Frequently Asked Questions

At 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 London 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 Road.

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

Bag Making

Please check here for more information.

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, any additional decorations will need to be brought by the student.

Tutu Making

All materials included in the course cost.

Belt Making

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

We supply a shoemaking kit and extra components for making shoes.  This kit you one pair of lasts and further components to make two pairs of shoes. The shoe kit costs £368.

Otherwise stated in the course page, please bring your own leather or fabric for the shoemaking, bag-making and corsetry courses. Please click the Useful Links to view the supplier list about where to source leather or fabric before the course.

We are a private school. Official accreditation is not provided. However, a letter of completion is available on request.

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 further details. We require a minimum of 3 students on any course or it won't run.

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

We may cancel a course any time up until two weeks before the start of a course. If you are worried or planning travel arrangements, please give us a call or email us. We can advise you on the likelyhood of this happening. If we cancel a course, you will be offered an alternative date or a full refund.

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, since no additional compensation will be paid upon any flight or accommodation booked.

The Accommodation page of the website gives details of two hotels local to our London and Berkeley studios. As well as this, any hotels near Tottenham Court Road, Euston, Kings Cross or Marylebone High Street are very close to the teaching studio in London.

We offer Early Bird Discounts: if you book four or two months in advance you are entitled to 20% or 15% off respectively. You can find the offer code via the News and Offers page. Simply copy and paste the code 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.

Please 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 because we only have ladies' shoe lasts in the studio, 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.

If you have your own men's shoe lasts, you will be able to learn how to make men's shoes in our Private Tuition or Made-to-Measure Bespoke Shoemaking courses. Please see the links for more information.

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 provide Private Tuition. 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. It is much easier than imagined. 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 388 4547. 

We are open on Tuesday from 10am-6pm and on Wednesday to Friday from 10am-2pm.  Please be aware of this when waiting for email responses. You can also call us on 0207 388 4547 during the above times if you would like to have a chat.