An "old-style" tailor shop that has welcomed generations through its doors has been at the heart of the city-centre for decades.
In between Boodles and Yanni's on Lord Street, a corridor leads you up a flight of stairs to Made to Measure, a well-established business that has been in Liverpool 40 years. Owned by tailor Ian Hamilton-Doyle, from Anfield, the shop is "hard to find," but has built up a huge and loyal customer base across the generations that continues today.
Ian, 68, first worked at Timpson's on Williamson Street after leaving school, before he mastered his craft as a tailor. As part of the Liverpool ECHO's How It Used To Be series, we spoke to Ian about how he has seen fashion trends and the city change over the decades and what it's like running a business in the heart of Liverpool.
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Ian told the ECHO: "My first job was in the shoe shop in Timpson's and I hated it. I hated every second of it from the very, very first day. At 15, in those days, without qualifications, you got all the dirty jobs, all the horrible jobs, everyone treated you badly.
"One day the manager pulled me to one side and said why don't you leave and I said 'I will do when I've got a job'. He said 'a mate of mine has got a tailor shop in Seymour Street, he’s looking for a junior, go up there'. I went in on my lunch hour and I left that day.
"I went in as the tea boy and gradually I got trained up to be a bespoke tailor and then when I was about 24, I started running the place. It was all practical, there was no theoretical training.
"We would be shown how to do a job and if you didn't get it right the first time somebody would show you again and if you didn't get it right again they'd give up on you. You're not up to it.
"I left school with no qualifications at all, nothing. This was creative and I worked with a lot of people I really, really liked in comparison to a factory job which I never wanted to do."
The business on Seymour Street later moved to Walton Road near the old Astoria cinema, but Ian only remained there for a few more years before leaving to start his own business. Ian said: "I was left with no choice. I had an argument with my boss and then I left with 30 minutes notice.
"This was in the 80s when there were absolutely no jobs at all. I was left with a choice of be unemployed or starting off on my own and that's what I chose to do."
Ian's business was originally based in Philip Son & Nephew in Whitechapel, but has been located at 33a Lord Street since 1985. And like many new independent businesses in the city in the 80s, times were difficult.
Ian said: "It was incredibly hard. For one, I didn't have any money for equipment, the economy for the city was on the floor and I made just about every conceivable mistake you could make. I made mistakes that cost me money, that cost me time – but we still survived."
Ian originally started as a bespoke tailor, tailoring clothes to order. But as that side of the business reduced, Ian started doing alteration work which "grew and grew."
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With generations of customers across Merseyside, Ian has worked with a number of well-known faces from members of the LFC and EFC teams through the years to regular customers like Sir Harry Livermore, Brian Labone and more. He has also been an alteration tailor for most of the shops in the city centre and worked with Liverpudlians on the cabaret circuit.
Ian said: "There are some families I am now dealing with the great-grandchildren of people I originally started dealing with. And I wish I had a quid for every time I've been pinning a dress on a girl and she's turned around and said "you always used to alter my nan's clothes for clubbing in the 80s."
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But Made to Measure also became known for one other member of the team and for years, it wasn't unusual for customers to see Penny the cat around the shop. Ian said: "Penny died last year, I miss her so much it’s unbelievable.
"She had a condition called Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and the vet said unless you can keep her indoors and away from other cats for the rest of her life, you should have her put down because she’ll have a horrible death. She lived here and in the end, the landlord let me have the top floor of the building, so my cat was the only stray you were every gonna find in the city who had her own apartment in the city centre."
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Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Ian had more staff and used to do wedding and evening wear hire, but all that has changed. Today, he works alongside colleague Val in the shop and his wife is a partner in the business.
And when it comes to fashion, Ian has also seen trends come and go in the city. He said: "In the 80s it was very formal. People wanted the old-style British tailor's suit which was always heavy and quite stiff. They would last for 25 years and nobody wants a suit to last 25 years anymore, they want a suit that is comfortable for two years.
"The suits I used to make did last that long but they were heavy, people wouldn't wear a garment like that now. They would want something that felt more like a casual, lightweight jacket when they put it on.
"Casual clothes have become a massive, dominant thing now. The old suit, shirt and tie is almost completely gone.
"People who used to have to wear a suit for work don't any more, they can turn up in t-shirts and jeans. Unless you’re dealing face-to-face with a client, you don't have to wear a suit. As long as you can do your job, that's what people care about."
The most expensive item Ian has ever altered was a dress costing £20,000. But he said he "doesn't get nervous anymore" and "never stops learning."
Ian said: "The dress was for a client who was wearing it for the races and it was the finest silk I have ever worked on in my life. It didn't look it on her, but when we cut the hem and I measured the length of the hem it was nearly 70ft long but it was so thin.
"It was not even like tissue paper, it was almost ghosted fabric. Every week I will learn something new and I'm more careful than I've ever been now. I don't rush work and I don't take on a job I don't think will work well.
When asked if he could have imagined in his teens that he would go on to run his own successful business and still be popular in the city today, Ian said "not in this life." Ian said: "If you were here for a day you’d see that at least two out of three of the clients are regular clients and possibly the third is introduced by a regular client.
‘We always try our best, we don't always make a profit when we do try our best but you still look after your clients the best you possibly can. I'd rather have a client who was happy than a client who felt they’d been overcharged for a shoddy job and we don’t do shoddy work. If I can't do it properly I won't do it."
Now decades on in the business, Ian said he "will carry on for as long as he possibly can." He said: "There’s variety. I've been in business for 50 years and I've never had two days the same. It's never boring.
"We're very fortunate that we have really, really good clients and they keep coming back time and time again. I like the people I deal with, I like the people I work with and I like the work I do. I'm happy."
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