Supporting British Industry & Craftsmanship
Emma Willis creates bespoke and ready to wear tailoring, adhering to traditional English shirt-making techniques, using luxurious Italian linens and Swiss and West Indian Sea Island Cottons. The Atelier is in Gloucester where everything is made by hand, by local skilled craftspeople.
Emma Willis MBE, a Deputy Lieutenant of Gloucester started her business designing and making men's high-end shirts in 1989 in London. She moved her business to Bearland House, an 18th century townhouse in the centre of Gloucester in 2010 from smaller premises nearby. As well we selling online since 1999 the company has run a shop in Jermyn Street, London - a street known worldwide for its high quality men's clothing stores. Although ready-to-wear, made-to-measure and bespoke shirts are its main products, Emma Willis also sells pyjamas, dressing gowns, boxer shorts, ties, swimming trunks and T shirts, all made in their Gloucester Atelier, by hand.
Emma Willis bespoke shirts feature specialist single needle stitching for neat, strong seams, pattern matching of the fabric at the seams, and mother of pearl buttons.
In 2008, in response to the numerous young, severely injured service men and women returning from Afghanistan, Emma founded Style for Soldiers, a registered charity supporting those injured with morale-lifting fine clothing and reunion parties. She visited the military rehabilitation hospital for ten years, measuring the patients for bespoke shirts and walking sticks, and the charity now also supports the partners and children of those injured with family reunion days out.
"Emma Willis is a force of nature. Not only does she run a large Atelier in Gloucester, a shop and Headquarters in central London but she also gives huge amounts of time and care for her charity Style for Soldiers. Emma, her husband Richard and a group of local Gloucestershire friends have also raised over £200,000 for the Friendship Cafe and City Farm in the heart of Gloucester, which provides a meeting place and range of activities for people in the community of all ages, religion or cultural background. Emma is passionate about training young apprentices and employing local people and has created a talented team at Bearland House - where seamstresses and tailors are handing down their skills to the next generation." Carmel King has photographed the Emma Willis Atelier multiple times, for Made in Gloucester and for the company's digital marketing channels.
