Savile Row tailor Paulo Nicodemi from Wells has beaten off competition from some of the UK's top young tailors to win the Silver Shears and £1,500 at the Golden Shears Tailoring contest for tailoring students and apprentices.

His award-winning men's outfit was shown at the finals – a glittering catwalk show in front of a 250-strong audience at Merchant Taylors' Hall in the City of London.

Before the deciding catwalk show 60 garments from around the country had been judged by some of London's top bespoke tailors.

The focus at this stage, when 26 finalists were selected, was on technical skill – design, cutting and tailoring.

At the catwalk show finalists were judged for style by five experts.

Paulo's outfit – a tweed shooting jacket with pleats and plus twos with a vestcoat – received the highest total of marks in both stages of the competition.

Paulo, aged 28, was at The Blue School in Wells before going to the City of Bath College to study for a two year BTEC in textiles and fashion.

He then spent three years at the University of the West of England studying for a degree in Fashion.

Three and a half years ago he joined Savile Row tailors Anderson and Sheppard as an apprentice, where he is working on coat making.

"I love Savile Row," he said, "And my particular enthusiasm is working on special occasion wear such as shooting jackets, morning coats and dinner jackets."

This year the Golden Shears Competition was jointly sponsored by the Merchant Taylors Company, City & Guilds, CAPITB Trust and Savile Row Bespoke, in addition to support from the London College of Fashion and SkillfastUK.