Savile Row prices deter Britons

Press, 12 April 1984, Page 31

Savile Row prices deter Britons

By ERIC MUSGRAVE in London The cost of a three-piece suit from Huntsman of Savile Row in London’s West End leaves a customer with scarcely enough change from $l5OO to buy a rose for his buttonhole.

Long known as London’s costliest tailoring establishment, Huntsman now charges $l4BO for a threepiece suit in a fine worsted cloth, although a two-piece suit can be had for $l3BO, inclusive of value added tax, but with a 10 per cent discount for prompt payment

But this, of course, is only for starters. A silk twopiece Huntsman suit costs $1720 while a cashmere overcoat commands a price tag of $lB9O. How does Colin Hammick, Huntsman’s managing director, justify such prices? “We make suits only one way. Faced with higher labour costs, rising overheads and higher prices of cloth we continue to make a certain quality. Our prices reflect this. It may sound corny, but we are proud that we do as much handwork now as we did 50 years ago.” On real bespoke suits — and this is what marks them apart from the High

Street multiples’ factorysewn, “made-to-measure” garments — everything, apart from the long side and arm seams, is sewn by hand.

Savile row’s prices — Huntsman is way out in front on this count — reflect the fact that, for example, someone has sewn by hand for 3% hours the interior padding, a task more usually done by machine in 314: minutes.

Mr Hammick is clearly unperturbed about his cost structure. “I am not in the least embarrassed about our prices. They represent good value.”

Such value is apparently appreciated more by foreign visitors than British residents. Between 50 and 70 per cent of all the main tailoring houses’ business is for export. Some, such as Robert Bright, managing director of Wells of Mayfair in Maddox Street (a few cloth lengths from Savile Row) believe it is time the tailoring fraternity did a better marketing job at home. “History is okay for the p.r. handouts,” he said. “But the fact remains that two generations in this country have passed by without having their suits made. This is why the British male looks the way he does.”

In fact many prosperous British males avoid Savile Row and go to a tailor in the business area of the City of London further east.

An unwritten law among those who tailor is never to criticise another’s work, but this does not conceal the keen rivalry which exists between London’s West End firms and their City counterparts. In the City, bespoke suits tend to start at a price of $450, some $225 less than even the low rankers in the West End.

City firms do not travel abroad looking for business. They have much smaller premises, fewer staff and, according to Savile Row’s establishments, use cheaper outworkers.

However, some traditions are common to both Savile Row and the City. A certain etiquette is observed. In the words of Edward Whitfield, the proprietor of P. A. Crowe, near the City Stock Exchange, “I have had certain customers for 25 years and I still do not know their first names — I would not use them if I did. That’s my Huntsman training — they are the customer and you are the tailor. It’s a professional relationship.”

Copyright, London Observer Service.