The Deck is moving up Savile Row

Much ink has been spilled on the supposed demise of Savile Row, yet The Deck, Daisy Knatchbull’s women’s tailoring brand, shows that there’s still plenty of life in London’s golden mile. Such is the demand for Knatchbull’s made-to-measure suits, whose fans include Lauren Hutton, Elizabeth Hurley and Gillian Anderson, that she’s not only expanded her team from three employees to 20 and moved into one of the largest shop fronts on the street (the first dedicated solely to women), but is now also launching Knatchbull, a ready-to-wear line. “It just felt like such a natural progression,” says Knatchbull, who only founded The Deck in 2019.

We want a woman to be able to buy her whole wardrobe with us

The first collection, which launches online and in store next month, is intended to complement the brand’s made-to-measure offering, which has grown 111 per cent year-on-year. There are everyday staples such as shirts in cotton poplin and sandwashed silk, cashmere jumpers and vests in pastel shades of lemon yellow, dusty pink and sky blue, navy jumpsuits and a trench coat – as well as a serving of signature tailoring, including single-breasted jackets and waistcoats with nipped-in waists and matching trousers in wide-leg or cigarette silhouettes. “Eventually we want to have a woman be able to buy her whole wardrobe with us,” says Knatchbull, who used many of the same fabrics and Savile Row cloth merchants for the collection as she does for the custom suits.  

Though the pieces, which range from £295 to £2,295, might be “off-the-peg”, they have been designed with their clients’ needs in mind. Rather than using traditional sizing charts, the fit has been informed by data taken from across 2,000 of the women measured by the team’s in-house tailors, to reflect “what the real woman actually looks like”, while all the pieces come with generous inlays so they can be altered in the years to come. There are also bespoke details and nods to Savile Row’s heritage throughout – from the side adjusters and V-shaped cut in the rear of the trousers’ waistband, which reference traditional men’s fishtail trousers, to the ticket pockets on the waistcoats. “It’s taking the essence of Savile Row – but making it uniquely modern and feminine,” says Knatchbull.