Savile Row Style Magazine 19.01 by Publications UK

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RETURN OF THE MASTER TAILOR ANTONY PRICE, THE GENIUS WHO REINVENTED THE SUIT, TALKS JAGGER, FERRY, CORSETS AND COCONUTS

Inside BURLINGTON ARCADE Mayfair’s elegant shopping arcade celebrates its 200th anniversary GREEN SLEEVES How Savile Row has responded to climate change and its carbon footprint GET SHIRTY Dege & Skinner talk about their one-stop bespoke shirt making THE TEST OF TIME The allure of handcrafted timepieces simply can’t be beaten

MAYFAIR CLUBLAND Robin Dutt celebrates the history of Mayfair nightclubs, from aristocratic Annabel’s to sexy, swinging Tramp

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CONTENTS 64

56 16 08 | LONDON FASHION WEEK MEN’S

48 42 | WALK THIS WAY

Many designers flew the flag for British menswear while Savile Row Gin served up some great cocktails

Burlington Arcade, Mayfair’s elegant shopping parade celebrates its 200th anniversary

14 | RICHARD ANDERSON Q&A

48 | TEST OF TIME

Richard Anderson has worked on the Row for 36 years including launching his own house in 2001

History shows the allure of handcrafted timepieces can’t be beaten

16 | COVER STORY: THIS IS TOMORROW CALLING

The architects of Savile Row parallel the master tailors who now occupy the address

Antony Price, the genius who reinvented the suit and the most overlooked designer in British fashion talks to SRS

56 | PRANCING HORSES

24 | GREEN SLEEVES How Savile Row has responded to climate change and its carbon footprint

30 | GETTING SHIRTY SRS talks to Tom Bradbury of Dege & Skinner about their one-stop bespoke shirt making facility

32 | ET IN SARTORIA EGO Savile Row Style’s Robin Dutt praises Anderson & Sheppard for its ineffable sense of English style

34 | CLUBLAND HEROES SRS celebrate the history of Mayfair nightclubs, from aristocratic Annabel’s to sexy, swinging Tramp

SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

52 | HANDCRAFTED DREAMS

Talacrest offers the most beautiful cars ever made. Ferrari superdealer John Collins gives SRS a tour of his fabled showroom

64 | CHULO ESPAÑA

Spain’s capital, Madrid is taking its rightful place among Europe’s most exciting city break destinations

72 | SCENT & SENSIBILITY

Seven doyens of Savile Row, renowned for their sense of touch, tell us what their favourite men’s fragrances are...

75 | THE LAST DETAIL: NEED TO VENT

Vents in men’s jackets can be traced back to equestrianism and the military, says Robin Dutt

76 | TAILOR’S HANDBOOK Our list of Savile Row Stockists

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FOREWORD

EDITOR’S NOTES

S MANAGING DIRECTOR Stewart Lee Email: stewart.lee@publicationsuk.co.uk HEAD OF DESIGN & PRODUCTION Andy Clow Email: andy.clow@publicationsuk.co.uk ART EDITOR Dan Angel CONTRIBUTORS Robin Dutt Tim Newark Daniel Evans Hazel Plush Neil Carr Sarah Gordon PRODUCTION Angela Brown EDITORIAL OFFICE Tel: +44 (0) 20 8238 5006 Email: sr-editorial@publicationsuk.co.uk Web: www.savilerow-style.com ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES Tel: +44 (0) 20 8238 5000 While every care has been taken in compiling this publication and the statements contained herein are believed to be correct, the publishers and the promoters will not accept responsibility for any inaccuracies. Reproduction of any part of this publication without permission is strictly forbidden. © Publications UK Limited 2019. The publishers

avile Row isn’t just an address, it’s a state of mind. Our big interview this issue is with Antony Price, the genius fashion designer who has dressed Mick Jagger, Bryan Ferry and Duran Duran. Price reinvented the men’s suit back in the Seventies – showier, bigger lapels – and, in many ways, anticipated the Eighties with his work for Roxy Music. Excitingly, Price – who has been called the most criminally overlooked designer in British fashion, and whose clients still include the Duchess of Cornwall – is planning his first menswear collection in years. Tom Bradbury, Dege & Skinner

Elsewhere in this issue, our resident boulevardier Robin Dutt brings his monocle up close and inspects the issue of vents in men’s jackets, writes a poetic appreciation of Anderson & Sheppard, one of the most venerable tailors on the Row, and essays the historic rivalry between the two great nightclubs of Mayfair, Annabel’s and Tramp. A new regular column we have introduced into this winter issue

Our big interview this issue is with Antony Price, the genius fashion designer who has dressed Mick Jagger, Bryan Ferry and Duran Duran is Final Fitting, where the doyens of Savile Row share their favourite non-tailoring purchases. This month seven Row luminaries tell us about their favourite men’s fragrances, from the rarefied (Lumière Blanche from Olfactive Studio, the choice of Alexander Lewis of Norton & Sons) to the traditionally masculine (Eucris by Geo F Trumper, picked by Geoff Wheeler of Huddersfield Fine Worsteds).

make no recommendation in respect of any of the advertisers, and no recommendation may be implied by way of the presence of their advertisements.

DESIGNED & PUBLISHED BY PUBLICATIONS UK LIMITED Tel: +44 (0) 20 8238 5000 Email: info@publicationsuk.co.uk Web: www.publicationsuk.co.uk COVER Photograph by Etienne Gilfillan, assisted by Paolo Navarino

The Editor Savile Row Style Magazine

INSIDE: GET SHIRTY WITH DEGE & SKINNER’S ONE STOP BESPOKE SHIRT MAKING FACILITY: PAGES 30-31 SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

NEWS

Celebrating the creativity, innovation and talent behind the UK’s most inspirational fashion designers, LFWM set the tone for the season ahead LONDON FASHION WEEK MEN’S offered a celebration of discovery and creative diversity that has made London an international hub for menswear. The capital’s three-day extravaganza welcomed guests from over 35 countries and featured over 40 designer businesses showcasing their latest collections. The appointment of David Beckham as ambassadorial president of the British Fashion Council this year further boosted the event. The former footballer, who presented a catwalk show for his brand, Kent & Curwen, commented: “More than ever, we have a real responsibility to engage and promote young and emerging creative talent.” SRS heartily agrees...

Craig Green

Kent & Curwen

Oliver Spencer

Burberry

SAVILE ROW GIN PARTNERS WITH LONDON FASHION WEEK MEN’S SAVILE ROW GIN supported the British Fashion Council as the gin partner to London Fashion Week Men’s this January. Visitors and guests enjoyed cocktails and The Perfect Serve – 50ml of Savile Row Gin, 150ml 1783 Schweppes Crisp Tonic, a slice of pink grapefruit and a mint leaf. Commenting on the collaboration, Stewart Lee, 8

SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

Managing Director of Savile Row Gin said he was proud to support this important event for the industry. “It was wonderful to see so many talented British designers showcase their new collections. This really is an exciting time for the men’s sector and we are delighted to be a part of it” added Lee. www.savilerow-gin.co.uk

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DRIVEN BY A CONSTANT commitment to authenticity and the desire to create best-in-class products, the collaboration fuses the tailoring expertise of Henry Poole with the deep knowledge of down-filling from Canada Goose. The pattern was designed and cut in partnership, and was made in Canada by Canada Goose sewers. The seemingly unexpected pairing of the Canadian performance luxury brand with the English bespoke tailors in fact drew on many commonalities between the two companies; from being pioneers in their categories, to a functional approach to design, through to their shared tactical heritage. “When our teams met they were excited about our common threads. We’ve played pioneering roles in our categories; Henry Poole founded Savile Row and invented the Dinner Jacket, my father invented the down-filling machine back in the 1970s which revolutionised the way we make outerwear, as well as now being recognised as Canada’s only true luxury apparel brand,” said Dani Reiss, President and CEO of Canada Goose. “I like to surprise people with collaborations, but it has to be about collaborating with the right people. It has to make sense, there needs to be passion, and it has to be fun. Our W1 blazer is made from a

medium flannel, which – together with the goose down – makes it a warm jacket and we all want something lightweight, practical and warm, especially when travelling,” said Simon Cundey, Managing Director, Henry Poole & Co. The W1 blazer, named after the area of London in which the Henry Poole tailors shop and the Canada Goose London flagship store are based, is available in three colourways – red, navy and graphite. The quilt-through wool blazer features the iconic Canada Goose disc in black on the arm and Henry Poole house buttons. The Selvedge Scarf is made from 100% super fine merino wool, it is dark green in colour with a herringbone finish and features the Canada Goose and Henry Poole wordmark logos along the edge. Similar to Canada Goose jackets in the Lightweight Down category, the W1 blazer is rated as a TEI 1 on the brand’s Thermal Experience Index and provides lightweight protection for active pursuits at temperatures between five and minus five degrees Celsius. The W1 blazer drops on 18th January 2019 in selected cities including London, Toronto, New York, Boston, Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong.

