This tailor is the first woman to open shop on Savile Row

LONDON -- A female master tailor who's dressed the likes of David Beckham and the Royal Family broke one of London's most persistent glass ceilings on Wednesday as she became the first woman to open shop on Savile Row. 

Anywhere else in the country, a woman opening a shop might not be anything to write home about, but on Savile Row -- a street famous for its traditional bespoke tailoring for men -- this is the first time in its 213 year history that a woman has had her name "above the door". 

Kathryn Sargent -- who became the first female head cutter on Savile Row while working at Gieves & Hawkes in 2009 -- told the Evening Standard that “being a woman is incidental -- I am a tailor first and foremost” and she is “thrilled to be making history”. 

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

"It was very unusual, some 20 years ago when I started, for me to be in the cutting room and for me to be training but I have had a lot of positive feedback and a lot of support from my colleagues on Savile Row," Sargent told BBC Radio 4. 

The designer is taking up a summer residency in her new premises at 37 Savile Row, which were previously home to designer Nick Tentis, and she will decide whether to keep a permanent base on Savile Row. 

“Savile Row is such an old and masculine street but I want it to be a gender-neutral tailoring house,” Sargent told the Standard. 

Aiming to create a "very balanced" selection of male and female clothing in the shop window, Sargent will also make bespoke jackets and garments for female customers.

Bespoke tailoring doesn't come cheap however. Sargent's two-piece suits begin at £4,200 and made-to-measure suits are priced from £1,500. 

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