Savile Row tailoring
[10] The story begins with a tailor called Robert Baker (RB), originally from Staplegrove in Somerset, who bought up land to the north west of Charing Cross on the back of money made from the sale of Piccadills, a type of large broad collar.
[10] Working from "a poore little shop in ye Strand" RB and his wife Elizabeth started a business which pitched their trade at the rich, among which was Lady Cope.
[10] Indeed, so much so that by 1613, "poore Countrey Taylor" RB had bought land for £50 (2023 value £10,206), which was then open country, and built himself a comfortable new home near where the Lyric Theatre now stands on Shaftesbury Avenue.
[10] With his next property development RB bought 22 acres of land nearby on which, in present-day terms, includes Golden Square where many cloth merchants used to reside and several streets in Soho where subcontracting tailors are traditionally based.
[10] The plot of land where Savile Row was eventually developed was originally called Ten Acre Close and "was created by the sale on 29 June 1622 of three adjacent parcels of ground, then all in St. Martin's in the Fields, to William Maddox, citizen and merchant tailor of London, by Richard Wilson of King's Lynn, gentleman.
[4] A Reuters article in February 2013 suggested that the total revenue for the informal group of suitmakers was now estimated to be £30–35 million, with several tailoring houses having over 10% growth in recent years.
Other customers have included: Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., Calvin Klein, Prince Michael of Kent, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Edward Fox, Clark Gable, Benny Goodman, Harry S. Truman and the Duke of Windsor.
[44] The "London cut" is a high, small armhole with a generous upper sleeve that permits the jacket to remain close to the neck while freeing the arm to move with comfort.
[44] After Anda Rowland's mother, Josie, decided to relocate A&S to its current, smaller premises on nearby Old Burlington Street, she appealed to her daughter for assistance in managing the firm.
Before Anda's arrival, A&S did not operate a web site or viable computer network, costs were left unrecorded and approximately £500,000 worth of unpaid tailoring bills (money owed to A&S) had accrued.
Previous A&S customers include: Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, Fred Astaire, Pablo Picasso, Bryan Ferry, Manolo Blahnik and Tom Ford.
[49] Cottrell stated: "Finding your cutting style is a process that improves with your experience throughout the years by looking at people's figures and trying to get a perfect line and balance for that person.
Now owned by Prominent Europe, clients have included Cary Grant and Winston Churchill, while both Steve McQueen and Sean Connery wore Chester Barrie in their films.
Although the couture side of the Hardy Amies business was traditionally less financially successful, the award of a Royal warrant of appointment as official dressmaker in 1955 gave his house a degree of respectability and resultant publicity.
[59] They were financially backed by British singer Cilla Black and her husband Bobby Willis, managing director of the Beatles' Apple Corps Peter Brown, and lawyer James Vallance-White.
[60] Nutters of Savile Row dressed the entire social spectrum from the Duke of Bedford and Lord Montagu, to Mayor of San Francisco Willie Brown, to Mick and Bianca Jagger, Elton John and the Beatles.
[65] Three 'New Generation' designers are credited with keeping Savile Row ahead of the times: they were Ozwald Boateng, Timothy Everest (a former apprentice of Nutter's) and Richard James.
[66] Having each broken away independently from the Savile Row mould, public relations professional Alison Hargreaves coined the term "New Bespoke Movement" to describe collectively the work of this "new generation" of tailors.
[76] Born in Muswell Hill in 1967 to Ghanaian parents and raised in North London, Boateng started tailoring at age 16, selling his mother's designs on Portobello Road; by twenty three he had set himself up full-time in business.
The first tailor to stage a catwalk show in Paris, Boateng's many clients include Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Samuel L. Jackson, Dhani Jones, Russell Crowe, Keanu Reeves, and Mick Jagger.
Terry, previously Head Cutter and Managing Director at Huntsman (having originally started his apprenticeship at Anderson and Sheppard), joined John about ten years ago.
Cad and the Dandy initially came to an arrangement with Chittleborough & Morgan to allow appointments in their shop, before launching a new flagship store at 13 Savile Row in June 2013.
[98] The master tailor, originally from Leeds, spent 15 years at nearby Gieves & Hawkes, rising through the ranks to be head cutter before opening her first store in Brook Street in 2012.
[105] In 2009 W&S established a new program concentrating on abused and deprived women in rural India, who undergo a rigorous 3-year training and certification programme: over 300 artisans have passed through this.
"[138] Patrick Grant, designer and owner since 2005 of bespoke tailor Norton & Sons, stated to The BofF: "The simple truth is that there are opportunities to sell ready-to-wear clothes thanks to Savile Row's history.
[141] In an interview with CNBC, Simon Cundey, director of Henry Poole & Co, stated: "We've had a number of customers who have ordered in London and want the attention to detail we offer them and we hope that by bringing that option to Beijing we can grow the market there.
[144] An initiative by former SRBA director Su Thomas has enabled tailors, accessories and cloth merchants in and around SR to participate in the Eco-Luxe project by recycling their wool off-cuts.
[144][145] After spending months gathering fabric cuttings, the excess cloth was sent to iinouiio in Yorkshire where it was converted into a yarn and then woven by the Wooven in the Bone micro-mill in Scotland.
[145] By February 2024, approximately 100 metres of luxury grey herringbone and twill wool cloth has been produced by this method and demonstrates a future with zero-waste tailoring, reducing re-usable resources that might be sent to landfill.
[21] These new planning rules include four other areas and will "make it far harder for developers and landlords to dilute their distinctive character by allowing "clone" chain stores to force out smaller independent businesses.
