Frequently Asked Questions

The Teaching Studio

Prescott & Mackay School of Fashion and Accessory Design

C/O Black Truffle

52 Warren St

London

W1T 5NJ

Nearest underground stations: Warrren St, 2 minutes walk away. Great Portland St, 4 minutes wallk away

Airports: Served by all London airports inc Stansted, Heathrow, Gatwick and City

Parking: On-street Pay and Display 8.30am - 6.30pm Monday to Saturday. Free parking all day Sunday

Amenities: Many cafes, restaurants and bars close by. 2 minutes to shops on Tottenham Court Rd.

San Francisco Courses:

Fourth Street Studios

1717D 4th Street

Berkeley

CA 94710

Nearest BART station: North Berkeley, 5 minute cab ride or 20 minute walk

Airports: Served by San Francisco and Oakland

Parking: On-street free parking (2 hours only). Side-street parking free all day

Amenities: Many cafes, restaurants and bars, boutiques and shops located on the busy thoroughfare of 4th Street

Shoe Making - Details of the materials you need to bring are in the course outline; we will have a small selection available in the studio, but please do not rely on this for your class. 

Bag Making

Beginners – Please bring 1m of fabric or a lightweight leather, we will have a small selection available in the studio, but please do not rely on this for your class.

Advanced – a Skin of Leather or fabric and any additional decorations you would like to use. We will have a small selection available in the studio, but please do not rely on this for your class.

Corsetry

Beginners – All Materials provided in either black or white

Advanced – Coutil provided, outer layer of fabric must be brought by the student.

Millinery

Cocktail Hats – The bases of the hat will be provided but any additional decorations will need to be brought by the student.

Tutu Making – Materials included in the course cost.

Belt Making – All materials provided, you may bring your own buckles if you wish.

We supply a shoe kit and extra components for making shoes.  This gives you 1 last and enough to make 2 pairs of shoes.  The Shoe kit costs £390 and the extra components (enough for 2 pairs of shoes) costs £60.

You will need to source all other materials yourselves.

We are a Private School so we do not have official accreditation.  We can provide you with a letter of completion if you wish.

To ensure that you get the most from your course we have a maximum of 8 students on any course.  Some of the classes have a maximum of 4 or 6 due to space restrictions.  Please check each course outline for more details. There is a minimum of 3 students on any course.

You can cancel any time up to 2 weeks before the commencement of a two-day Class and anytime up to 1 month before any classes of a longer length.  We will not issue any refunds or transfers outside of these time limits.

We may cancel a course any time up until 2 weeks before a course starts.  If you are worried or planning travel arrangements, please give us a call or email and we can advise you on the liklihood of this happening.

If you are arranging flights and accommodation for the duration of a class then we highly recommend purchasing travel insurance to cover a possible cancellation.

The Accommodation page of the website gives details of 2 hotels local to our London and Berkley studios.  The Holiday Inn offers all our students 10% Off their best available rate.  As well as this, any hotels near Tottenham Court Road, Euston, Kings Cross or Marylebone High Street are close to the teaching studio in London.

We offer Early Bird Discounts, if you book 2 or 4 months in advance you are entitled to 15% or 20% OFF.  This will be issued to you in the form of a refund.  You need to fill out the form on the News and Offers page at the time of booking.  No retrospective discounts will be approved.

We also offer a Second Course Booking discount of 10% and discounts off Products and Shoe Kits for students of P&M.

Check out the News and Offers page for more details.

We charge in GBP's sterling and cannot give you an up to date conversion into dollars.  Your bank or credit card provider will apply their rate of exchange to the transaction.  You can see the current exchange rate here.

We only make women’s shoe on our courses, but the process for making men's shoes is the same as making shoes for ladies.  It is a great place to start and you can then transfer your skills onto a men’s last.

Courses taken at the weekend cost more than the courses that take place during the week.  This is why you will see two different price rates for UK based courses.

We can certainly provide private tuition for you.  This would need to be negotiated between yourself and the tutor to ensure you get the most from your time.  There are full details of the Private Tuition in the Tailor Your Own Course section of the website.

For most of the courses you need to have basic sewing skills.  This means you will need to be able to sew in a straight line on a domestic machine.  We highly recommend that you have a practise on a sewing machine before coming.  The sewing machines will be set up for you, so you don’t need to worry about this aspect. 

In our efforts to be enviromentally friendly, we do not have printed brochures.  All of the information is available on the website.  If you have any specific questions you need to ask, then please email us and we will get back to you as quickly as possible.   Alternatively you can call for a chat on 0207 9981636. 

We are open on Tuesday’s from 10-5pm and Wed – Thurs 10-2pm.  Please be aware of this when waiting for responses from emails.  You can call us on 0207 998 1636 if you would like to have a chat.