Canada Goose is taking on the new season with a fresh look, partnering for an exclusive collaboration with Savile Row tailors Henry Poole. The brands have come together to produce a down-filled blazer for men and women and a unisex merino wool scarf

CUT FROM THE SAME CLOTH

NEWS

TIMELESS ELEGANCE

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NEWS

FROM HAMBURG TO HAUTE COUTURE Karl Lagerfeld, one of the most influential and recognizable fashion designers of the 20th century, dies at the age of 85

THE GERMAN DESIGNER is best known for his work as the creative womenswear design competition in 1954. He got his start in Paris working under Pierre Balmain in the 1950s, director of Chanel, the French luxury fashion house. He was a prolific designer, also at the creative helm of Fendi and his eponymous label moving three years later to the House of Patou. He had stints as a freelancer for Chloé and was hired by Fendi in 1967 as a consultant at the time of his death. Lagerfeld died in Paris, the city he helped turn into the fashion director, responsible for modernizing the Italian house's fur lines. When Lagerfield took the reins at Chanel, he set to work reviving capital of the world, his label said. Rumors had swirled about his health after he was absent from his Chanel show in late January, due the brand's staid offerings. “[Chanel was] a sleeping beauty. Not even a beautiful one. She to what the fashion house described as tiredness. Lagerfeld, who transformed Chanel into a global powerhouse snored”, he said of the fashion house in “Lagerfeld Confidential,” after becoming creative director in 1983, was rarely seen without his a 2007 documentary. “So I was to revive a dead woman.” dark glasses, a silver ponytail and fingerless gloves – gaining him the Wertheimer said that he gave Lagerfeld “carte blanche in the early reputation as the most recognizable man in fashion, and one of its 1980s to reinvent the brand.” most outspoken. Not only did his designs turn Chanel into “My job is not to do what she did, but what “We owe him a great deal: one of the world's most valuable couture she would have done,” he said of the brand's his taste and talent were houses, but Lagerfeld's business savvy made founder, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel. “The good an early proponent of the now ubiquitous the most exceptional I have him thing about Chanel is it is an idea you can luxury collaborations with high street brands. ever known. We loved and adapt to many things.” In 2004, he became the first designer to admired him deeply.” “Today the world lost a giant among men,” design a collection for H&M, a trend that was Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue, later followed by the likes of Stella McCartney, said in a statement. “His creative genius was breathtaking and to be Comme des Garcons, Versace and Maison Martin Margiela. his friend was an exceptional gift. Karl was brilliant, he was wicked, he He also had a reputation for his quips about the fashion world, and was funny, he was generous beyond measure, and he was deeply kind. courted critics for controversial remarks about migrants in recent I will miss him so very much.” years. Chanel CEO Alain Wertheimer said in a statement that the late In his latter years, he became the adoptive parent of Choupette designer was “ahead of his time” and his “creative genius, generosity Lagerfeld, a Birman breed cat that came to stay one Christmas and and exceptional intuition” contributed to the House of Chanel's never left. The cat's jet-set lifestyle by Lagerfeld's side earned her a success throughout the world.” 120,000 personal Instagram following. The head of LVMH, which owns Fendi and Louis Vuitton, said the Chanel said Virginie Viard, director of Chanel's Fashion Creation fashion world had “lost a great inspiration”. Studio and “Lagerfeld's closest collaborator for more than 30 years,” “We owe him a great deal: his taste and talent were the most will be taking over Lagerfeld's role. “So that the legacy of Gabrielle Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld can live exceptional I have ever known”, Bernard Arnault, the chairman and CEO of LVMH, said in a statement. “We loved and admired him on,” Chanel wrote in a statement. SRS will publish a full celebration of Karl Lagerfeld’s life and times in deeply.” Born in Hamburg, Germany, Lagerfeld went on to win a our next edition 12

SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

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PROFILE

RICHARD ANDERSON Q&A Richard Anderson has worked on the Row for 36 years. He started out at Huntsman, where he became head cutter, before launching his own house in 2001. His innovations include bespoke suits made out of Japanese denim and sequinned suits, and his customers include Bryan Ferry What makes Savile Row quite so special? Savile Row is an iconic destination and we’re still the best in the world. How would you describe your role? I’m a tailor’s cutter. I’m like the architect overseeing the tailors who are the builders. How did you become a tailor? It was really an accident. It was my father who saw a tiny advert in the Daily Telegraph for an apprentice cutter and he frogmarched me up to Savile Row. I was clothes conscious as a teenager, interested in street fashions such as Punk and Mod. I walked into Huntsman on a snowy day and the bustling and fabulous ambience of the place was like walking into another world. It had a great energy to it even though the whole of Huntsman could at times feel quite intimidating. Why did you set-up on your own? I inherited Huntsman in 1994 as head cutter and we had two years to turn a loss-making company around. For the previous eight years the old management hadn’t put the prices up at all, so we were running at a slight loss. First thing we did was introduce our own fabrics, increase output by 20 percent and also put our prices up by 20 percent. Customers loved what we were doing. We doubled the volume of suits sold from 600 to 1,300 suits in one year. Unfortunately, our Japanese

owners decided to sell us to a new group of American investors. I was 36 years old at the time and I could see the writing on the wall. I thought, it’s now-or-never to do it, and I was proved right, although everyone at the time thought my business partner and I were mad.

Our house cut is a strong influence on Savile Row Tell me about the early days Shops in Savile Row don’t turn up every five minutes. So for the first few months, I converted my garage into a cutting room. We went out to America taking orders and doing a trunk show. It was a really tense period though, trying to get a shop on Savile Row. Luckily nine months in Hackett had tried doing bespoke, but it hadn’t worked out so No 13 came up. We were lucky that its premises came up because we wanted to be on the sunny side of the street. I thought, well, 13 is a lucky number and we got handed the keys on Friday the thirteenth! What was the difference between Huntsman and your own house? We wanted Richard Anderson to be less intimidating for people my own age – in their late thirties – than Huntsman where it was very much, ‘Lord this, Sir that’. We had white walls and modern art and we also liked to play rock ‘n’ roll. How would you describe your house cut? Our house cut is a strong influence on Savile Row. It’s a mixture between a riding coat and a dinner jacket. We cut the

armholes quite high to get a nice long movement through the side seam. It’s really to give people the illusion of being taller and slimmer than you are. It’s a clean look. What’s been your worst moment as a tailor? Once we had an order for a dozen pairs of bespoke white trousers (white is always difficult) and unfortunately a couple got marked while we were making them. So, my business partner took them home and put them in his own washing machine and hung them out to dry on his clothes line. During the night, foxes took them down and ate them. In today’s money, that would have been a Ford Focus worth of trousers. What keeps Savile Row relevant today? Savile Row is thriving but you have to be relevant to today. We’re known throughout the world for our quality. As long as we maintain that style, make and service, we’ll thrive. And we’ve got so many young people who want to come in to the trade, which was unheard of 20 years ago. The problem is that we haven’t got the places for them. A bigger problem though is the rents, which is what we’re up against. Richard Anderson was speaking at the Fashion and Textiles Museum on 29th November. His new book Making the Cut is available to buy now SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

THIS IS TOMORROW CALLING ANTONY PRICE, THE GENIUS WHO REINVENTED THE SUIT AND THE MOST OVERLOOKED DESIGNER IN BRITISH FASHION TALKS TO SRS. PHOTOGRAPHS BY ETIENNE GILFILLAN, ASSISTED BY PAOLO NAVARINO

COVER STORY

❝ ANTONY IS ONE OF THE

OUTSTANDING AND MOST INFLUENTIAL DESIGNERS OF HIS GENERATION. HE HAS A PROFOUND KNOWLEDGE OF EVERY ASPECT OF TAILORING AND DRESSMAKING, AND MOST UNUSUALLY, IS A BRILLIANT CRAFTSMAN, WITH A LEONARDO – LIKE APTITUDE FOR INVENTION, ALWAYS SEARCHING FOR NEW AND CLEVER WAYS TO MAKE GARMENTS. BRYAN FERRY

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SUITS REALLY APPEAL TO WOMEN, NOT MEN,BECAUSE A SUIT SAYS SUCCESS

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COVER STORY

pening my inky copy of that week’s NME in the Eighties and reading about Bryan Ferry emerging from Antony Price’s boutique on the King’s Road, it is difficult to convey how ineffably stylish it all seemed. It was a long way from the lead sky and the gasometer of the Midlands town I grew up in. Surprisingly then, Antony Price, the man who has been called the most criminally overlooked designer in British fashion, turns out to be a warm Yorkshireman also from the provinces. Today, he still dresses the Duchess of Cornwall, who remains one of his most loyal clients. Other clients have included Naomi Campbell, Diana Ross, Melanie Griffith and Anjelica Huston. Standing in front of a dressing table, readying himself for our photo shoot, Price appraises himself. The triple pleats on his three-piece checked suit trousers are so exquisite, they make me want to cry. Often his innovations take years to work their way into the mainstream and the high street.

“I’m always ahead of the game and I know that I’m right,” he says without a trace of pomposity. Price reinvented the suit in the Seventies, taking it out of the office and making it rock ‘n’ roll. The look he developed was a little bit military, a little bit Dietrich. “Suits really appeal to women, not men,” he says, “because a suit says success”. His most famous collaboration was with Bryan Ferry, where his retro futurism perfectly suited the bigband, ray-gun sound of Roxy Music. His King’s Road shop was even namechecked in Ferry’s song Trash. There is something magical about Antony Price. Hurrying after him in Brocket Hall where the photo shoot is taking place, I feel like Alice trying to catch up with the dashing White Rabbit. He has the energy of a thirtysomething. What Price would also love to do is design a menswear collection for a traditional Savile Row tailor. “I do wish a Huntsman or a Kilgour would get me in. I understand completely the business they’re in and the constraints they’re under because I have spent my life selling clothes. “Not only am I a designer, I am a master pattern cutter. I make patterns for everything I’ve ever done. It’s about shaping and cutting because you can’t alter the basics of a revere collar and a set-in sleeve. I do like to work with other houses whenever possible.” Price says that a man’s jacket is one of the most complicated pieces to manufacture because it involves so many elements.

