26-year-old widow from Lucknow, who set off from Calcutta with her nine-year-old son Munnao in 1889, bound for Trinidad as indentured labourers. She met and married Bhairo Prasad, a fellow labourer, on the journey—thus beginning a family legacy that would one day dot Savile Row with “ultra-bespoke” craftsmanship.
Ramroop’s own path was circuitous. He knew he wanted to be a tailor at 11, dropped out of school at 14, apprenticed with a local tailor, and later studied under Kissoon Singh, who first planted the Savile Row idea in his head. He landed in London in 1970 and, after being repeatedly passed over for cutter positions, took a sewing job at Huntsman while studying at the London College of Fashion, where he completed a three-year course in two years. He moved to Maurice Sedwell, where he rose through the ranks, and in 1988, he bought the company—becoming the first person of colour to own a business on the Row.
In 2008, he introduced the trademark “ultra bespoke” and was awarded the OBE in the same year. He still insists on being called a tailor, not a designer, arguing that design is just an idea that a tailor brings into three-dimensional form.
More Than a Biography
To author Ashok Kumar Bal, Bespoken is more than a biography—it’s a roadmap. “It is a roadmap for creative conviction for aspiring dreamers,” he said at the launch. Bal’s journey to writing the book began with a chance encounter at a tailor’s shop in Mumbai, where he noticed a framed certificate from the Savile Row Bespoke Academy bearing Ramroop’s name. He later sent 36 cold emails before Ramroop agreed to the project. Ramroop explained that he accepted because he wanted to correct the perception that his heritage was African, a misconception held by many. The book, he said, tells the story of his roots and his rise.
Reflecting on his life, Ramroop said he hoped readers would find it “a story of strength, perseverance and purpose - one that is inspirational, encouraging and motivational.”
Perspectives
Andrew Ramroop, Master Tailor: Ramroop maintains that his identity has always been a matter of colour rather than origin. He expressed a desire to correct the record through the book, saying, “I never felt the need to” correct errors before, but the permanence of a book—unlike fleeting media interviews—presented a meaningful opportunity. “It is short lived. The book is permanent,” he said.
Sunil Sethi, Chairman, Fashion Design Council of India: Extolling Ramroop’s craft and his place in the tailoring firmament, Sethi remarked, “For me, and for many people who have followed his work, Andrew is really the god of ultra-bespoke on Savile Row.”
Ashok Kumar Bal, Author: Bal described the book as an effort to chronicle an extraordinary life that transcends his own biography, calling Ramroop’s story “a modern-day epic.” The book, he said, captures “audacity, resilience, struggle, devotion, dedication and triumph of the human spirit.”