BEST OF BRITAIN


The cutters from Davies & Sons


“Any style possible can be made here and the amount of variation in style between houses is quite wonderful.”


century, royalty from all over Europe and the Middle East found time for ap- pointments with Henry Poole’s tailors during their visits to London.


These days Savile Row continues to cater to as much of an international clientele as a British one, with its tailors hailing from all over the world too. The chestnut that British tailoring is more structured than Italian tailoring is, only roughly, true, as any style possible can be made here and the amount of varia- tion in styles between houses is quite wonderful. The number of tailors has decreased over the last few decades, largely thanks to egregious rent rises, but those that remain — around two dozen or more in the general area — carry on making beautiful suits almost entirely by hand just as they always have done. They take anywhere from 60 hours (Cad & the Dandy) to 130 hours (Maurice Sedwell) to construct a suit, depending on each house’s style and methods, and the prices (ranging from £2,000 to £6,000) are partly determined by the chosen materials and the hours involved.


Cindy Lawford gives fashion heritage tours of Jermyn Street and Savile Row as well as history and art gallery tours of St James. She can be reached at cindy@cindylawford.co.uk and www.cindylawford.co.uk


www.focus-info.org FOCUS The Magazine 25


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