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A MAN’S JACKET IS ONE OF THE MOST COMPLICATED PIECES TO MANUFACTURE BECAUSE IT INVOLVES SO MANY ELEMENTS

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SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

COVER STORY

“There are only two garments that are complicated. One is a corseted evening dress and the other, a man’s jacket. These are the two most complicated garments you can make with the most pattern pieces and the most mistakes which can happen.” Price was always good with his hands and he approaches fashion as technical problem solving rather than making an art statement. Price says: “Whenever I employ people, I employ rural people because they’re problem solvers. They’re in the middle of nowhere, so they have no resources.”

COUNTRY CHILDHOOD

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Price grew up in the Yorkshire Dales and, for somebody so sophisticated, he’s very much a countryman who keeps pheasants in his garden. He began making clothes for his mother and sisters when he was an adolescent. Watching his mother struggle over the sewing machine, he realised that she was getting the hems all wrong. He elbowed her aside and started making his family Givenchy knock-offs. Price followed the same art school trajectory as David Hockney, first going to Bradford Art College and then winning a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in 1965. There he frequently hid from the caretaker, so he could stay up all night working on the machines. Even straight out of art school, Price was seen as up and coming. He began working for the Stirling Copper shop in the late Sixties, where his first customers were the Rolling Stones. “Everybody in rock ‘n’ roll bought the clothes,” he says. Mick Jagger wore his side-buttoning, snake-hip flared trousers on the 1969 American Gimme Shelter tour. (It’s a relationship that continued into the Eighties, as Price designed the iconic American footballer outfit Jagger wore for the 1981 tour.) The first time that Price set eyes on Bryan Ferry was when he was in the audience of an Ossie Clark fashion show. “He sought me out because I was the rising star,” Price laughs. “We gravitated together because we had similar northern upbringings. Bryan worked as a teenager in a tailor’s shop in Newcastle and he was always a Savile Row devotee from day one. He always loved classic menswear.” What Price offered Roxy Music was a complete package including clothes, hairstyling and his friendships with models such as Jerry Hall, Amanda Lear and Kari-Ann Muller (all of whom appeared on Roxy album covers). Their first collaboration was when Price styled the cover of the first Roxy Music album, which featured a yearning Muller dressed up in Neapolitan ice cream coloured ruffles. Indeed, Price oversaw every aspect of the video for Let’s Stick Together. “I got up there and even did the bloody curtains myself on a ladder,” he laughs. Their professional relationship continued up to the 1985 cover of Ferry’s solo album Boys and Girls. With Price’s sharp styling and exaggerated suits, Roxy Music invented the Eighties long before the Seventies were over.

EVERYBODY IN ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BOUGHT THE CLOTHES, MICK JAGGER WORE HIS SIDE-BUTTONING, SNAKE-HIP FLARED TROUSERS ON THE 1969 AMERICAN ‘GIMME SHELTER’ TOUR

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COVER STORY

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Favourite book The Wind In the Willows Favourite song Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones Favourite meal Smoked mackerel with avocado and salad. I also eat a coconut every day. How do you stay so sprightly? I’ve turned on to alternative health. Wheat and dairy is the source of all evil. Last holiday I never really go on holiday, so I would have to say Mustique with Bryan Ferry. I used to go over there and do fashion shows for Princess Margaret. Favourite Savile Row tailor? Ozwald Boateng.

“We didn’t know that we were making history. When the record company got the pictures, they thought these clothes suit the music.” For Price, the highpoint was Ferry performing the song Casanova live on a set Price designed. Ferry was wearing an acid green leatherette suit. “That was the moment I thought this will never look this good again – he was like a brilliant lizard in a cave of lights. For me, that was my moment.”

ELECTRIC SILK

Price opened his shop Plaza in 1979 on the King’s Road, where the big seller was his men’s taffeta suit. In 1982 he designed electric silk suits for Duran Duran, which they wore for their famous Rio video. Price says: “I managed to do as cutting edge as you could but still sell it. To push the envelope that far and still make it commercial is not easy.”

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I MANAGED TO DO AS CUTTING EDGE AS YOU COULD BUT STILL SELL IT. TO PUSH THE ENVELOPE THAT FAR AND STILL MAKE IT COMMERCIAL IS NOT EASY

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Given that he has been cited by Alexander McQueen, Thierry Mugler and Galliano as such an influence, why hasn’t he been put in charge of a major couture house? (There was a moment when he was eyed to take over Versace in the wake of the designer’s death in 1998). “I peaked at the wrong time,” he says reflectively. “I was 15 years too early.” At the time, no British designer had ever fronted an Italian or French couture house unlike McQueen or Galliano later. Price though is not much given to raking over the past, he is more excited about the future. And he is as passionate and excited about tailoring as ever. “I love the art of changing the human body into different shapes. There are two ways you can do it dramatically, either corseted or reshaped through tailoring, using canvas and darting and suppression to alter the outlines of the human body.” SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

Savile Row has responded to climate change with lighter fabrics and reducing its carbon footprint. In fact, the Row was sustainable decades before the word was invented, says SRS

aking textiles from plant-based fibres is nothing new. In fact, the very first fabric produced in England during the Bronze age textiles was made from the bark of lime trees. Today, cloth merchants which supply Savile Row are experimenting with plant-based fabric in keeping with the drive towards sustainability. Savile Row tailors, mindful of climate change, are working with ever-lighter cloths while keeping an eye on their carbon footprint, sourcing material from within Britain from merchants which can prove their ethical credentials. The fashion industry accounts for 10 percent of global carbon

24 SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

emissions and remains the second largest industrial polluter, second only to oil. Cotton production is particularly damaging to the environment if not done properly with untreated water poured back into rivers. People’s shopping habits have changed. Online customers order cheap clothes only to throw them away months later – so-called “fast fashion”. Of course, Savile Row is the opposite of fast fashion. By its very nature, working in a bespoke manner and using limited amounts of cloth, a sturdy tweed suit made in Savile Row can be handed down from father to son.

SUSTAINABLE

Simon Cundey, managing director of Henry Poole, says: and cashmere has been part of the Row’s DNA. It’s not only suit materials in Savile Row that are sustainable “Rather than fast fashion ordered daily over the internet, a Savile Row customer will order just twice a year, typically a pair but the way suits are made – with interlinings stitched together and not glued as with cheaper suits. of suits and a couple of sports jackets.” One thing that Norton & Sons has been thinking Geoff Wheeler of Huddersfield Fine Worsteds agrees: “It’s fast fashion that’s doing the real damage. Bespoke is the way forward about is what to do with offcuts of cloth that are left over. Although New York-based because it’s a purchase that you keep for Fabscrap that recycles offcuts and a long time. Making a garment that lasts ‘Bespoke tailoring is at the fibres from tailors such is the best thing for the environment very top of sustainable fashion reweaves as Kozinn + Sons or uses it to stuff compared to the damage done by producers in terms of the furniture, mattresses and pillows, this is throwaway garments.”“We wouldn’t a trend that has yet to arrive here. consider the products we make to be footprint it leaves’ Younger customers are increasingly ‘fashion’, so they’re not thrown away into landfill once they fall out of favour,” says Emmanuel Guegan, interested in authenticity, quality and provenance – all of which fits in neatly with the Savile Row ethos. head of accessories at Purdey. “What’s durable is sustainable.” “In the last decade, there’s been a drive towards sustainability,” Because Savile Row deals with bespoke, the amount of says Cundey. Wheeler believes there will be a reaction to our wastage is far less than you get with fast fashion. Again, the drive towards using natural fibres in Savile Row throwaway culture, with customers unafraid to spend more on is nothing new: Awareness of natural fibres such as wool, linen clothes with durability. SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

Simon Glendenning of Dugdale Bros

Tailors, he says, dislike such lightweight cloth because it’s so CHANGING CLIMATE Every cloth merchant that Savile Row Style spoke to agrees difficult to work with. that customers want lighter fabrics to cope with our changing climate. What would have been considered a sturdy tweed jacket INNOVATIVE FABRIC would have been standard suiting back in the Fifties. Thirty That as is maybe, cloth merchants have had to respond with years ago, 9oz was considered lightweight but innovative lightweight fabrics. today people wear 8oz cloth all year round. The Huddersfield Fine Worsteds recently ‘Making a garment launched a bamboo bunch at a 9oz weight latest generation of Italian Super 200s weigh as little as 6oz. in 34 colours. Clients include Henry Poole that lasts is the Norton & Sons says that when fathers Norton & Sons. Touching the swatch best thing for the and accompany their sons into the tailors, often the book, the bamboo cloth has a lovely feel, like environment’ parent will opt for a heavier 15-16 oz cloth while lightweight cashmere. Wheeler had a blazer the son will stick at 11-12ozs. Predominantly this made up in the material that he calls “the best is because the British climate is changing. jacket I’ve ever worn, so soft feeling yet warm”. “All the American market wants is rather nasty lightweight “I’m a great believer in this range,” says Cundey. “It gives the cloths because they move from air conditioned car to a impression of a relaxed linen look as a suiting or a dress blazer temperature controlled office, which suits the ‘non-climate with distorted fibres or a white tuxedo.” climate’ they live in,” says Dugdale Bros managing director “Bamboo is no different from a linen range,” says Glendenning. Simon Glendenning. “The fact is that it’s been brought to the West recently and it’s 26 SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

SUSTAINABLE

move more freely when you’re out on the moors and you’re doing more active shooting”. Sympatex was chosen for the membrane because, being made of recycled materials itself, it is more ecologically forgiving than other brands. Not only that, but when Sympatex reaches the end of its lifecycle, it too can be recycled. This new technical shooting range has been so successful that Purdey will extend it to womenswear in A/W19. Elsewhere, Purdey has used the common nettle for its range of holdalls and gun sleeves. Nettles were first used around a century ago in Switzerland to make the iconic Swiss Army Rucksack – cotton was scarce and nettle fibres are actually stronger. “Nettles grow in the wild and don’t need to be treated with insecticide. Nettle combines with our ethos of durability and sustainability,” says Guegan.

