BESPOKEN
Editorial Design, Illustration
Bespoken is the biography of Andrew Ramroop OBE, tracing his path from a Trinidadian-born tailor whose exceptional work on Savile Row has dressed royalty. Author Ashok Kumar Bal commissioned Praxis to design the cover for the book, which pairs Andrew’s journey across countries with anecdotes and letters from his celebrated clientele, building a fuller portrait of a famously elusive man.
Our approach was to therefore treat the journey as context rather than subject. A cover that tried to hold the full arc of Andrew's life risked becoming a travelogue, so we anchored it in the craft itself. The guiding principal was to prioritise dignity over drama and for historical weight that never slipped into the archival.
The cover builds its portrait of Andrew from the materials of his trade. Seen from behind, over the shoulder, he is rendered as a paper cutout against a navy fabric ground, with white stitching tracing his outline as it would the markings on a pattern in progress. The angle nods to a private character as much as to the posture in which shoulder measurements are taken, offering a subtle portrait rather than a direct one.
Layered fabric and paper textures place the design within a sartorial collage, and the typography is treated as embroidery, stitched into the jacket itself. Together, these details situate readers within the high fashion world of Savile Row, while a high-contrast palette of navy and orange, set against a warm cream, reflects a vibrant personal style. The bold, graphic treatment draws the story out of the archive and into a contemporary heritage, with restraint where it counts.
