About Hem
A tailor’s shop that sells clothes.
Twelve years on Linden Street, seven makers, and a sewing machine at the back that never stops.
We opened in 2014 with one rail and a sewing machine.
Ruth trained as a tailor and spent ten years altering other people’s clothes before she wanted to sell her own. Hem started in the front room of 41 Linden Street with twelve cardigans from Lowrie and a promise to take up any hem for free. The shop has grown into the whole ground floor; the promise has not changed.
We still buy the way we started: a handful of makers, visited in person, in runs small enough that you will rarely see yourself coming down the street.
How we buy
Three rules, written on the stockroom door.
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We meet the maker.
Every label on the rail is a workshop we have visited, or a person we have sat down with. If we cannot say where it was made, we do not stock it.
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We buy small.
One or two of each size, and rarely the same piece twice. It means gaps on the rail, and it means your coat is not everyone’s coat.
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We fix what we sell.
Hems, buttons, a re-wax, a de-pill — anything bought here is mended here, for as long as you have it.
The makers
Seven workshops, most of them family.
We buy from people we have met, in small runs, and we tell you where every piece was made.
Why we buy this way-
Lowrie Knit
Lambswool and merino knitwear
Scottish Borders
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Harwell & Sons
Shirts and overshirts in heavy cotton
Lancashire
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Maud Studio
Bias-cut silk and linen dresses
Porto
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Pell Workwear
Canvas trousers and chore coats
North Carolina
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Oste
Boiled wool coats and jackets
Tyrol
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Saltmarsh
Striped jersey and sailcloth
Brittany
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Linden Leather
Belts, bags and our own tote
Millbrook
Come in and try it on.
Most things fit differently than the photograph suggests. Ruth will pin a hem while you wait.