ETHICAL SOURCING

a bit unusual.” Dugdale Bros makes the point that traditional wool is just as sustainable as newfangled super lightweight cloths. In fact, the traditional heavyweight wools are greener because, unlike, say, new Italian superfine wools, they are much more hardwearing. The irony is that even something handmade in Savile Row using superfine wool will only last for a decade compared to generations for a robust suit. Someone who needs a lighter weight cloth because of climate change buys something that doesn’t last as long and will ultimately been thrown away sooner – adding to the landfill, only increasing the problem. Ironically, the best customers for Dugdale’s proper characterful English cloth are to be found in Italy – the home of the super lightweight textiles English cloth merchants compete against. Corinne Metcalfe, a clothing designer at Purdey, used to work in the sailing industry and has noticed the same drive towards lighter, more breathable fabrics when it comes to country sports – partly as a response to our warmer, wetting climate. Metcalfe says that customers want lighter and more breathable fabrics. Purdey launched its first synthetic membrane into its technical shooting range this autumn. This technical tweed is 30 percent lighter than standard sports jackets “which allows you to

Another trend making inroads into Savile Row is provenance and what Huddersfield Fine Worsted calls ‘traceability’. Just as people want to know where food is sourced from, they want to know that yarn has been gathered ethically. Savile Row has to assume that the actual sourcing of the yarn is conducted ethically by its mills. Dugdale Bros has an ethical code of conduct when it comes to sourcing yarns. Dugdale says that some of the larger wool growing countries have, in the past, used questionable practices – such as cutting into fly-infected sheep in a practice known as ‘mulesing’, which has been called cruel and inhumane. HFW is in the process of being able to trace where its cloth comes from, right back to the exact sheep in Australia – tracing the journey from shearing to yarn spinners to Chinese brokers. It’s the same as proving the provenance of a work of art.

SMALL FOOTPRINT Where Savile Row can really show its green credentials is by using British mills manufacturing locally. This shortens its supply chain and avoids the energy spent importing from China and the Far East. In short, reducing its carbon footprint. Dugdale Bros sources its wool from local yarn suppliers, mills and finishers within a five mile radius of Huddersfield, which similarly reduces its carbon footprint. Alexander Lewis, brand and business director at Norton & Sons, says: “We do think about this a lot. As a house, Norton & Sons prefers to work with British-made cloth. We only use foreign-milled cloth if there’s something we cannot get from a producerweaver in the UK”. “Bespoke tailoring is at the very top of sustainable fashion producers in terms of the footprint it leaves behind. The effect that it has on the environment is very different to say, a big fashion brand.” “Keeping our carbon footprint small is a luxury that a high-end brand such as Purdey can afford. Sustainability is very much in our ethos,” adds Guegan. SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

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GET SHIRTY Dege & Skinner is the only Savile Row tailor to provide its own one stop bespoke shirt making facility. Cutter Tom Bradbury tells Daniel Evans about learning this rare craft

f it weren’t for his grandfather, Tom Bradbury would probably not be talking to me now, front-of-house at Dege & Skinner, explaining the intricacies of bespoke shirt making and the enjoyment he gets from being involved in such a specialist craft. Like a lot of young people, when he was 16 Tom began his A levels but decided it was not for him – “I don’t know why I tried. I hated doing tests,” – so he ended up spending a fair amount of time with his grandfather, David. “He was a joiner so every Thursday I’d go and work with him, to learn his trade and skills,” Tom tells me. “We’d just do stuff together as I’d always enjoyed doing practical things with my hands. I told him I was interested in fashion and had been looking for work around Carnaby Street and he said: ‘If you want to be in the clothing industry then get yourself down to Savile Row and work with the best’.” “I’d never heard of Savile Row and didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. It was never mentioned in school. You have all these career advisers but they never discussed the clothing trade and that the height of luxury was to get a suit made in Savile Row. You just don’t get taught that sort of thing at school.” So, armed with his grandfather’s advice and his own CV, Tom came up from his home in Orpington to London and went in and out of the shops on Savile Row. Tom takes up the story. “I came into Dege & Skinner and talked to the person by the front door. ‘Can I speak to the MD?’ I asked. ‘That would be me,’ said the man.”

BESPOKE

Tom was not to know that the person by the front door was, in fact, William Skinner, Dege & Skinner’s managing director. “We began to chat and he was asking me lots of questions,” remembers Tom. “It was like an interview which you hadn’t prepared for. We stood in the front shop for quite a long time. He showed me around and introduced me to people, including the head cutter Peter Ward and others in the back room. William then asked me if I was doing anything the following week and whether I fancied coming in to do some work experience. Of course, I said yes.”

OVER THE MOON

would like the fit, what type of collar shapes they like. We make all sorts of shirts, from business shirts to more casual ones.” I ask Tom to tell me why people should invest in a bespoke shirt. “Because it’s made just for you,” he says without hesitation. “It’s individuality – the fact you have put your ideas into it. The fit, the elegance. It’s hard to explain until you’ve had one made and then you are never happy with anything else. We have had so many customers come in who have been given a bespoke shirt as a present, for a birthday or for Christmas, and who have come back a few years later to order some more because nothing else compares. Once you’ve had one, you can’t go back.”

“I spent the whole day cleaning the shop. I was too scared to take my jacket off. It was the middle of June and I was absolutely HUGE VARIETY sweltering. At the end of that day, William asked me whether I “There is a huge variety of shirts you can have – the choice is wanted to work for the rest of the week. I said: ‘Yes, of course’. But, unreal. You may just want a white shirt but then you think about at the time, I only had one smart shirt so, every day, I had to go what type of white shirt – if you are at a business meeting with back home, wash my shirt which was black from dusting, dry it 20 people in white shirts, you want to be wearing the best white overnight and iron it in the shirt in the room.” morning before coming Although the classic Tom Bradbury back in. At the end of the white shirt remains the week, I was offered a job. I most popular choice, was over the moon. I also Dege & Skinner has got some money for the plentiful options in collar work I’d already done so I styles and the softest immediately went out and Swiss, Italian and British bought myself a few more two-fold 100s to two-fold shirts because I didn’t want 300s cottons, with either to be doing the one shirt double (French) cuffs or thing for too long.” two-button single cuffs. Soon after joining, Typically, it takes Tom got to know Robert between two or three Whittaker, the veteran fittings for a single shirt, head shirt cutter at which will be turned Dege & Skinner, and was around in eight weeks. keen to learn from him. This shirt will be used as “I knew I wanted to a template for multiple ask him whether he orders. The tailor has would take me on as his a minimum order of apprentice but was too four shirts, but some nervous,” recalls Tom. customers order two “I had it in my head that I dozen at a time. would talk to him about it Prices start at £285 but bottled it every single plus VAT for a simple day and then, as we were handmade shirt but can going home one Friday, I run into the thousands. found a bit of confidence “The most unusual and asked him.” shirt we had was an If you are at a business meeting, you want to be Egyptian-printed African Tom was understandably delighted when Robert style like you see in wearing the best white shirt in the room agreed and began his Nigerian headdresses. The apprenticeship. “Robert has taught me everything I know about only problem is that you have to match the patterns up, which is shirt cutting,” Tom says. “I started from scratch. I’d never picked a long old job,” says Tom. up a set of shears in my life. I’d never done anything like that. The job involves a fair amount of travel – Tom goes to America Robert moulded me into what he wanted me to do, which was three or four times a year for two weeks at a time – but it’s not as good, rather than picking up bad habits. He’s a bit of a character. glamorous as it sounds. “I remember Robert telling me that it was I found him quite intimidating to start with but he always looked good fun and that I’d enjoy it but that it was hard work – and he out for me and gave me stuff to do. I’ve got so much respect for was right,” he says. “Some of my friends say it sounds like a bit of Robert. He took the time to teach me and I could well see myself a jolly but it is pretty tough going.” passing on that knowledge to others in the years ahead. I can’t Tom’s grandfather died less than a year after his grandson thank him enough.” started at Dege & Skinner but not before he came to London to Now Tom spends his time as a bespoke shirt cutter at see him at work. “He did come up a few times and we enjoyed a Dege & Skinner, the only establishment on Savile Row which pint in the local pub, which was nice,” recalls Tom. “To be honest, offers such a service. “It’s a proud thing to say,” says Tom. “We if my grandfather hadn’t told me to come up to Savile Row in the measure a customer up, ask some questions about how they first place, I probably still wouldn’t know where or what it was.” SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

