My life in bespoke suits

Back in the Eighties, suits were so wide that even the shoulder pads had shoulder pads. Suits back then were boxy, square, and designed to make you look like a quarterback, a bouncer or a tank.

- DYLAN JONES

So it was very difficult to wear one unless you were also shaped like a quarterback, a bouncer or a tank. If, like me, you were tall and skinny, wearing an off-the-peg suit made you look as though someone had thrown a sheet over a beanpole. Or a javelin. Consequently, at the age of 24, I started having suits made for me.

Not because of any great affectation, but simply because I didn't want to walk around looking as though I was wearing a Halloween costume.

I started modestly, using a lovely old man in Harrow who used to make suits for teddy boys.

Jack Geach was his name, and every suit he made was a fingertip drape with velvet lapels and matching cuffs. He ended up making me three: one in matt black, one in bright herringbone, and a gargantuan and garish scarlet one which I'm fairly sure could be seen from space.

Then I moved on to Chris Ruocco, a former boxer who owned Philips tailors in Kentish Town.

He made suits for me for more than a decade, along with stage outfits for George Michael, Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet. He even made the tartan suits Wham! wore when they played in China, which were seen all over the world.