END OF AN ERA
Alan, wife and daughters (above)
Simon Cundey, Philip Parker, Angus Cundey, Alan Alexander (left to right)
Over his career, it has been the chance to see the world that has been one of the highlights for Alan. “I never expected to travel when I came into the job but I’ve been all over the place,” he says. “In my early twenties, I went to America several times and I’ve been going to Paris since 1977 though I stopped that in 2016. I enjoy travelling and, at one time, we were going five times a year just to Paris where Henry Poole has a proud history, stretching all the way back to Napoleon III, then onto Charles de Gaulle and then, in my time, onto President Giscard d'Estaing. “When we went to Switzerland we would fly to Geneva and then catch a train to Zurich which was a lovely train journey, around Lake Geneva and then cross country. Beautiful scenery. We are very much involved with America and Europe and now we are growing in places like Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. An Arab client of mine who would be off on his yacht somewhere would phone to organise a fitting and I’d fly out to the nearest place to where he was and he’d sail in to
see me. I went to Sardinia once to meet up with him.” Alan, who stepped down from the board of directors at Henry Poole last year, joined the team in 1980 when the business was in Cork Street before moving to its current home at 15, Savile Row in
1982. Now, as he takes his leave for a well- earned retirement, he
is confident that the tailoring business in the area can look to the future with confidence. “I’m definitely far more optimistic about the future
of tailoring on Savile Row than I would have been, say, 10 years ago,” he says. “There will always be a demand for quality craftsmanship and there are so many young, talented people coming into the trade. We have a lot of young apprentices here at Henry Poole.” For the future Alan and his wife Maureen can
look forward to spending time in their new caravan. “There is such a lot of this country we have not seen so we decided to buy a small caravan and take a look,” explains Alan, who also plans to spend more time by the river, fly fishing for trout. But their first trip will have to be interrupted as Simon Cundey and the team at Henry Poole are organising a retirement party for Alan at the RAC club in Pall Mall. What will he miss about not working at the centre of bespoke tailoring? “I’ll miss my colleagues and miss seeing the clients,” says Alan. “And I’ll miss seeing a finished garment go out of the door with a happy customer. As Angus Cundey said, ‘A customer is not a customer until he comes back and buys another suit’.” And Alan’s final thoughts? “I definitely made the right decision to come into this trade all those years ago.” n
SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE 45
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