Profile

Rav Matharu

Alumni

BA (Hons) Fashion Design

Photograph of a person with a beard and should length black hair wearing a grey houndstooth jacket.

Rav Matharu is the Founder and Creative Director of the menswear brand clothsurgeon, the first ever bespoke streetwear store on Savile Row.

The brand combines high end tailoring with a streetwear aesthetic that has earned a global following that includes Kendrick Lamar, A$AP Rocky, Drake, Sir Lewis Hamilton, Ian Wright OBE, Kevin Hart, Eric Cantona and has included collaborations with Coca-Cola, Nike and Selfridges.

Matharu is also the first South Asian designer to have a store on Savile Row.

Born in Leeds with South Asian heritage, Rav Matharu had an early career as a professional footballer, signing pro with Leeds United at the age of seventeen. 

He studied BA (Hons) Fashion (now BA (Hons) Fashion Design) at Leeds Arts University (named Leeds College of Art & Design at the time) and graduated in 2009 with First Class Honours. After graduating, Rav moved to London and founded clothsurgeon in 2012.

In recent years the brand has gone from strength to strength with the clothsurgeon Savile Row store opening in April 2022. In collaboration with Leeds Arts University’s BA (Hons) Fashion Design course, Rav also runs an annual student competition with the winner gaining a one-week internship with Rav at the Savile Row studio, London.

In 2022, Rav received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Leeds Arts University at The Royal Armouries, Leeds during graduation ceremony.

“I came up with the name clothsurgeon in the second year of my degree. I would always cut patterns with a scalpel and one day the tutor said “ahh you’re like a surgeon…”, it stuck, and I set up a website almost instantly.”

Rav Matharu, Founder & Creative Director of clothsurgeon

Photograph of a workspace at clothsurgeon on Savile Row, Lodnon. The space ncludes a wooden table with three black chairs on a red patterned rug in front of a white wall with a clothsurgeon sign on it.

clothsurgeon, Savile Row, London.

Photograph of a person with a beard and should length black hair wearing a black leather jacket sat at a varnished wooden table writing.

Rav Matharu. Photograph by Ollie Adegboye

Group photo of smiling fashion design students and Rav Matharu outside clothsurgeon store on Savile Row

BA (Hons) Fashion Design students and Rav Matharu outside the clothsurgeon store on Savile Row.

Photograph of Rav Matharu at Leeds Arts University graduation ceremony wearing the blue MA graduation robe and cap.

Rav Matharu receiving his honorary MA at Leeds Arts University graduation ceremony July 2022

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