Meet highly-regarded Portsmouth tailor who has run shop for over 60 years after learning trade from his father

73 year old Alex Bentley, a former councillor of 22 years and former Lord Mayor of Portsmouth, has run Bentleys tailors for over 60 years in Albert Road, Southsea.

He has made suits and shirts for a wide range of clients, from ‘teddy boys’ suits, garments for Westminster Abbey, including suits that retail up to £5,000 with a 24 carat gold thread.

Alex said: “We're presently at 136 Albert Road, that preceded by my father's business which was at 233 Albert Road so we've only moved a few hundred meters, not anything further than that.

“We make handmade suits all the way through, jackets, trousers, coats and all that sort of thing. And what we specialise in is British material. 95% of all our cloth is made within the British Isles including Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland for Donegals and linens and tweeds and things like that. And only 5% is coming from Italy and that's ultra lightweight.

“In the old days you would do a training scheme which would last an apprenticeship. You'd be indentured into a company to teach you what to do and that would be roughly seven years. Now the only people that did seven years training were architects and in some of the medical profession. So it was a very very long period to be called a master one way or another. I trained under my father and I think I learnt a tremendous amount that way.

“But you adapt as times go by and you realise that styles change and you change to meet the requirements of your customers. And we're in a unique position because sometimes people come to us and they say, ‘I want something exactly like the 1940s. Can you do it?’ And we've actually got the patterns where we can do it from to show them what it's like so they have a visual impression before we even go to start.”

The future of Bentleys tailors

“I'm 73 now. There is virtually nobody left in our trade. My own children have gone on to do wonderful things and they're all fully employed and engaged and doing very, very well, very successful in what they've chosen to do.

“I've got seven grandchildren, three great-grandchildren. Two of the grandchildren are doing other things, one's in the army, the other one's in computers. I don't know what the younger ones will do.

“There's always a possibility that somebody may come in and we can put and whoever as well. But in reality, I think that we will probably be coming to the end of our days really and truthfully, and that's something which I have to accept.”