The inaugural Bespoke Tailors’ Benevolent Association festival dinner and auction, held at the Merchant Taylors’ Hall on 7th February, proved to be a great success, raising over £9,000.

Formed from a merger of the British tailoring industry’s two oldest and most revered charities - the Master Tailors’ Benevolent Association (est. 1887) and the Tailors’ Benevolent Institute (est. 1861) - the Association serves to aid and award grants when necessary to anyone who has worked in British tailoring at any level for a period of ten years or more.

The Association’s annual grants currently support over sixty beneficiaries and it has in the region of four hundred members, including tailors, woollen merchants and those from associated trades and suppliers.

Particular thanks should be made to this year’s Appeal Chairman, Anda Rowland of Anderson & Sheppard, Emma Willis for her special donation, Shampers wine bar and restaurant, Dormeuil, Scabal, Tustings and all who donated auction and raffle prizes, which included two nights at Le Meurice in Paris, Berry Bros & Rudd wine, a Tustings handbag and a pair of Edward Green shoes.

Thanks are also due to the Association’s chairman, Cameron Buchanan of the cloth merchants Harrisons of Edinburgh, who organised the dinner, and the critic and columnist Adrian Gill, a loyal, long-time supporter of bespoke British tailoring, who was guest speaker.

Mr Gill was greeted on the night by Patrick Murphy of Huntsman who, much to his surprise, reminded him that he made his first bespoke suit for him some years ago when he was at fellow Savile Row tailors Davies and Son.

Savile Row Bespoke Association members represented at the dinner were Anderson & Sheppard, Dege & Skinner, Henry Poole & Co, H Huntsman & Sons, Gieves & Hawkes and Norton & Sons.

The picture shows BTBA General Secretary Cyril Fox (left) being greeted by attendees including Association Chairman Cameron Buchanan (second left) and this year's Appeal Chairman Anda Rowland (third left).