clothsurgeon: The former Leeds United player who now sells clothes to Lewis Hamilton, Drake, Kendrick Lamar and A$AP Rocky

“I have built up that knowledge over the years,” he says. This insight, this obsession, led to the creation of clothsurgeon, the menswear brand he founded 10 years ago with his wife, Parv. Combining the relaxed aesthetic of streetwear with the bespoke traditions of tailoring, famous wearers include Sir Lewis Hamilton and rappers Drake, Kendrick Lamar and A$AP Rocky.

Three months ago, clothsurgeon - there is no capital letter - made history when it opened a flagship store at 40 Savile Row, the first bespoke streetwear shop to do so. Rav says: “This street is historic and world-renowned for formal tailoring, and we are disrupting that, but we are approaching it in the exact same manner, in terms of experience and fabrication.”

Clients can co-create anything they want to wear, using whatever fabrics they wish, or even restructuring something they already own into a new design, from vintage Pendleton blankets to Prada bags. “If we can deconstruct it and sew it, then it is possible to make anything from it,” he says.

“I want people to come in and sit alongside me and design what they feel comfortable in. I love fashion but I am not dictated to by trend or what the fashion world is doing. The most important thing is being comfortable and confident in what you wear.”

The Savile Row opportunity was one that he and Parv, who is operations manager, felt they should grab with both hands.

Rav says: “I wanted it to be like a Parisian townhouse, very different from the rest of the street, a very inviting, bright place, where we have a rail running down the left side that displays all our products, like a gallery that shows what fabrications and silhouettes they can choose and work with.”

Rav grew up in Leeds in a highly sports-orientated family. He played football for Leeds City Boys and then, from the age of 10 until 20, for Leeds United, signing as a professional at 17.

He was always creative, too. “When I used to travel to away games, I would take my sketchpad and draw portraits of players from Match or Shoot Magazine,” he says.

Football boots were his first product obsession, followed by trainers and tracksuits. “When I could afford to buy my own clothes, I would start looking at designer brands, Raf Simons and Comme des Garcons.”

At 21, he decided to stop playing football professionally. “I fell out of love with the game,” he says. “I was trialling up and down the country. I’d had enough and decided to go back into education.

“I was a little bit lost, to be honest. This had been a dream from a very young age, and to have to accept that it wasn’t going to be the way that I wanted it to be, the level that I wanted it to be… it wasn’t really talked about then, but I was quite down and depressed. Looking back, I was grateful that I left the game a little bit earlier and decided to try my hand at something else.”

He studied briefly at Loughborough and London College of Fashion, then headed home to Leeds and worked in retail for three years, before going to Leeds College of Art (now Leeds Arts University) for a degree in Fashion Design, graduating with a first in 2009, aged 27.

While there, a tutor noted the precision with which he cut patterns for cloth using a scalpel. “I thought, ah, ‘clothsurgeon’, and set up a holding page and a blog and registered the name,” Raf says.

He moved to London to work for a small street fashion brand as a designer, and started clothsurgeon as a sideline in 2012. “I had a small rail and ASAP Rocky came in, an American rap artist who is renowned - everyone would look to him for his style. He really loved the pieces.” He took a few designs, including a leather-sleeved sweater. “He wore it pretty much everywhere, and we started selling those,” says Raf.

Savile row clients now are a mix, and include hip hop artists and Americans taking advantage of the favourable exchange rates, plus older gents interested in the bespoke approach to casual dressing.

The atelier is still in Leyton and fabric is sourced from across the world, with leathers from Italy, cloths from Yorkshire, especially Dormeuil, and, from Japan, vintage boro. Boro refers to the practice of reworking and repairing cloth, perhaps futon covers or clothes, instead of discarding. “Over time, it builds up these amazing layers of character with hand-stitching detailing and distressed fabrication,” says Raf. “It’s easy for me to take that and create a beautiful piece.”

In time, Raf hopes there will be clothsurgeon stores in other major cities around the world. Recently, there have been collaborations with Coca-Cola, Nike and Selfridges, and he hopes to be able to create more affordable collections, too. “We are in a place where there are a lot of wealthy people to buy our products and appreciate the craftsmanship, but I don’t want to alienate our existing customer, who loves the brand - £3,000 for a jacket is a lot of money, I understand that.”

“This year, LAU awarded him an honorary degree, for which he delivered a speech of encouragement before 1,000 people. “I had to do it,” he says. “I have lived by the quote, ‘what would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?’.

“Don’t let anybody tell you that you are not good enough to do something, because you are the only person in the way of you becoming what you want to be. They could really hear the emotion in my voice. It’s been a very long journey to get to this place.”

*clothsurgeon is at 40, Savile Row, London, and at clothsurgeon.com.