The tailors fear for their future and identity when giant jeanswear company Abercrombie and Fitch arrives on the street, but in the past this resilient bunch have seen off the Kaiser, the Luftwaffe and Giorgio Armani. They fight back with an ancient-yet-modern business plan, the model of eco-friendliness, hitting the road to take the service overseas and winning new clients.
To survive in the international menswear market the tailors need to think as one and promote themselves, so they hit the road with a touring exhibition that stops first in Florence, taking centre stage at the world's biggest menswear expo. New rules and regulations that define what a Savile Row tailor is, and where he may operate, begin to cause trouble in Mayfair and in Kensington.
The tailors face their toughest challenge: encouraging the next generation to take up their mantle and become apprentices. Training is long and arduous, with limited financial rewards so companies treat new recruits with care and compassion. The programme follows those hoping to make the cut as they try to win The Golden Shears - tailoring's equivalent of the Oscars.