Tailors and outfitters since 1931
Two cutters, one workroom and a promise to alter anything they ever made.
Ashby & Reeve began in 1931 when Walter Ashby, a cutter, and Edwin Reeve, a trouser-maker, left a large Mayfair house to open a two-man workroom off Regent Street. Their customers were clerks, session musicians and schoolmasters - men who wanted a suit that fitted and would last, at a price they could pay in instalments.
In 1958 the firm took the lease on 9 Heddon Yard, where the workroom, the cloth room and the fitting rooms still are. The house fits we sell ready-to-wear - Slim, Tailored and Classic - are cut from the same paper blocks our made-to-measure customers are fitted on, and every jacket is finished by hand upstairs before it leaves.
The founders’ promise survives too. Anything we have made can come back to Heddon Yard for alteration, re-pressing or repair, free of charge, for as long as you own it. Our workroom handles around three thousand alterations a year, and a growing number arrive by post.
- First suit cut off Regent Street
- 1931First suit cut off Regent Street
- Cutters and tailors in the workroom
- 11Cutters and tailors in the workroom
- Paper patterns kept on file
- 4,800Paper patterns kept on file
A short history
1931
Off Regent Street
Walter Ashby and Edwin Reeve open a two-man workroom cutting suits on instalments.
1958
9 Heddon Yard
The firm moves to the workroom, cloth room and fitting rooms it still occupies.
1986
Alterations for life
The founders’ informal promise becomes written policy on every garment.
2026
Three house fits
Slim, Tailored and Classic are cut from the made-to-measure blocks and offered online.
What we hold to
British cloth
Worsteds from Huddersfield, flannels from the Calder valley, tweed from the Hebrides.
Three house fits
Slim, Tailored and Classic - drafted on the same block, so your size never moves.
Alterations for life
Free hemming, sleeves and waist adjustments for as long as you own the piece.
What customers say
“I bought my first Sackville suit for my wedding in 2014. It has been let out once, re-cuffed once, and I wore it again to my brother’s last spring.”
“The Tailored fit is the first off-the-peg jacket that has ever sat on my shoulders properly. The cutter knew my size by looking.”
“They hemmed four pairs of trousers by post and sent them back pressed, with a handwritten ticket in each pocket.”
New cloth, first
A short letter each month when new bunches arrive from the mills - with first refusal on the short runs before they reach the shop.