Rock of Eye

An Evening with Andrew Ramroop OBE

By Cameron John Robbins

I first became aware of Andrew Ramroop OBE, through one of the videos on his Maurice Sedwell YouTube channel. He was describing the rationale behind the peculiar details of his signature sartorial style. I was enthralled! His attention to detail and the thought processes behind them was so like my own artistic tendencies, I immediately shared the video with my best friend while excitedly proclaiming, “I have found my tailor!”

A true trailblazer, Mr. Ramroop is the first black bespoke tailor to ply his trade on the famous Savile Row in London. He is also the first Savile Row tailor to be honored with an OBE (the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire). He did all of these things and more while navigating his way against the headwinds of long discredited but very old prejudices.

Sometime after seeing that first YouTube video, I had the occasion to meet him. He was visiting Washington, DC on one of the several globe-hopping business trips that he makes every year to meet with his customers. Since, in the interim he had become one of my portrait clients, and as I lived near the DC area, I made a point of going down to meet him in person.

He had arrived from Boston earlier in the day, and by the time I met him for dinner, he’d already done fittings with three customers at the elegant Willard Hotel, where he was staying. He emerged from the elevators with his last appointment, and I waited to approach while he bid them farewell. When he had finished, he walked over and greeted me cordially.

He is a man of average height, and he carries himself with a distinctly erect yet effortless looking posture. His build is slim, like that of a dancer, and he moves with that same kind of graceful strength and elegance. One would never guess that he has just recently turned seventy years old. And while it has become a cliché to describe older people as still having a twinkle in their eye, he really does have one. It isn’t that of the mischievous imp, but rather one of deep and confident perceptiveness.

As one would expect of the CEO of Maurice Sedwell, he was impeccably dressed. His attire was casual, but the bespoke tailoring was so perfect that casual seems an ill-suited adjective to describe it. His jacket might have been called audacious, if it weren’t for the fact that the colors were immensely subtle. It was made from a fabric that looked like a tiny patchwork of pale pinks and greens, ivories and blues, accented with mother of pearl buttons. And it was draped over a crisp blue and white checked shirt, without a tie and open at the collar.

After settling down at dinner, we began sharing our stories. Having heard several interviews with him, and over the course of multiple emails prior to our meeting in person, I had come to know a few things about Mr. Ramroop. I knew that he’d been born in Trinidad, had grown up in very poor circumstances, and had made the bold decision to leave his family at the age of seventeen to travel alone to pursue a career as a tailor at the heart of sartorial excellence, Saville Row.

However, I was completely disarmed by his self-effacing humility. Here before me was a man who has received a multitude of honors; who owns one of the most prestigious bespoke tailoring companies in the world, and has started the first bespoke tailoring academy on Saville Row to train the next generation of master tailors. He has made suits for and has been honored by royalty. If anyone has walked the archetypal Hero’s Journey, he has. Yet that isn’t how he views his own life. No, he is the very soul of authentic modesty.

Rock of Eye

Rock of eye is a tailoring expression which means to be guided by the eye, to do by feel and intuition; or as Mr. Ramroop defines it, to be able to see the difference between Good and Perfect. When reviewing his work, it’s clear that he has it. During the months over which I painted his portrait, there were many times when I hoped that I too have the rock of eye. The photograph from which he’d asked me to work was filled with a host of detailed objects and complicated patterns.

Unlike a photograph, a painting is an elaborate construction. It is made up of tens of thousands of painstaking decisions. Each brush stroke is calculated to serve an end, and must be evaluated for its contribution to the ultimate vision. It goes far beyond merely replicating a photograph using archaic methods. Of course, an experienced artist runs through the process of visualize - execute - evaluate - repeat at such a rapid speed that the outside observer might never suspect what is really happening.

One of the principles by which I guide my work says, “When everything is emphasized, nothing is emphasized”. In this case, that meant I had to take the indiscriminate mechanical record (the photograph) and modify, editorialize and reinterpret the plethora of colorful details in a way that served the ultimate end – a portrait of the man himself. The lively, multi-colored details in the Persian rug alone caused me to question my life choices more than once.

In order to provide the much-needed contrast between the subject and the setting, I employed several tricks of the trade. First, I manipulated the values, or the relative lightness or darkness of colors. A full range of values, going from black blacks all the way to bright whites, draws the eye and makes things feel more prominent in an image. So, the only part of the painting to use a full range of values is the face and figure of Mr. Ramroop. Everything else hovers between almost black and almost white, thus causing it to recede into the background.

The most challenging place where I used this trick was in the leather sofa. While I used the same colors throughout, the highlights on the far end are dimmer and the shadows are somewhat lighter than those on the end on which Mr. Ramroop sits. By doing this, my hope was that the sofa would feel as if it were stretching back into space. In photography, it’s what they call depth of field.

The second trick I used was to mute the colors of the background a bit. In fact, when painting the contents of the glass-fronted cabinet over his right shoulder, which is the furthest part of the background, I went so far as to restrict myself to using the Zorn palette of black, white, vermillion and yellow ochre. Obviously, this palette can produce red and yellow hues. But yellow ochre mixed with black produces greenish hues. And in the company of these colors, grays mixed from black and white look blueish.

To further help the furniture and things on the back wall feel as if they are truly at a distance, I was also less precious about the details. What I mean is that while I was careful to make sure that all of the details were in the right place, I was more casual about illustrating them clearly. By avoiding crisp edges and even letting some objects blur into their neighbor, it makes those things feel out of focus.

The colors in the midground are a bit more vibrant, so that they feel closer in space. But they still needed to be of secondary prominence. So, the third trick I used to make the environment subservient to the portrait was to repeat them in multiple places. Rather than mixing scores of unique colors, as appear in the photograph, I instead took the colors I used for the ties and things on the countertop and used them again in the designs on the Persian rug. I did the same with the green fitted carpet. My hope was that this would provide an overall unity of colors that would tie everything together, and also help the environment, well… fade into the background, as they say.

Conclusion

I was sure of it before, but by the end of dinner I was absolutely convinced… Andrew Ramroop is one of my new favorite people. He is a gracious gentleman, liberal with sincere praise, penetrating advice and a genuine desire to see other people succeed. It was a pleasure to meet him, and another pleasure to paint his portrait. I shall always be grateful for those experiences.

Cameron John Robbins is an artist specializing in classical bespoke portraits. His work ranges from historical figures to modern-day professionals. He is represented by Mr. A. Joseph Galli IV ?- ?+12182350110?-?His work may be seen at thegentlemanartist.co.uk