Thomas Von Nordheim's interest in tailoring started when he took an old coat apart and used it as a pattern.

This is the latest in our Made in London series of films about London-based makers by filmmaker William Scothern. This month’s video is about London-based tailor Thomas Von Nordheim, who was inspired to embark on his career when he coveted a friend’s fake fur coat that he couldn’t afford and decided to make one for himself ? he took an old coat apart and used it as a pattern. “I did things as I went along and of course made a lot of mistakes, but in the end it looked quite good.”

Thomas von Nordheim learned his craft during a three-year apprenticeship with Dusseldorf haute couture salon Lore Lang. “I didn’t enjoy my apprenticeship full-stop,” he says. “But in retrospect it is the best thing I’ve ever done, because it laid a solid foundation for everything I know. It took me another ten years to know what I was doing without having to think about it a lot.” Thomas has worked as a tailor and design assistant for couturiers such as Ulrich Engler, Catherine Walker and Donald Campbell, as well as designers, like Erdem and Jonathan Saunders, and tailored jackets and coats for Countess Raine Spencer, Diana Barnato-Walker, Marguerite Wolff, The Duchess of Devonshire and Baroness Thatcher. Today he runs his own atelier at Cockpit Arts in Bloomsbury, a former furniture factory converted into studios fo...