SENSE OF STYLE

ET IN S A RTO R I A E G O Savile Row Style’s resident guru, Robin Dutt, praises Anderson & Sheppard for its ineffable sense of English style

peaking of the soft drape… if you are in conversation with anyone who has any interest in ‘sartoria’, the one tailor possibly to be mentioned will be Anderson & Sheppard. Like a particular hallmark, expressing provenance and maker, the mastery of the shape of the drape has, since 1906, been at the epicentre of the individuality at the heart of this establishment. Its senior directors share over 100 years of experience. Sir Hardy Amies famously (and often) trumpeted about sharp suiting being a vulgarity; a knife needs to be sharp – a suit does not. “Ease, peace, flow” was his making mantra when it came especially to the male wardrobe and he wrote lists of tips on how to be elegant in his famous ABC of men’s fashion published in the 1960s. And in a way, is not Amies’ tailoring philosophy at the heart of Anderson & Sheppard, too? Beautiful clothes speak without a voice. The late A.A. Gill, who was a contributor to my first art exhibition I Criticus in Notting Hill in 1987, spoke highly of Anderson & Sheppard. A sonic writer, he once described a suit made for him here as “a thing of striking beauty” – obviously remembering Keats. Model turned designer, Tom Ford simply says that, Anderson & Sheppard is the best tailor in the world. One might reasonably opine that all the above mentioned had no reason to want a soundbite attached to their names. Each Savile Row tailor’s presence on this unique London and internationally renowned street has its own unique identity – easily understood, easily trusted. For, when one finds one’s tailored carapace, it is a matter of lifelong trust. And, whilst it may seem that the tailors are in competition, this is not really so simple. Everyone on the Row can collectively boast over a thousand years – or more – of contributing to a

32 SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

unique identity. A very English affair – the envy of the tailoring world. There is no enmity in The Row. Perhaps, mutual arch admiration. In the tailoring alphabet, “A” is for Admiration. “J” is not for jealousy. Like an extended family, you can’t love everyone but you acknowledge all who are part of it. There is a reason why those who are there, are there. There is obviously a reason why others, so far from sartoria, crave a Savile Row address. Anderson & Sheppard was established in 1906 and, like any true tailor on the Row, boasts several loyal staff with especial disciplines from Front of House (very important) to finishing (the outcome). Each element of any great tailoring house seems labyrinthine but it is actually and more importantly, logical. Fabric to those who love it and understand it has soul. Fabric itself might be said to be the tailor. I interviewed the great designer Yuki some time ago and he insisted that he cut as little as possible into the material, because

‘Tom Ford simply says that Anderson & Sheppard is the best tailor in the world’

for him, cutting cloth was akin to cutting skin. Master tailors know the importance of the performance of cloth. One would hope to trust a doctor. It is the same with a tailor. One is in their hands. One might come in with an idea of what it is thought might make one a sartorial Adonis. But the masters must prevail. They know what will suit – quite literally. The English Drape is also known as the London Cut. In 1906, it was a reaction to the constricting tailoring (sharpness again?) of the recently extinguished Victorian era. Dr Jaeger apart, who was passionately advocating the use of only natural fibres next to the skin, might have made a noble bow. Indeed, to emphasise the importance of any indispensable natural material, sourcing remains the central tenet. And what better way to remind all those who choose to care that the Campaign for Wool, which first took place in the autumn of 2010 and again in 2015, drove a flock of sheep down Savile Row? The sheep didn’t know it but they were the stars of the show. Their first skin is our second. Our second becomes our first. Anderson & Sheppard is a typical old-school tailor. The interior is akin to a gentleman’s club, quiet, peaceful, all at ease with paintings, heritage furniture and leather-bound ledgers. Always so reassuring – even if you don’t know why. Other tailors refer to the company as “the Savile Row cardigan” – a reference to how, on the Row, one never refers to a jacket – that’s only for potatoes. Anderson & Sheppard’s most famous client is HRH The Prince of Wales. But in a sense, all customers are princes of discernment. One might ask, what the legacy of this establishment might be? Perhaps the answer is easy enough. It is to be as it always has been. Even time itself can never counter real style.

John Hitchcock, head cutter

Robin Dutt celebrates the history of Mayfair nightclubs, from aristocratic Annabelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to sexy, swinging Tramp

34 SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

NIGHTLIFE

Peter Sellers and third wife, model Miranda Quarry, at their wedding reception at Tramps

n essence, London could be the only place on earth associated with the concept of “the club.” It created this night-time entity with a zeal which is internationally recognised and thronged to. The identity of a club and its sparkling denizens was and remains not British, not even English, but stands for London itself. Annabel’s, Tramp, The Embassy and Titanic, for example, are emblematic names – along with a handful of others – even if some are consigned to history. The understanding of a club might be said to have found form in the St. James’s of the 18th century where the idea of being “apart” from society but with your “peers” took happy and healthy root. Who one knew, who one was – how much did you spend (or lose, which was no shame) are still hallmarks of today’s club scene. Arch froideur was a passport too, the dandy, Beau Brummell once exclaiming from the safety of his club’s bow window that he loved to see the ordinary people pass by in the rain. The club is a sheltered world within a mass-populated one. The very word is thought to be traceable to the 17th century. Celebrated London clubs benefitted from the grand classical nature of the mostly one-time grand family houses they occupied. Every club wants to have that crucial slice of the social cake. As Bryan Ferry, who made the song The ‘In’ Crowd so famous, sang:

Farrah Fawcett leaving Tramp

“I’m in with the in crowd I go where the in crowd goes I’m in with the in crowd And I know what the in crowd know” But the song might be said to have in equal measure, irony, and sarcasm when he adds, “Looking flash, talking trash…” And yet, this is part of the whole purpose. Long-standing, even generational and loyal members might be culled to make way for the new blood. It’s as draconian as that.

TAKE ME TO BEL’S Annabel’s began in 1963 in a Mayfair basement. Historian Harry Mount writing in the Daily Telegraph, quotes celebrity interior

‘The only club that HM The Queen has visited for a cocktail’

Tramp founder, Johnny Gold celebrates his 80th birthday with Michael Caine 36 SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

designer and socialite Nicky Haslam as saying how he had been asked to cover the opening party by one Diana Vreeland for Vogue. He recalls the aristo-mantra at the time by the debutantes, “Take me to Bel’s.” It is worth remembering that Annabel’s remains the only club that HM The Queen has visited for a cocktail. It was a magnet to the stars; Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Ross, George Hamilton, Princess Diana. Everyone in the know, simply knew. “Once people had made it in London, everyone went to clubs – sportsmen, pop stars, actors. Anybody who was anybody, went to Annabel’s,” says one-time regular, property developer David Green. Jackie Branston, another habitué, recalls the ladies at Annabel’s clearly: “Women dressed like women –

NIGHTLIFE

Britt Ekland and

of attractive women as stylish, sexy, international – her date David a disastrous move by something quite unique that Morrison some establishments. has never been repeated. You And it is certainly not always went to Annabel’s first all roses for one-time and ended up at Tramp. Johnny club goer Demir Mustafa, Gold [Tramp founder] was the whose views might in perfect host.” some way chime with And it is David Green again Fuller’s. Mustafa points who remembers the cheeky to the pretentious nature signage there: “No Bird, No of certain establishments, Tramp.” That’s why the girls their emphasis on celebrity went to Morton’s to pick up – even saying pointedly fellas, to go on to Tramp. The that one (remaining regime was that you went to nameless, naturellement) Mortons, then to Tramp. is “full of people who have Art dealer and collector an overinflated view of James Birch recalls his themselves”. He describes London clubland vividly, another venue as “dark, going to Annabel’s and pretentious and unnecessary Tramp “a lot” with his – a place one goes to merely friend, Daisy Borman. Prior tell others”. to that, it was The Embassy for him, sometimes But then, an exclusive club every night, although he cites it as “a poor man’s Studio 54”. Tramp, he says, “always used to have ‘Tramp is considered might be a circus ring or a psychiatry wing at the same time. Who are the players, who is the a morose George Best sitting there, not speaking. to be one of the audience? There was always the Maître D – Guido – who most exclusive Andy Warhol certainly understood celebrity in liked to share a joke with you”. clubs in the world’ a prescient way. He understood people’s hunger Tramp regulars included, from the early days, for it, their abject need for it. Clubs were – and Peter Sellers, Joan Collins, Liza Minelli and Ringo Starr and they all had their wedding receptions there. Founded in are – ready stages for spangled performances; the manufactured 1969, it is considered to be one of the most exclusive clubs in reality more important than reality itself. When I interviewed the world. But the fact that London’s clubland was and remains him a year or so before his death, famed for his celebrity pop same and different saw a criss-crossing of its selected clientele, portraits and snaps at Studio 54 and clubland in general, of all the beautiful people, I met him in a London gallery. There were vast however loyal they might be. Embassy was started by Mark Fuller and he was vocal a queues for his autograph – scrawled on paper, proffered jeans, couple of years ago when he lampooned the greed of some of catalogues – anything. To hold celebrity or a snatch of it, is to be the London club owners who have, he told the Evening Standard, rewarded, somehow, to some. As Bryan Ferry put it in the song, “have killed our industry”. He cited free drinks and the hiring “You ain’t been nowhere till you’ve been with the in-crowd.” Rod Stewart and the Faces visiting Tramp

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SECRET HISTORY

W A L K

T H I S

Burlington Arcade, Mayfairâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most elegant shopping destination, celebrates its 200th birthday this year. Tim Newark reveals its secret history

42 SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

W A Y

B E S P O K E L A D I E S TA I L O R

House of Lady Row offers you a garment developed from the most exquisite design and made to measure in the finest tradition, offering exceptional fabric and an impeccable cut

I STARTED TAILORING when I was a little girl, stitching miniature dresses for the dolls my mum bought me. Through my teens, I drifted away from my tailoring, spending most of my time painting. I attended a top university and achieved an MA in Fine Art. After spending decades trying to make a living through my art, I started to pick up on my long forgotten joy of tailoring, and the wonderful memories I had and this became my peace. My sanctuary. I gave up on my painter’s career, realising that I was able to express myself in a truer light through my tailoring. Through my good fortune, I was introduced by a friend to some members of Savile Row who were looking for aspiring tailors. They passed on their pearls of wisdom, training me day in and day out, pushing my knowledge and perspective to another level, which allowed me to create all kinds of clothes. So this is where my fine arts background changes everything. It allows me to merge the two creative art worlds into something absolutely stunning and which hasn’t been accomplished before. My true aim is to offer something unique, a service which is able to provide coats for everyone of all shapes and sizes without losing its bespoke touch. This is the true essence of Lady Row. Choose your own fabric, with the shape of the collar and lapels, the type of lining, your own embroidery and even any topstitching.

