Made to measure

Tailor Michael Cohen with a photo of his father Harold, whose business was in Rock Street, then George Street, Oldham

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AN Oldham business handed down through the generations is still going strong after over 100 years.

But Michael Cohen is the last in a line of bespoke tailors who have made suits and coats for the town since 1901.

Although the Phil Cohen name is no longer above a town centre shop, Michael still works as a mobile tailor and at least half of his clients are in Oldham, where the suits are still made.

Janice Barker spoke to the last of the trio of tailors proud to call themselves Cohen.
MANY an Oldham man went to Phil Cohen’s to be measured for his wedding suit. Women also had their two-piece costumes made by the family firm, and when the suit was regulation office wear, some men ordered a new jacket, trousers and waistcoat every year.

And Michael Cohen still does good business in the area, with established clients and new customers after word-of-mouth recommendations.

But at 71, he now leaves the tailoring to his eight skilled staff in premises near Oldham Coliseum.

Phil Cohen was his grandfather, who started work in the family cutting rooms in Leeds, but soon tired of routine and went on the road selling goods to wholesale warehouses.

He was given good advice in Manchester — try Oldham Market. He sold out on his first Friday, wired his father for more clothes for Saturday, sold out again and returned on Monday.

Soon his first made-to-measure service opened in Whalley Street, near the market, but he soon expanded enough to take on a former doctor’s surgery in Rock Street, near the site of the Oldham Sports Stadium, where people queued up to be measured.

He still sold ready to wear clothes in the Market Hall, and by 1928 his only son Harold, who was being groomed for a career in law, decided to join the family business.

Another shop opened at the top of George Street, in 1932, but with the outbreak of the Second World War, making suits was swopped for turning out uniforms for Western Command.

As his father’s health began to fail after the war, Harold took over the personal tailoring business at the Rock Street shop, and George Street was sold, only for the Cohen business to return there when demolition started at St Mary’s in the 1960s.

A second shop in the ill-fated St Peter’s Precinct was demolished when the precinct made way for Spindles shopping centre in 1990.

Michael had started in the business when he was 14, making tea, sweeping up and brushing the suits.

He was not happy at first: “I found it boring and I didn’t start tailoring until I was about 20 years old, it was certainly a long apprenticeship.”

But by 1983 Michael was running the business, and after a good offer for the George Street shop, moved to 17 Union Street, the final shop bearing the Phil Cohen name.

Michael, said: “My sons won’t come into the business, so when I finish it will be the end of the line.

“I went into the business at 14, 57 years ago and I’m a craftsman tailor.

“I did stop for a while after I had two bad heart attacks, but when I got better I got fed up and decided to go back to work as a mobile tailor 15 years ago.

“A lot of people always got their suit from Cohen’s, but I also get new customers.

“There is nowhere else to go, apart from an off the peg suit, but for some of my customers they would never get a size to fit.

“At one time I sold 50 to 70 suits a week, now it is about 10.

“Now people only buy a suit for a special occasion, like a wedding or anniversary, but I think people are surprised to find they can still get a bespoke suit.

“Women still order trouser suits or two piece costumes —funnily enough we make a lot for school teachers who want smart wear for work.”

Around 50 per cent of his trade is in Oldham, the rest around Greater Manchester, although he recently had a customer in Shrewsbury who ordered 10 suits.

And another old customer recently asked if he could repair a Harris tweed, herringbone suit — it was only 50 years old after all.

Sadly Michael had to decline — even a Phil Cohen suit has had its day after half a century.