It’s a testament to Kanye West‘s style credentials that he sought out Kent, Haste & Lachter on a recent trip to London. Based just off Savile Row on New Burlington Street since 2010, John Kent, Terry Haste and Stephen Lachter are on the radar of those who know about tailoring and shirtmaking – certainly, they’re too busy when GQ visits them to be described as best-kept secrets: “We’re an overnight success after 40 years,” says Lachter. The trio started out at Hawes & Curtis, before going separate ways: Haste joined Tommy Nutter, founded Hackett bespoke and became Huntsman MD; Lachter  was a director at Tie Rack before rejoining Kent, at one point sharing premises with Norton & Sons, whose shirts Lachter still makes.

This is the first coat John made for me. Cloth is W Bill shetland tweed. We had two fittings during my 10 days stay in London. Then I got the coat by mail, and noticed a few small problems after a couple of wearings. They were all agreed upon and fixed during my second visit to London. So, in effect I had something similiar to three fittings.

One interesting thing is the shape of the breast pocket. Initially, I disliked it (considering it to be too “squarish”), and wanted it to be changed. After discussion with John, though, I decided to give it a chance, and try for a year — with the agreement that he will change the pocket (make it narrower) if I would still want so. John believes that this shape is more “old and traditional”, “like they were in the 30s”.