07 7 3 7 67 2 5 41 • L A DY R OW.CO. U K • I N FO @ L A DY R OW.CO. U K $ L A D Y R O W TA I L O R I N G " @ I R I N A _ W O R G E R

SECRET HISTORY

urlington Arcade is celebrating its 200th birthday on 20th March 2019 and Savile Row is at the very heart of its enduring exclusive style, providing the uniforms for its handsomely attired security force of beadles. “Keith Levitt at Henry Poole in Savile Row is the gentleman who looks after the Queen’s Livery worn by the royal coachmen and us, designing our uniforms,” says head beadle Mark Lord. “They’re Keith’s interpretation of the uniforms of the 10th Hussars and what a footman would have worn at a stately home. It’s a cherryred waistcoat, frock coat navy blue with silver trim, trousers black and in the winter, we wear a cape of the kind that cavalry troopers would have worn.” Burlington Arcade was the ingenious idea of Lord George Cavendish, younger brother of the 5th Duke of Devonshire, and one of the first covered shopping streets in Europe. Like all aristocrats at the time they recruited their own regiments and Napoleonic War veterans of the 10th Hussars were among the earliest beadles patrolling the arcade. Their wives were encouraged to manage some of the shops. It’s said the arcade was built to stop revellers throwing empty oyster shells into the gardens of Burlington House. “There is some truth to that,” says beadle Mark Lord. “Old Bond Street was full of riotous drinking and gambling clubs where the fast food of the day was oysters from the Thames Estuary. Many of these establishments disposed of their shells by dumping them over the wall into Burlington Gardens. The smell could be terrible in the summer and one of the reasons why the arcade was built was to stop this culinary fly-tipping.” But it also appealed to the wife of Lord Cavendish as an exclusive place she could shop with her friends. Designed by architect Samuel Ware, Lady Cavendish is believed to have had some input into how the arcade looked, demanding variations in the frontages

of the original 72 shops. “She didn’t want steps either,” says Lord, “which is why the arcade is on a slope – a nine-foot incline from Piccadilly to Burlington Gardens”. It turned out to be an excellent investment too, attracting a fashionable elite of shoppers throughout its first decades in Regency and Victorian London. Other arcades in Mayfair followed in its wake, including the nearby Piccadilly, Princes and Royal Arcades, all elegant places to visit but Burlington remains the premiere historic shopping mall in London. When the arcade first opened the tenants lived above and beneath their shops. Kitchens were in the basement, storerooms and bedrooms on first and second floors. Most shops are just nine feet deep.

DID YOU KNOW?... • All early traders in the arcade were referred to as “Madame”, regardless of their sex, perhaps because many of the bonnet and dress shops were aimed at female customers. • The original cost of building the arcade and its shop units was £30,000 with the first rents totalling around £3,200 per annum. • One famous robbery in 1964 involved a Jaguar Mark X that broke through gates into a shop to steal £35,000 of jewellery. The thieves were never caught but the car had been stolen from a doctor in south London. He kept the car and press cuttings of the robbery, and in his will left the newspaper reports to the arcade. • The recent new flooring incorporates stone from Burlington Quarry, which was originally owned by William Cavendish in the 19th century, a relative of Lord George Cavendish who built the arcade.

SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

SECRET HISTORY

DARK SECRETS

BURLINGTON ARCADE: KEY DATES

These tunnels partially survive now and Mark Lord took me to see one section. Stepping down the tight staircase from the 1819 Burlington Arcade opens showroom, we were suddenly back two centuries, walking on the 1871 Fire causes extensive damage with some original flagstones beside an iron kitchen range and peering out shops being gutted the basement bowed window into the gloom of the subterranean 1911 Piccadilly front altered to include an upper delivery passageway. It was then that I was told the other dark storey containing offices secrets of Burlington Arcade. 1926 Descendant of Lord George Cavendish sells Customers were not allowed to carry large parcels inside the freehold of the arcade arcade. Anything more cumbersome than a small discreet purchase 1931 Piccadilly front has triple arches removed could not be taken directly out of the shop. It had to be brought to and entrance widened to street you and that came via one of the arcade’s great secrets. 1937 Burlington Gardens entrance gets new front Beneath the main walkway on both sides of the arcade were also removing columns underground passageways that ran the entire length. Boy and girls 1940 Wartime bombing destroys north part of arcade would run along these underground passages to bring the parcels to 1954 Restored arcade reopened your servants at the entrance of the arcade or take them all the way 2015 New floor unveiled in arcade featuring to your London address. “It has always mirrored the prosperity of the intricate pattern of British stone city,” explains Lord. “If London’s booming, the arcade is booming, 2019 Bicentennial celebrations but when recession hits as it did in the past, some shopkeepers looked at the rooms above their shops for an alternative income.” Female and male prostitutes would not do anything as crass as directly solicit among the shoppers in the arcade but there was a definite system of attracting clients. “Sometimes during the summer, they would lean out from the top windows making a clicking noise to interest passers-by,” reveals Lord. “A client would walk into the shop to make a purchase, take it upstairs to present it as a gift for the time of the lady or gentleman they desired and then they would sell it back to the shop to get their money. On other occasions they might hang a stocking from the upper windows.” The most infamous sexual entrepreneur was one Madame Parsons who had lived her entire adult life as a woman. She died in her bonnet shop in Burlington Arcade and when a doctor arrived to process the death certificate she was identified as a man. in Savile Row. Other rules still applied include no running in In Victorian London homosexuality was illegal but the police the arcade, no bringing in an open umbrella, no bicycles, no would turn a blind eye if one of the parties dressed as a woman. playing musical instruments. “You are not allowed to show In that way, homosexual couples could see each other. There was merriment,” says Lord, “which is a polite way of a notorious beadle, George Smith, who got the drunkenness”. sack for allowing these activities. “The beadle that Today Burlington saying Today Burlington Arcade attracts over four gave us eternal shame,” sighs Lord. Arcade attracts million visitors a year. In May 2018 it was bought by A beadle for 16 years in Burlington Arcade, Mark property tycoons Simon and David Reuben for £300 Lord is joined by four others during the week. over four million, who no doubt will only want to enhance the “Technically the Metropolitan Police should ask million visitors reputation of the arcade for top-end shopping. permission to come through the arcade,” he says. every year “For 75 years N.Peal has been selling cashmere “We’re not a real police force but we do enforce and other luxury fashion,” says Lord. “Jewellers rules and regulations based around behaviour. Richard Ogden have been here since 1952, when the upper part You’re not supposed to whistle in the arcade as when it first of the arcade had just been rebuilt after bomb damage in the opened there were criminal gangs of boys around who would Second World War. His son Robert Ogden has been coming whistle signals to alert each other.” here all his life. When a shop comes here, they tend to stay.” Famously one of the exceptions to the rule is Sir Paul A previous trader at the Ogden premises was the infamous McCartney who once had his Apple Company around the corner Madame Parsons. Famous shoppers range from Fred Astaire and President Clinton to Naomi Campbell and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has a particular passion for the arcade’s shoe shops. Like everywhere else, multinationals such as La Perla, Chanel and Mulberry have also moved in alongside the independents. Burlington Arcade is also not just about shopping. Many nearby business people find it a quiet oasis off Piccadilly where they can have a relaxing 10 minutes having their shoes polished by long-time resident shoe shiner Romi Topi. Burlington Arcade looks perfectly set to entertain London visitors for at least another 200 years. Tim Newark is a historian and journalist and author of The In & Out: A history of the Naval and Military Club 46 SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

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WATCHMAKING

THE TEST OF

TIME

The allure of high-complication hand-crafted timepieces simply can’t be beaten – and yes, they’ll even outlive the Apple Watch too. Hazel Plush reveals why

