A craftsmanship that delivers, an experience that educates, and creations worth appreciating.
All these achieved with a pair a shears, needles and a true passion for tailoring.
Here’s our story.
Established in 1982
Chapter I - The Founding
The journey began long before 1982 when Susan Chong, driven by her passion for shirt-making, embarked on a life-changing venture. At the tender age of 14, she left her small village in the southern part of Johor, seeking employment in Singapore to provide for her family. Through a series of diverse jobs, she found her niche at a garment factory, where she honed her skills in the art of shirt-making. It was within this setting that her deep-seated love for crafting garments took root, eventually empowering her to establish her own modest workshop.
Over the course of nearly four decades, Susan's workshop has been dedicated to producing high-quality shirts catering to individuals, businesses, and corporations alike. The legacy extends to the next generation, as Susan's son, Alexander, became acquainted with the craft at a young age out of curiosity and interest. His journey into the world of bespoke tailoring began when he learned jacket cutting from his uncle during his youth. Intrigued and eager for more knowledge, Alexander explored bespoke tailoring globally, immersing himself in the skills of jacket and trousers cutting through experiences with master tailors in London, Florence, and Naples.
Seeking to elevate his understanding of luxury tailoring, Alexander furthered his career with renowned luxury brand names like KITON and Ermenegildo Zegna. Armed with a wealth of knowledge and hands-on experience, he continually challenges the boundaries of his capabilities, aiming to create garments that surpasses his previous works. For Alexander, this relentless pursuit of excellence is largely driven by his obsession towards achieving perfection. All in order to achieve his dream of becoming a globally-recognised tailor.
New beginnings from 2021
Chapter II - A New Direction
Building on his mother’s legacy, Alexander aims to transform the family business by creating a brand leveraging on Alexander’s exposure and skills, making them accessible directly to individuals with a taste and appreciation for authenticity when it comes to true bespoke tailoring.
The Cutting Room atelier was officially launched in May 2021, with the aim of building a bespoke tailoring brand that is represented by the same values that guides Alexander his craftsmanship journey.
Every single bespoke jacket and trousers is personally cut by the second generation cutter, Alexander Koh who has developed close to a thousand bespoke patterns in his tailoring journey. His tailoring approach is best described with 'aesthetic and precision’, and remaining relevant with the changes in the modern anatomy trends while retaining the fundamental essence of tailoring.
The Cutting Room jacket carries an Italian influence by aesthetics, while is constructed with a combination of both English and Italian techniques, as a representation of the influences received from his apprenticeship experiences in Italy and London. Alexander’s creations can be recognised sporting a relaxed shoulder and a touch of structured softness conforming around the wearer’s chest, and an accentuated collar that is positioned lower, resting beautifully across the nape and collarbone, joining harmoniously with the lapel. Achieving a beautiful balance between relaxed elegance and a sense of sophisticated stature.
The Cutting Room trousers focuses deeply on achieving a balance that is best suited for each different individual based on their anatomy from the broadness of the shoulders down to the length of their feet. Once the balance is achieved, we identify the areas that allows us to further carve out a silhouette that further enhances the finished look. In The Cutting Room terms, it is all about a creating a harmonious ratios from top to bottom.
Even with over 16,000 hours (and counting) dedicated to the craft, Alexander still approach every new commission with humility and a deep desire to outperform his latest works.
Chapter III - Towards Greater Heights
Since 2025 - Present
Right from the beginning, Alexander’s goal goes beyond the aim to re-invent his mother’s business. He dreamt of becoming one of world’s leading master tailor, starting with Asia. After a decade since he first started this journey in 2015, his mastery of tailoring has propelled him to international recognition, serving clients from Thailand, China, United States, and United Kingdom. The year 2025 saw Alexander fulfilling one of his long-desired dream, which is to compete against some of the best tailors in the world on the international stage. Alexander competed on the world stage in the 40th World Federation of Master Tailor’s congress for the first time, representing the Kingdom of Thailand and also being the first Singaporean (in more than a decade) to compete on this international platform which recognizes master tailors globally. The 40th WFMT congress (held once every two years) hosted in Republic of Korea, Busan gave him to opportunity to not only showcase his cutting and making skills under the duration of 10-hours, it also provided the opportunity to experience the competitive standards the world truly has to offer. Despite coming in 4th place in his first ever participation, this remarkable feat has brought Alexander closer than ever to his dream of becoming a ‘World-class Master Tailor’. Even with this milestone achieve, Alexander knows that the road doesn’t simply end here, in fact the real journey has only just begun. From this point on, he continues his pursuit of the highest mastery of the tailoring craft and eventually seeking to cut and make one of the world’s most beautiful creation yet!
The excellence of each new garment we craft shall aim to surpass the quality of previous creations, through transparency and honest critique of our own works.
Embrace a mindset of humility, continuously refining our knowledge and skills, steering clear of complacency in our creations.
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Practice an openness to share knowledge, enriching and educating clients, friends, and talents with true passion seeking to learn.