The first 200 years

Our earliest records show the company in existence in the late 1700’s. Jonathan Meyer, a tailor from Austria, established a tailoring and military outfitting business at 36 Conduit Street in the late eighteenth century, but Meyer and Mortimer’s origins lie partly in Scotland. Whilst Meyer was becoming established in London, the Mortimer family in Edinburgh were specialising in military outfitting. As was the practice in those days, such companies also supplied their customers with swords, ceremonial dirks and firearms. Many authenticated examples of Mortimer weapons remain in existence.

Surviving records show that Jonathan Meyer’s company was making clothes for the Prince Regent and his fashion mentor, Beau Brummell, as early as 1800. When the prince ascended the throne as George IV he awarded the company a royal warrant - the first of many through the years, right down to warrants awarded by the current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. 

Meyer pioneered the modern trouser design in the early 1800s, and two centuries later, the blend of innovation and tradition is still at the heart of this high quality tailoring company's success.

In the 1830s the Meyers joined forces with John Mortimer to establish a new company, Meyer and Mortimer, which was advertised in Edinburgh under the title "army contractors and tailors to His Majesty". The new company was also known as the Royal Clan Tartan Warehouse, specialising in supplying Scottish military officers. Back in London the company was awarded further royal warrants by Queen Victoria, including outfitting the Military Knights of Windsor and supplying their ceremonial weapons.