TIME PIECE

n an idyllic Swiss village not far from the Rhone River, there’s ROLEX a small miracle in progress. Rolex is the only watchmaker Dressed in white coats, hovering in the world to have its over microscopes, and sealed very own gold foundry, from the outside world in which produces the their airlocked laboratory, this purest 18ct gold alloys team of men and women look for all of its watches. like scientists at first glance – Located in Plan-lesbut they’re engineers, artists, Ouates, Switzerland, craftsmen, gemologists. Working the foundry creates yellow to miniscule scales, they are creating gold, white gold and Everose some of the finest, most complicated gold – a bespoke pink gold alloy watches on earth – timepieces that developed in-house by Rolex. will fetch hundreds of thousands of pounds, maybe more. They’re the masters of watchmaking; creating the next If you wanted precision, you were generation of chronographs – miraculous, better off with a pendulum clock. But a yes, but the real wonder is that they’re small band of talented engineers were here at all. Because, if common sense had making strides. Swiss-born Abraham-Louis Perrelet led prevailed, their work would be obsolete. the effort, inventing in Ask any horologist 1777 the self-winding who invented the first ‘Over the next 125 mechanism – powered mechanical watch, and by the movement of the you’ll never get a straight years, portable answer: The history timepieces became the watch wearer, rather than a hand-wound books are muddied with hallmark of the elite’ spring. “Just 15 minutes conjecture, but one thing of movement is needed remains certain: The 1770s were landmark years for the craft. to power it for eight days,” claimed a Hitherto, portable timepieces – hand- report by the Société des Arts in Geneva. wound, and powered by a mainspring – Revolution indeed. Other watchmakers, had been heavy, temperamental, inexact. including Hubert Sarton and AbrahamLouis Breguet, forged ahead with their own designs – and development of the self-winding mechanism spread VACHERON CONSTANTIN through Europe. It wasn’t perfect, but it The striking, angular Maltese Cross is was progress. the hallmark of Vacheron Constantin Over the next 125 years, portable – the world’s oldest continuous timepieces became the hallmark of watchmaker. The design was the elite. Men favoured actually inspired by the shape of a pocket watches, while rate-stabilising movement inside wristwatches were its most complicated more fashionable for timepieces. With its women – marketed as infinite rotational bracelets, and often adorned symmetry, this with diamonds, precious gems, and insignia was said intricate hand-painted designs. to symbolise However, few new patents were filed the brand’s during this time: Watches grew in unerring quest opulence, but not in accuracy. for precision. But a watershed moment came in SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

TIME PIECE

BREMONT Famed for its exclusive aviation-inspired chronographs, this British-based watchmaker also produces bespoke timepieces for elite military personnel. Each watch design is linked to a particular military unit, warship or aircraft, and can only be purchased by those who have completed service in the corresponding force. 1904, after Brazilian aviator Alberto SantosDumont complained to Louis Cartier that it was tricky to check his pocket watch while airborne: He needed both hands for flying. Cartier created a practical, flat, wrist worn design with a leather strap – the “Santos de Cartier” – and the pilot watch was born.

CHANGING FASHIONS During the First World War, the idea really caught on. Service wristwatches were issued, designed to withstand trench warfare with their reinforced glass faces and luminous dials. Military pilots relied on their timepieces just as Santos-Dumont had, with extended leather straps to fit over their flying jackets. In 1917, the Horological Journal reported that “the wristlet watch was little used by the sterner sex before the war, but now is seen on the wrist of nearly every man in uniform and of many men in civilian attire”. Fashions were changing, and the Second World War brought an even more pressing need for accurate, durable designs: A far cry from the frivolous diamond-clad wristwatches of the 1800s. Innovation boomed. The village of Plan-les-Ouates, near Geneva, had become a hub for high-end watchmakers: The likes of Rolex, Vacheron Constantin and

JAEGER-LECOULTRE Jaeger-LeCoultre designed one of its signature high-complication Reverso timepieces for King Edward III, to celebrate his delayed coronation in 1937. It was hand-engraved with his name, coronation date and a magnificent crown – however he abdicated six months before the ceremony, so the watch was never presented to him.

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BREITLING American astronaut Scott Carpenter wore his Breitling 24-hour Navitimer on a space mission in 1962, making it the first Swiss wristwatch to go into orbit. However, though it withstood the rigours of space travel, it wasn’t waterproof – so it was damaged when the team landed in the Atlantic. Today’s Navitimers are water resistant.

Piaget developed workshops there, and the post-war years saw them busier than ever. Not content with merely keeping the most accurate time, watchmakers turned their attentions to more specialised functions, or “complications”. They included “perpetual calendars” to keep track of the date, “minute repeaters” to chime the time, altimeters, lunar calendars and auxiliary dials – to name but a few. The “tourbillon”, a mechanism to improve the timekeeping accuracy, was perhaps the most prestigious advancement – only available in the most expensive of watches. Some watches were powered by the new generation of self-winding mechanisms; others were simply still cranked by hand.

EVERYTHING CHANGES The watch became, once again, a symbol of status and wealth, marketed to buyers all over the world with celebrity endorsements and sponsorships galore. Steve McQueen sported the TAG Heuer Monaco, while Paul Newman chose the Rolex Daytona. Elvis

wore a Hamilton Ventura, while Miles Davis wore a Breitling Navitimer. Watches were a fashion statement, too: Andy Warhol was rarely without his 18ct gold Cartier Tank. But then came quartz – and everything changed. Receiving power from a battery, with hands controlled by a circuit board rather than a mainspring, wristwatches had never been more accurate or lightweight. Analogue quartz watches were first toted at Geneva’s Baselworld watch fair in the early 1970s – but it was their digital counterparts (with LCD faces and no moving parts) that really caused a stir. Quartz timepieces, quickly became the new status symbol: Why rely on ancient craftsmanship, when you could wear the future on your wrist? In the 1970s, there had been over 1,600 watchmakers in Switzerland; by the mid1980s, there were fewer than 600. The end was surely nigh for Europe’s luxury timepieces. Rolex and Blancpain persevered with hand-crafted movements – the latter spurning quartz completely. In 1980, Patek Philippe began designing a new exclusively mechanical pocket watch to mark its 150th anniversary in 1989 – though nobody was sure if it would ever make production. Gradually, auction houses noted a slight trend for vintage mechanical watches. Now that they were almost obsolete, they’d become a nostalgic indulgence – and perhaps their impending rarity might increase their value? By the mid-1980s, the prestige, rarity and craftsmanship of high-end mechanicals had weathered the quartz crisis. Patek Philippe’s anniversary Calibre 89 – completed, finally, in 1989 – sold at auction for $3.1 million. In spring 1990, Swiss watch exports totaled $1.5 billion. The rest is history. In Geneva, where the world’s finest watchmakers showcase their new designs, to see that the market for high-calibre, highly complicated timepieces is more buoyant than ever – even with the rise of wrist-worn computers, such as the Apple Watch. Yes, based on their primary function, mechanical watches are obsolete. We no longer need them to tell us the time. But we do want them: To remind us of the power of the human brain and hands, perhaps, or the joy of an exquisitely-engineered movement. The mass-production line is, quite simply, no match for handcrafted perfection: Some things really do stand the test of time.

MARCH 21 ï&#x161;» 26 W W W. B AS E LW O R L D . C O M

ARCHITECTURE

The architects of Savile Row parallel the master tailors who now occupy the address, says Neil Carr. Both lead skilled teams fulfilling the bespoke needs of customers

n his celebrated architectural guide to London, architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner describes Mayfair as “the epitome of London wealth, sometimes rivalled in fashion but never entirely surpassed”. It is indeed an area of superlatives. Along with St James’, its slightly older sibling, it has more listed buildings than anywhere in the capital, including 19 Grade I. It displays among the most diverse array of building styles anywhere in Westminster. According to one recent report, it has overtaken Knightsbridge as London’s most expensive area and houses some of its most important cultural, economic and academic institutions. Savile Row is emblematic of this cultural prominence; a street so synonymous with one singular activity that even the most callow youth seeking his first bespoke suit knows exactly where to go. But it is not only for its connections with bespoke tailoring that Savile Row is valued. The quality of its architecture is recognised as being of national importance; reflected in statutory designations. The entire area falls within a conservation area and, within the Westminster City Plan, Savile Row has been designated a Special Policy Area, specifically to protect and promote the unique combination of buildings and activities with which it is associated. But at the core of this architectural and historic value are the seven listed buildings between Nos. 1-17 on the east of the Row, which form the remnants of its original development.

HUGELY INFLUENTIAL

As part of the wider Burlington Estate developed St. James House, SW1 by the architect and patron Lord Burlington as a room David Livingstone was laid before manifesto for the principles of the restrained neobeing buried in Westminster Abbey. Livingstone was Palladian design he espoused, Savile Row contained several buildings, including those at No. 1 and Nos. 22-23 (now dressed by Gieves; Stanley by Poole. Not strictly on the Row but forming part of its architectural demolished) believed either to be designed by him or directly influenced. Wealthy, aristocratic, an acknowledged arbiter of context is the grand Grade II*-listed Uxbridge House, originally taste, Burlington was hugely influential and used his power and a townhouse from 1721 by Leoni in the neo-classical style, now patronage to promote this neo-Palladian style in Britain. Indeed, housing instead the very youthful Abercrombie and Fitch. On Burlington Gardens are the stately edifices of the Royal he influenced the direction of British architecture. The Palladian style was founded on the architectural principles of Italian Academy of Arts (1806-7) by James Pennethorne designed in architect Andrea Palladio. Such was Burlington’s impact that the an “enriched Palladian” style. Pennethorne also worked on marks of this neo-Palladian style have been stamped on the DNA Buckingham Palace and Somerset House but contemporaries of British architecture. This has been exported around the world described this as his “most complete and successful design”. The and directly or indirectly continues to influence the design of Albany (1802-3) is by Henry Holland, who also designed Brooks in St. James with the double-fronted neo-Palladian gateway to contemporary British architecture. Of the remaining “Burlingtonian” buildings the Grade II* listed Ropewalk between. Finally, a run down the glittering luge of No.14 is the best preserved. Pevsner notes of Nos. 11-14 that “though Samuel Ware’s 1818-19 Burlington Arcade has to be a must. The architectural quality of Savile Row is not limited to its Burlington’s control is unproven, their proportions show a general affinity with Palladianism”. No. 15, occupied by Henry Poole, listed fabric. A number of 20th century buildings are singled out was “rebuilt or refronted in ‘eclectic-Italianate’ perhaps for the by Pevsner as worthy of note, including the compact stone in Savile Club”. No. 11, occupied by Huntsman, is also Grade II*. the neo-classical style from 1927 occupied by Oswald Boeteng. No. 3 Savile Row, once the headquarters of the Beatles Apple Corp More contemporary buildings also make their mark. EPR is also listed II* and contains distinctive architectural interiors. Architects’ bold collaboration with ceramic artist Kate Malone Gieves & Hawkes at No. 1 occupies the former headquarters of at No. 24, embodying a blend of artisan craftsmanship with crisp the Royal Geographical Society in whose magnificent listed map architectural detail, forms a shimmering new gateway from 52 SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

‘Bespoke architecture is all about details and care of both the building and the client’

HANDCRAFTED DREAMS Conduit Street which echoes the glitter of Burlington Arcade. Also of note is Piercy and Company’s award winning contemporary intervention at No. 25. Opposite, world renowned architect Eric Parry’s redevelopment of Fortress House “navigates a deft course between the modern and the conservative classical”.

