INTERVIEW
Appointment By Royal
Angus Cundey MBE has seen, and at times overseen, significant changes in
Savile Row. Now on the verge of his eighth decade, this master tailor is heading a campaign that will revolutionise English bespoke tailoring across the world
I
t seems hard to believe that Angus Cundey, elegant in his three- piece suit and a recent recipient of an MBE from The Queen for services to bespoke tailoring and trade charities, knew nothing about Henry Poole until his headmaster put him straight just weeks before leaving school in 1954. “When I was about 17, my headmaster [at Framlingham College] summoned me to his study and said: ‘Now Cundey what are you going to do when you leave at the end of the term?’. I replied that I was going into the RAF as I wanted to learn how to fly, but he said, ‘Cundey have you not heard of your wonderful family business, the most famous tailors in the world?’” Although Angus and his sister regularly came up to London in school holidays to see their father at work, Samuel Cundey never explained that Henry Poole was the family business and that Angus could be the sixth generation of the family to work there. Luckily for tailoring, the young Angus had time to mull over his future on the train heading back to
London at the end of that final school term. “I sat there thinking: do I really want to be a pilot or a tailor? When I got out at Liverpool Street I asked my father, will there be a place for me at Henry Poole? A great big smile came across his face and he said, ‘of course.’”
What makes this anecdote even more remarkable is that Henry Poole has been managed by a Cundey since 1876. Angus’s great-grandfather Samuel Cundey took over the business when his cousin Henry Poole died. Although it has not always been a smooth or straightforward path to the title: “The Most Famous Tailors in the World.” “When Henry Poole died in 1876 the company was basically bankrupt,” explained Angus. “Customers such as The Prince of Wales [later King Edward V11] were very good customers, but didn’t always pay their bills. Henry Poole refused to send the Prince a bill and I believe a figure of £10,000 was outstanding in 1876, which was a lot of money. My grandfather [Howard Cundey], who was a brilliant man, sort of inherited the business from
Samuel Cundey and made the business viable. He pulled the company around and opened branches in Paris, Berlin and Vienna.”
The same could be said of Angus Cundey, a
past president of the
Federation of Merchant Tailors, Chairman World Congress of Master Tailors 1973, President Master Tailors Benevolent Association and a founder of Savile Row Bespoke, just a few of the many accolades he has acquired throughout an illustrious career. Unbeknown to him, Angus was
not just joining the family firm, but also taking on the role as custodian of tailoring history. Henry Poole has an impressive archive, featuring sales ledgers dating back to 1846 with orders from celebrated customers such as Charles Dickens, Emperor Haile Selassie, Tsar Alexander ll of Russia, Emperor Hirohito of Japan, Dr Livingstone, Buffalo Bill, the Royal Household and Winston Churchill. The latter was another customer reluctant to pay his tailor’s bill and when he R
6 SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE
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