A thread spun in Scotland will connect Edinburgh and New York as tailor Peter Johnston starts selling suits in the US

Peter Johnston. Is he a solicitor, or architect perhaps, in this street of professionals? No, but he knows more about such men than even their wives and partners, right down to their vital statistics, for he's their tailor and keeper of their inside leg and waist measurements.

Johnston is a phenomenon rarer than hen's teeth, a bespoke Scottish tailor, trained in Scotland and on Savile Row, who makes suits entirely by hand for each client, from scratch. A tailor, shirt maker and purveyor of luxury goods for men, he's one of only a handful in the country making one-off suits to the customer's exact requirements. Working by appointment at his flagship townhouse store, he provides business, casual and Highland wear for an international clientele of movers and shakers and now his clothes are crossing the pond, where they will be available in New York's Saks Fifth Avenue for Americans desperate for a bit of Scottish Savile Row style.

Johnston himself is tall and shaven-headed, with a houndstooth fleck of fawn woven into the sky-blue of his right eye. Wearing a crisp, white 300-ply poplin cotton shirt, bespoke navy linen trousers, a plain knitted navy tie and black, hand-made shoes, today he says he's "dressed down" as he's actually on holiday. I'd love to see "dressed up".

"With bespoke, guys come in and have a complete set of measurements and choose the cloth for their suit. Then we make a paper pattern then chalk it out to cut the cloth. There are three fittings, which is why it takes 10-12 weeks per suit. For some it's daunting, but we guide them and build up a good relationship."

Johnston describes his style as "timeless, slimming, with a natural shoulder and flattering to the chest. It chisels the waist and is very slender and elegant. The point is to flatter the male shape. They want to look slim. We make them look slimmer."

How things are put together has always fascinated him. As a child, he took his bike apart every winter and stored it under his bed, reassembling it in spring. And his mother was a dressmaker so it's in the genes, while his father ran several general stores and taught him about business and "hard graft".

But at around 2,000 to 3,000 for a suit, who can afford them? Clients include executives, footballers, bridegrooms; anyone prepared to spend a few thousand, and who "understands the process and why they're spending a lot of money".

So far so sober-suited, yet among the dummies, there's a bright check three piece that would make Rupert Bear swoon, sample books of dazzling tweeds and an eye-catching copy of the single button, narrow lapel, charcoal grey suit worn by Sean Connery in 1963's From Russia With Love, with its low button stance to emphasise his waist and V-shaped torso. Is Connery a client? "We don't talk about clients, we offer complete discretion."

At Johnston's end of the market, the credit crunch has barely bitten and the tailoring business is going through a renaissance.

He says: "There will always be a market for people that want to buy the best and are prepared to pay for it."

The 39-year-old Renfrewshire-born Jackson admits he'd always hankered after a New Town property for the business he runs with wife Judith. The pair have been married for 12 years and met at the Scottish College of Textiles, now Heriot-Watt University, where Judith did a BA in textile design, while Peter studied for a BSc in clothing management. After graduation, Johnston did a masters in menswear at the Royal College in London. "I was the first Scot to do that and specialised in bespoke tailoring when everyone was doing fashion. A master tailor taught me how to make clothes all by hand, how to cut, put a shoulder in, make buttonholes. Then I worked at Savile Row, at Dunhill and Kilgour French Stanbury, with cutters and tailors who taught me to measure proportion and fit properly and how to deal with clients."

Johnston insists on using Scottish materials because he regards them as the best and his suits use a roll call of the cream of Scotland's luxury textile producers … Reid and Taylor, Johnstons of Elgin, Todd and Duncan, Begg, Harris Tweed and Breanish Tweed.

A world away is luxury retailer Saks Fifth Avenue, where New York's bankers, lawyers and celebrities go to shop. Now the two locations are connected by a thread, spun in Scotland and woven into cloth cut to fit some of the world's most stylish dressers as Saks starts to sell Johnston's collection this autumn. The ambience of the New Town showroom will be replicated in Manhattan.

"They're going to feel as if they're coming into an Edinburgh New Town property, in a low key way. We want to recreate the ambience. The Saks team will also learn our cut, which is very different from the American or Italian, more fitted. Saks love the idea of having a Scottish modern bespoke tailor and working with the Scottish mills. It's the fact I'm Scottish and doing business here, am based here. I'm quite a rarity. We are going to make a very successful business in America," he says. n

Peter Johnston, 40 Queen Street, Edinburgh, [email protected], 0131-225 4318, www.peter-johnston.co.uk