Cut from a different cloth

Collar, cuffs, class

Wood, 41, is leading a revolution on the street synonymous with suits by being a woman taking tailoring to the next level, offering a full wardrobe and lifestyle audit that's – dare we say it – enjoyable. ''I'm a Savile Row maverick, I suppose. When it comes to an image overhaul, I want to make it fun and my customers always say they love the way I go about my business. I always say dress for your finest moment, dress the way you deserve to be seen, and the whole stuffy, traditional vibe - who wants that anymore?

"I was brought up in a very middle-class environment. My grandparents were wealthy and lived in Jermyn Street in a very fashionable district of London with all kinds of hierarchy. I always felt very uncomfortable with it because nobody gets the best out of each other behaving like that. Those experiences moulded me and the way I think luxury should be done. Be respectful, be professional, but it doesn't mean you can't have fun. I don't look people up and down and scoff 'Hmmm, what are you wearing? How dare you come into my establishment!'."

The lifestyle audit sits at the top end of Wood's services and involves the kind of thorough questioning Ml6 would be proud of. "It's no good me being driven by my ego," she says. "I have to understand where you spend time and what your goals on how you want to be perceived are. My mind thinks in pictures, so how you'll look comes together as a collection I've created in my head. A lot of men don't know how to look good, whereas women tend to be quite good at blending it all together, and that's where I come in. There are tailors who will make you anything you want, and that makes my skin crawl. You won't feel transformed in the slightest and that's the whole point of it for me."

Family ties

Wood's love for male fashion blossomed from a young age in the most beautifully innocent way possible; by dressing her dad. "When I was a kid, I would do seasonal shopping trips with my dad - 'Here's some money, get a few pieces'. So it was bonding time, but also where I began designing for men. From that moment on, I obsessed about fashion.

"My dad would be like 'It's not a fashion show, I'm taking you to school', and I was like 'Are you crazy?' Life is a fashion show, darling. His name is Adrian, he's 75 now and he dresses from head to toe in in my stuff, strutting about Camden Town. He's cooler than me."

Bespoke tailoring by the age of 21, Wood went solo at 25 with no idea how to run a business.

"I've always been led by pure excitement, so it doesn't enter my mind," she says. "A friend laughs that I just go "*'* it'; I want to do it and then work out the rest later. If I overanalyse, that's where the magic dies.

"So I paid for a website and said to my mum, 'I'm going on holiday, can you answer the phone if anyone rings?' A barrister called and wanted a suit. He's still my customer 15 years on. Then Chuka Umunna [formerly an MP, currently a JP Morgan Chase advisor) became my customer and made it onto GQ's best dressed list. Suddenly he was everywhere and everyone wanted to know where he got his suits. That was pretty epic."

Defiance and details

Describing her style as timeless classic with a twist, Wood doesn't mince her words. "Stop following trends – it's trash. You should always be your own trend. If pink suits are in, do you go 'Yes, I've always wanted to look like a giant lobster'? It's about tuning in to what looks good on you. I don't follow fashion; I think it's irrelevant."

Wood says she has noticed a post-pandemic shift to being more laid back, but that smart-casual "puts fear into every man" so she's found herself helping guys changing jobs where the dress code is more relaxed... although not to the total detriment of the suit. "The one thing every man should have in his wardrobe is a go-to blue two­ piece but, with a million different shades, it's about choosing the right blue and keeping it understated. A beautiful cut, luxurious, cool, interesting fabric, fine detailing – simple changes that make people take notice of the subtleties."

As for travelling, Wood regularly consults with customers about what to pack for a private jet journey. "There are fabrics I'd help you choose to make travelling easier, such as a mesh wool you can literally throw in your suitcase and it'll bounce back perfectly," she says. "It's okay to wear a suit short-haul, but long-haul you want to be comfortable with something smart in arm's reach in case you need to unzip, get changed and go straight to a meeting. Ideally, you want something practical and luxury isn't always that conducive, so it's about making smart choices – and don't compromise on good shoes."

For her eyes only

Client confidentiality is important, but she admits that Idris Elba – her pick to be the next Bond and one of three men she wishes she could dress – regrettably isn't a customer yet. The other two?

"Jeff Goldblum, because I think he looks epic," she says. "Forget The Fly with big hair and awful suits; he's totally come into his own and looks wicked. He's 69 and never looked better, and that's exactly what I'm trying to do here. He's become the master of wearing contrasting clothes that look non-contrived."

Finally, why stop at Bond? Wood wants M's business too. "Definitely Ralph Fiennes, because he's your classic British gent with a bit of eccentricity. I'd put him in something green with an open shirt to modernise him a bit." But forget The King's Man; Wood is every bit the Queen of Savile Row.

Picture credit: Matthew McQuillan