Origins

Leaving the West End of London behind, English born business partners Sydney Sinclair and Louis Klein brought the Anthony Squires brand to Australia in 1948. Setting up in Sydney and sensing opportunity, the partners began inviting tailors and key workers from the famed fashion houses of Europe to come and set up a new life in Australia.

There was a good deal to help the Anthony Squires fledgling. Fine English tailoring was valued in post-war Australia, imports were difficult and the new cloths and patterns which the partners introduced using the facilities of the Australian mills, revived an interest in what was possible in local manufacture.

The new country started to shape the patterns and fabrics being developed, and the time-honoured characteristics of English tailoring began to evolve. Australia was being interpreted through tailoring, building on the ties and shared traditions with Britain.

The business grew quickly. Within 10 years, Anthony Squires built a manufacturing facility on the old munitions site at St. Mary’s in Sydney that spread over four acres and employed more than 600 people.