July 2026
Month 20xx
Hajir Butt
Charmaine Gooden
Jacob Marion
Highlights
Beginning of article
When the alteration is complicated, the client is particular or the garment is too valuable to get wrong, Berkeley Sobers is the tailor people call at Holt Renfrew.
As Alterations Supervisor at one of Canada’s leading luxury retailers, Sobers works in the highly specialized world of luxury tailoring, where he’s known for his meticulous attention to detail and noticing what others miss.
Whether reconstructing a suit after a client’s body has changed, correcting work that has gone wrong or making small adjustments so a garment sits exactly as it should, he understands the importance of precision and comfort in the art of alterations.
Early Life and Career
Early Life and Career
Sobers was born in the parish of Saint Andrew, Barbados, in the village of Belleplaine to Jason Cecil Sobers, a carpenter and Doris Kellman-Sobers, a seamstress and housewife. He was the sixth of seven children, with three brothers and three sisters. Sobers attended St. Andrew’s Boys’ School in middle school and then Metropolitan High School for a year before dropping out due to finances.
After he withdrew from high school, his father urged him to take up a trade, specifically tailoring. Both his father and brother were carpenters, but Sobers wasn’t interested. Before committing to tailoring, he dabbled in various other trades, including house management, food and beverage hospitality and real estate.
Learning the basics of tailoring from a local tailor, Mr. Husband, his son, and several elders in the community, Sobers’s work at the tailor’s shop was almost entirely focused on pants, rarely expanding to other garments. After three years, he felt the need to broaden his skills by working on different types of clothing.
“I left and started working at home and teaching myself,” recalls Sobers. “All that I know is self-taught.” He laughs as he remembers challenging himself with “all sorts of crazy things, like shirts and even shoes.” At first, he worked mainly on men’s clothing, but when a woman in his community asked him to make her a jacket, he accepted the challenge and expanded his skills beyond menswear.
In 1981, Sobers immigrated to Canada on his own and settled in Joliette, Quebec, a city northeast of Montreal. At the time, he didn’t speak French, which influenced his decision to pursue tailoring further rather than work in the food and beverage industry, where he knew language barriers would be difficult. “I figured it would be easier because I wouldn’t have to communicate with the customers,” Sobers explains. With that in mind, he focused on finding a place where he could put his tailoring skills to work.
By 1982, Sobers was working at Boutique 6622, then Mercerie Caron, before moving on to tailor at Bovet in Repentigny, a suburb of Montreal, where he stayed for a few years. He taught himself French without formal classes, another self-taught skill set.
When the other tailors are having a problem, Berkeley is the one we ask to help resolve it,” she adds. “He can talk to clients about almost anything, because he knows what he’s talking about.
When a coworker from the boutique he worked at left for Holt Renfrew, Sobers was encouraged to join him. After some convincing, he decided to take the opportunity and joined the company in 1999. Although that coworker eventually moved on, Sobers stayed and has built a 27-year career in alterations at Holt Renfrew’s Montreal location.
A luxury retailer like Holt Renfrew was a different environment from the independent boutiques and shops where he had worked before. “It’s a very high-end brand, so you have to come with a more professional outlook on things,” he realized.
There was a standard to uphold, and Sobers committed himself to meeting it. “When I was working alone in Barbados, I didn’t spend much time sewing by hand. I mostly focused on machine alterations. But here at Holt’s, I do much more hand sewing, so I’ve had to refine my techniques and improve the way I work,” he explains.
To Sobers surprise, Holt Renfrew did not offer leather tailoring, so he began working with leather himself. According to Ligia Silva, Alterations Manager at Holt Renfrew for 12 years, Sobers is the only one among the department’s 13 tailors who works with leather. “All the leather pants and jackets are his specialty,” says Silva.
“When the other tailors are having a problem, Berkeley is the one we ask to help resolve it,” she adds. “He can talk to clients about almost anything, because he knows what he’s talking about.”
Silva recalls one client who had lost about 20 pounds and wanted all the clothes he had bought the previous year altered to fit his new frame. The job required far more than taking in a few seams. “With that much change, we needed to almost undo the whole outfit and redo it again,” she says.
