Business booming on Savile Row

Press, 6 November 1984, Page 10

Business booming on Savile Row

By

EDITH M. LEDERER,

NZPA-AP, London Savile Row, which for more than a century dressed the English gentleman in his bowler hat and pin-stripe suit, is now outfitting millionaire businessmen and celebrities from Abu Dhabi to Dallas. The staid conservative look is still the Row’s topseller — minus the less frequently worn bowler. But a touch of high fashion has appeared on the street of famed tailoring establishments in London’s fashionable Mayfair district. The cheapest custommade suit is selling for about $1396, so all but the very richest Britons have abandoned Savile Row for ready-to-wear labels. Marks and Spencer, the giant British department store chain, has the lion’s share of the market. Its St Michael suits — selling at bargain prices of about $266 — are worn by a host of well-known men, including American actor Dustin Hoffman, opposition Labour

party leader, Neil Kinnock and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s husband, Denis Thatcher. Prince Charles and jetsetting businessmen stick to Savile Row’s classic styles, but rock star Elton John, composer Andrew LloydWebber, and the three teenage sons of United States oil billionaire Gordon Getty, are into designer Tommy Nutter’s big-jacket look with brocade vests. But, after decades of consolidation forced by skyrocketing rents and several years of economic ups and downs, Savile Row is enjoying a boom sparked by the falling British pound and the strong American dollar. “We are now doing roughly 70 per cent of our business for overseas customers,” says Colin Hammick, managing director of Huntsman and Sons. “Our biggest market is North America, but we have clients in France, Belgium. Italy, the Middle East, and South America.” Huntsman, which made riding breeches for the late Duke of Windsor and keeps

saddles in each of its five fitting rooms, makes no apologies for charging the highest prices on the Row: a minimum of $2705 for a •wool worsted suit. “The fact that it is the most expensive is inevitable if you make the best quality,” Colin Hammick says. “We are proud that we do as much handwork now as we did 50 years ago,” he says, explaining that a huntsman suit takes three months to finish, needs at least three or four fittings, and is all hand-sewn except for the main side and arm seams. . John Brand, of Tobias, one of a number of smaller Row firms that have managed to survive, admits that made-to-measure tailoring “is not very profitable... But at least we are all nice and busy because the dollar is very strong.” Made-to-measure suits at Tobias start at $1489. John Brand says 75 per cent of his business is from foreigners. Colin Hammick declares custom-made or “bespoke” suits (clients are said to

“bespeak” their requirements) offer a customer individuality. “If we have done our job properly, it should enhance the figure.” Like Nutter, Gieves, and Hawkes and others on the Row, Huntsman has introduced a ready-to-wear collection starting at $lOlO for those who cannot afford the time or money for a tailormade suit. But traditionalists like Anderson and Sheppard, who reportedly acquired Prince Charles as a customer recently, would not dream of selling ready-to-wear. Savile Row was laid out in the 17305, and takes its name from Lady Dorothy Savile, who owned the property. Originally, it was a fashionable residential street. 1 But in the midnineteenth century, it became the headquarters of many of, London’s finest tailors. A few original shops remain, with their old wooden fronts and small windows strewn with bolts of material. But the street,

now bustling with traffic, has been invaded by a travel agency, and several modern office buildings. When Tommy Nutter went into business on Savile Row in 1968, he said, his “was the first new shop to open for as long as anybody could remember.” Catering to the Beatles and the swinging ’6os crowd, Nutter’s flared jackets, close-fitting trousers and vests with braided and satin edges caused some raised eyebrows among the Row’s pin-striped stalwarts. He left in 1976, returned in 1982; and is now one of the few tailors offering a more modem look. “I think I am the only one with any clue of what is happening in 1984-85,” maintains Tommy Nutter, whose best customer is Elton John. “What I offer really is the same quality as any of the other tailors... But I would hope my styling is more up to date.”