COVER STORY
Tommy spent his formative years in Edgware, north London, where his father owned a café, catering, in the main, to customers like truck drivers, gas fitters and builders. He was destined to be a plumber but, over the years, emerged as a blue collar boy made good in the class crucible of the Sixties; a time when the alchemy of taste, cool, and sheer force of personality could transform lives in ways that would have seemed impossible in years gone by. Tommy, a 6ft 2 inches tall young man with matinee idol looks, arrived right on cue. It all started when, aged 19, he broke free from plumbing to study tailoring at the Tailor and Cutter Academy. He then landed an apprenticeship with Donaldson, Williamson and Ward, traditional Savile Row tailors, with premises in Burlington Arcade. There, he absorbed the lore and the rules of the English gentlemen’s classic wardrobe. His seven years with the firm gave him a thorough knowledge of his craft, and a lifelong respect for its hierarchy.
In 1969, Tommy founded his own business, joining up with Edward Sexton, a young cutter with brilliant technical skills. They were financially backed by Tommy’s close friend, the singer Cilla Black, her husband Bobby Willis and others prepared to take a risk. The venture was an immediate success although a writer in the Daily Mirror snarked: “Thomas Nutter is opening what he calls a ‘thoroughly square’ tailoring shop ... in Savile Row next week. Well that will make a change. I mean there can’t be more than a dozen there now. Mr Nutter, who is 26, is weary of ‘all those Carnaby Street gimmicks’, and thinks that clothes, like hair, are settling down to something more sober … What, then, of rumours that Ringo Starr has ordered a pair of scarlet PVC trousers from Nutters?” Tommy replied curtly: “They’ll be very square scarlet PVC trousers.” Savile Row, with its collection of Royal Warrants, had never seen anything like it when Nutters opened at No. 35a, the story of which has been brought back to life
Savile Row, with its collection of Royal Warrants, had never seen anything like it when Nutters opened at No. 35a
by Lance Richardson in his biography House of Nutter – The Rebel Tailor of Savile Row. A year on, the Daily Mail was declaring it “a whizz bang success - the place for men’s clothes”, putting the charismatic Tommy in the class of actor Terence Stamp, photographer Brian Duffy, and hairdresser Vidal Sassoon, all the stylish young Londoners who had shot themselves into the new aristocracy. Clients came in from the hipper haunts of those named in Debrett’s, from the media, pop stars and even aspiring teenage dandies from the East End, whose ambition was to own a Nutter suit, drawn to Tommy not only because of his matchless sense of style, but also because of his personality. He welcomed them all. Like Hardy Amies, a Savile Row dandy who dressed the Queen, Tommy produced lively, contemporary tailoring, but with roots deeply embedded in the craftsmanship of Savile Row. Amies named Tommy as “the most exciting tailor on Savile Row in decades.” For three decades, Tommy kitted out the biggest stars on both sides of the Atlantic. He was proud of the fact that, for the cover of the Beatles’ Abbey Road album, three of them wore Tommy Nutter bespoke. George Harrison chose denim. Other leading dandies of the period were also his
clients, including Sir Roy Strong, then director of the National Portrait Gallery, Mick Jagger and Elton John. Andrew Lloyd Webber was also a client as well as a friend. He has recalled: “There was a wonderful maroon coat I wore for Ascot – he was always such fun, very much part of my early life when Jesus Christ Superstar was going on – Tommy made clothes for Tim Rice too – we were all great mates.” Mick Jagger sported an eau-de-nil three-piece for his wedding to Bianca Perez-Mora Macias in 1971. He was in another Nutter creation days later on his honeymoon
SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE 25
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