“It’s hard to do because when it’s luxury labels like Cucinelli and Prada, the original construction has to be carefully maintained,” Silva explains. “And Berkeley did it. Of course, it took time, but he was able to do it exactly how it was before.”
For Sobers, good tailoring means listening carefully to the customer while also knowing when to offer guidance. He respects each client’s vision, but brings the confidence of decades of experience to every alteration. “Sometimes you have to try to make the customer understand certain things,” he says, especially when what they want may not be possible or may not achieve the right result. The goal, he explains, is not “to take over their idea, but to point out the benefit of your idea.”
Silva also believes the way Sobers carries himself gives clients confidence in his expertise. “He’s always in a suit and well dressed,” she praises. “He already has the look, so it makes it easier, especially for our business clients, to have confidence.”
Movement and presentation are things Sobers has always paid attention to, even taking ballroom lessons at Montreal’s Studio 2720 to improve his posture and understanding of how the body moves. This awareness, along with his calm manner and ability to speak both English and French, helps clients feel confident in his expertise.
Fashion and Diversity
When Sobers first started working at Holt Renfrew, he was the only Black tailor in the department. At the time, there were few other people of colour, and many of the tailors came from Europe, particularly Spain, Italy and Portugal. Looking around the department today, Sobers sees a far more diverse group of tailors working alongside him. “It’s more diverse than when I first arrived,” he confirms.
Tailoring, he believes, deserves to be seen as a serious and skilled profession, not simply a behind-the-scenes trade. While fashion design is often celebrated, tailoring is often overlooked, even though it is central to how clothing is made and fitted.
“You may want to be a designer, but might not even know how to properly sew a button,” he remarks. Sobers sees tailoring as an essential art form that the fashion industry depends on. “A designer still needs a tailor.”
After decades in the industry, he understands not only the value of the profession, but also the steady future and reliable employment that tailoring and alterations can provide.
Influence and Legacy
Silva says her first impression of Berkeley was that he was, “very quiet, someone who kept to himself and was deeply focused on his work. But as I got to know him, I discovered he loves sharing his knowledge and passing along what he’s learned to others.”
Although tailoring remains at the heart of what he does, Sobers now plays an important mentoring role within the department. “During fittings, the tailors come to him for advice, and he’s become a trusted resource for the entire team,” Silva adds.
In the tailoring industry, people can be guarded about their craft, whether it’s their techniques, shortcuts or personal style. But not Sobers; he is generous with what he knows and eager to share the skills he has built over decades with anyone willing to learn. “I have the knowledge, so I give it. I share it with everybody who wants to take it,” he says.
Sobers even mentors younger workers by showing them traditional techniques, while still encouraging them to experiment, saying, “If you want to try some other ways, go ahead.”
After decades in the industry, he understands not only the value of the profession, but also the steady future and reliable employment that tailoring and alterations can provide.
Jean Cobein has spent four decades at Holt Renfrew representing Canali, one of Italy’s leading luxury menswear brands. He has witnessed Sobers’ skill in the craft of tailoring and sends his most difficult clients to him. “He has a way with them,” says Cobein. “He knows how to fix their problems and attend to the details of the garment. Now, my clients only want to be served by him.”
If clients are unhappy with work done by other tailors, Cobein calls in Sobers. “What I do right away is call Berkeley. I call the best tailor around. He comes, fixes the problem, and the client comes back very happy.”
Sobers’ ability to understand and respond to clients’ needs is mentioned often by his manager and colleagues. His patience and attentiveness make clients feel genuinely heard and understood.
“He sees things that other tailors don’t see,” says Cobein. “We deal with high-end luxury garments, suits that cost $2,000 to $10,000, so clients want the garment to look good on them. Berkeley knows how to make them look good. There are not many tailors in Montreal who have his capabilities.”
From teaching himself at home in Barbados to becoming the go-to tailor at Holt Renfrew, Sobers has built a career defined by instinct and intention. The skills Sobers has mastered over his 44 years as a tailor have given him a clear understanding of what works, what doesn’t, and how to help each client feel comfortable and confident in their clothes.
At the end of the day, he says, his legacy is rooted in the people he has served and worked alongside. “My legacy lies with my clients and my colleagues.”
