LONDON — Savile Row is slouching toward sustainability.
The Deck, a tailor that caters exclusively to women, is driving the change by becoming the first B Corp-certified company on the street that’s synonymous with men’s tailoring.
“I just don’t think people understand how wonderful B Corp is in terms of being so rigorous and how hard it is. What it means is that a company like Coca-Cola and The Deck can be analyzed on the same basis,” said Daisy Knatchbull, The Deck’s founder and a Huntsman alum, in an interview.
“It’s been such a long process, but an amazing one. It took us about a year and a half. It’s been a really great learning curve and reminding ourselves of what we do is so good,” she added.
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The Deck had to submit all of their performances and numbers across the business and answer more than 300 questions about their water source and waste disposal.
To be granted and to maintain certification, companies must receive a minimum score of 80 from an assessment of its social and environmental performance, integrate B Corp commitments to stakeholders into company governing documents, and pay an annual fee based on annual sales.
Their results have to be made available publicly on their B Corp profile on B Lab’s website. B Lab is the nonprofit that determines B Corp certification.
Only 7,000 businesses in the world have the B Corp certification including Patagonia, Abel & Cole and Innocent.
“We had to change our articles of association with our investors to show that what we were doing was not just for profit, but for the planet and people,” Knatchbull said.
The brand has a store at No. 32 Savile Row, an airy shop that spans 2,000 square feet and features De Gournay wallpaper with hand-embroidered flower, bird and butterfly appliqués; blond parquet floors, and a lush velvet sofa facing a gold antique mirror.
Knatchbull opened the brand to offer women the same sort of made-to-measure service men get from their tailors.
She raised the money from private backers and opened a basement shop on the King’s Road before moving to Lower Sloane Street. During the pandemic, she moved to a small space on Savile Row before opening the big shopfront at No. 32, which had previously been a café, events and pop-up space.
The Deck is a growing business now, with the U.S. making up 35 percent of the business. Traveling trunk shows in New York, Houston, Dallas, Palm Beach, Fla., Aspen and Washington, D.C., have been adding to the success.
“In New York, we see 120 people by appointment in four days. Every single woman craves to have a pair of trousers, a suit or a shirt made because every woman doesn’t like what’s out there in times of fit, even if you’re deemed to be the perfect body,” said Knatchbull, a confident, svelte woman in her early 30s with the kind of natural, perfectly blow dried hair that’s usually reserved for princess and duchesses.
Customers can choose from around 7,000 fabrics, mainly from the U.K. and Italy. The Deck will monogram, customize buttons and thread colors and create linings and collars with personal effects such as silk scarves or heirloom fabrics.
The price for a jacket and a pair of trousers starts at 2,800 pounds.