After leaving College, Tom Wharton read Music at Newcastle University before working in media sales for a number of years. After turning his energies to running Summer Camps, bringing foreign children to England during the summer holidays to learn English and experience English culture, he joined a small tailors based in London. Initially brought on board to run the bespoke shirt side of things, he quickly ended up working on all areas of bespoke clothing. After his then business partner decided to spend all of their money partying with a customer in Mexico, Tom ran away to the countryside!
Here he worked for a small Telecoms company and helped grow the company from 25 to over 400 as the Group Telemarketing Manager, taking his team on to become the most successful Siemens reseller in Britain and 3rd in Europe. Unfortunately when the Company came to be floated the team behind the floatation realised that having a 42ft catamaran company boat, silly cars and a hugely over paid management team wasn’t the best way to get the most money for the owners, so Tom was made redundant along with the majority of the management team.
This came at quite an opportune time as Tom was commuting from Cirencester to Southampton every day, after meeting his soon to become wife, so he moved back to Cirencester and went back to what he really loved, tailoring, and set up Barrington Ayre Shirtmaker & Tailor.
Barrington Ayre Shirtmaker & Tailor is a luxury made in England, bespoke and made to order clothing company, based in Cirencester with a visiting tailoring service across the UK and abroad by appointment.
Watch Tom speak about setting up his own company, the skills needed and required and the many benefits of working in marketing and fashion. Tom also touches upon general practical career advice – what ‘life skills’ you should practice now to help you in whatever your chosen career path may be and the importance of networking.
If you are interested in speaking with Tom further, you can find Tom on Welly Connect where he would be happy to hear from you! You can also find out more information by visiting Tom’s website by clicking here.