SKILLED CRAFTSMEN

Burlington’s legacy has been much altered by the very trade with which the area has become synonymous as tailors transformed the original domestic facades, inserting large 20th century glazed windows at ground floor and basement, literally tailored to their particular needs. Indeed, the sight of skilled craftsmen working in the windows of Savile Row is one of the unique joys of any stroll down it. Yet this is not the only pleasure. Many shop interiors on the Row are worth inspection on their own merits not least for the way the interiors have been tailored to their client’s needs. Richard James at No. 28 is worth a visit, as is Teresa Hastings’ million-pound refit at Gieves and Hawkes, which superbly navigates the demands of reworking a listed building. Any intervention into the fabric of a listed building is always going to be a challenge.

Marco Braghiroli of Prestige, an award winning architect with considerable experience working with protected buildings in Mayfair and St James, says: “Working with listed buildings requires particular care and sensitivity. Bespoke architecture is all about details and care of both the building and the client.” Braghiroli likes to think of an architect’s skills as paralleling those of a master tailor. Both are concerned with proportion, balance as well as performance and comfort. “In one sense our clothes are the architecture we carry around with us. Like the buildings we live in, they protect us from the elements, keep us warm, project our personal style,” he says. But Braghiroli thinks that the parallels with tailoring go further. “Like an architect, the master tailor brings together the talents and skills of a team of specialists, artisans and suppliers.” he continues. But the biggest parallel he believes is in the relationship with the client; delivering something unique and particular to their individual tastes, constructed to their specific requirements, tailored to their unique specifications. That is, after all, the very essence of bespoke. SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

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BRING ON THE

PRANCING HORSES

Classic Ferrari dealership Talacrest offers what have been called the most beautiful cars ever made. Superdealer John Collins gives SRS a tour of his fabled showroom

56 SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

ohn Collins can remember the moment he became infatuated with cars. He was just a toddler on a bus in Glasgow cradled in his mother’s arms when he lost the Dinky model car she had just bought him. He wailed so much they had to go back to the shop to buy another. Jump forward and Collins’s dealership Talacrest he has sold more than 1,800 cars worth in excess of $1 billion. Collins sells cars priced from anything between £250,000 and into the millions, driven by demand from the Far East, the Middle East, Switzerland and the US. His Ascot-based dealership Talacrest was awarded a Queens Award for International Trade in 2016 for earning £59 million in overseas sales the previous year. In 2018 Talacrest celebrated 30 years in business. Not bad for a dealership that only employs three people. Collins, a laconic Scot, has not always been

the Ferrari superdealer. He grew up on a council estate and left school at the age of 15, before managing to get a job on the Scottish Daily Express “as a teaboy” before becoming its youngest-ever trainee reporter. This led to a successful stint as a photojournalist, travelling on assignments around the world for Paris Match and Stern. His reportage included everything from Grace Kelly’s death in Monaco to seal culling in the North Sea and covering John Paul II during his papal visit to Ireland. Collins got himself into such a good vantage point that priests were passing their cameras up to him to snap a photo of the Pope. He bought his first Ferrari – a Dino 426 GT – in 1977 for £7,000, which cost him nearly two thirds of his annual salary. Today, that same car is worth around £350,000. Collins then moved to America and worked for American scandal sheet National Enquirer,

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TALACREST’S 5 BIGGEST SALES

Talacrest owner John Collins gives his rundown of the rarest, and most lucrative, Ferraris to have passed through his hands FERRARI 250 GTO SERIES 1 The GTO was the final evolution of Ferrari’s 250 series, which began in 1963 and ended when the final GTO was built in 1964. Between 1963 and 1964, just 36 examples of this racing Ferrari were built – and extraordinarily every single one exists today. One Ferrari 250 GTO was sold recently for $70 million in a private sale. Nick Mason, drummer with Pink Floyd, is an enthusiast who owns a Series 1 model.

John Collins

where he covered Eighties icons including Joan Collins during her Dynasty years and the casts of Dallas and Miami Vice. “Not blowing my own trumpet but I was one of the best in the world. They paid me stupid money, six figures a year,” he says. A friend gave Collins a duff share tip and he lost everything in the 1987 stock market crash. Even worse, he had just turned down a job as editor of National Enquirer which would have paid nearly a million pounds a year in today’s money.

LIGHTBULB MOMENT

On his uppers, Collins had to sell his beloved Ferrari to a dealer for £41,000, only to find out it was back on sale the very next day for a whopping £70,000. That was his lightbulb moment. “I thought, if you can do it, I can do it,” he says. In January 1988 he raised £350,000 from friends and used the money to put 10 percent deposits on £3 million worth of cars, telling dealers he would settle the outstanding balance in six months’ time when he came into an inheritance. Amazingly, the dealers played ball. Ferrari 250 SWB

FERRARI 250 GTO SERIES II Three additional GTOs were built in 1964 with an updates Series II. This even-rarer model of the GTO was tweaked with an updated body with wider fenders, a recessed backlight and flying buttress sail panels. The 3.0-litre V12 engine claims a top speed of 174mph. Radio presenter Chris Evans – a Talacrest customer and Ferrari enthusiast – bought this model for a rumoured £15 million. 330LMB The 330LMB was created to compete in the famous Le Mans 24-hour endurance race and the model made a brief, one-off appearance at the 1963 event. Just four Ferrari 330 Le Mans Berlinetta (LMB) were ever built. Equipped with a 4.0-litre V12 engine that was found in the 1962 Le Mans-winning 330 TRI, it is both rarer and more technologically advanced than the hallowed GTO. This was at a time when racing cars where changing from having engines at the front to the back, and so this last front-engined racing Ferrari adds to its scarcity value. 250 GT SWB CALIFORNIA SPIDER The SWB stands for “Short Wheel Base” and Ferrari made just 56 examples of what Chris Evans has called “the most beautiful car ever created”. This 1961 model was built with a 3.0-litre V12 engine offering 280 horsepower. 250 SWB SEFAC HOT ROD The Ferrari racing team was called SEFAC in 1961. Its Italian engineers upgraded a handful of is 250 SWB competition cars for the 1961 racing season, outpacing anything rivals Aston Martin or Jaguar could offer. Only between eight and 20 SEFAC Hot Rods were ever produced. On the track, these cars racked up considerable wins including a first in class at the 1961 LeMans as well as outright victories in the 1961 Targa Florio and RAC Tourist Trophy.

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Ferrari 2330 LMB

Originally it was to be a unit trust with Collins attributes everybody buying a thousand pound share in a his success to acting like car, but the Financial Services Act meant that he couldn’t advertise the scheme. Collins was a collector – which he forced to advertise all 12 cars for sale – making is, having personally so £500,000 profit in the six months before he many Ferraris himself had to pay them off. Dealers rang him up outraged at his chutzpah, selling cars which were still on their forecourt. He drily advised them to check with their lawyers, which they did and found out that he was entirely within his rights. What is it about Ferrari in particular that so enamours him? Collins chuckles and says it was the red Dino 426 GT that Tony Curtis drove in Seventies TV series The Persuaders. “The other guy, Roger Moore, drove an Aston Martin but I didn’t like that,” he says. In its first year, Talacrest turned over around £12 million, then £30 million the next. Collins attributes his success to acting like a collector – which he is, having personally so many Ferraris himself – and only buying what he loves. He buys with his heart first and foremost, which is why some Asian clients buy off him sight unseen.

The Talacrest showroom has around 10 cars for sale at any one time. The most expensive car Collins ever sold was a £30 million classic Ferrari. Indeed, Ferrari engineers used to come over to England and genuflect at what is, after all, an altar to their artistry and engineering. Classic Ferraris are probably one of the best performing

ROCKSTAR CUSTOMERS

The Scot says he is not about the hard sell, which is why some of his customers have stuck by him for 30 years. It is said that Collins has one of the best Rolodexes in the world, with clients including the Sultan of Brunei. Celebrity buyers include radio and former Top Gear presenter Chris Evans, rock stars Chris Rea and Mark Knopfler and Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason. Yes, but why Ferraris and not an equally iconic Porsche or a sexy Lamborghini? Collins says: “There are so many Porsches and they all look the same. A classic 911 looks like new ones you buy today. As for Lamborghinis, I never really liked them. For me, Ferrari is the best brand in the world. I love all Ferraris, even the new ones – what’s not to love?” 58 SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

John Collins in his Talacrest showroom

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N NEXT O I T A C O PRIME L LLEY STATION VA TO THE TERHORN «MAT DISE» A R A P R GLACIE

1962 Ferrari 250 GTO by Scaglietti

FAST AS....

investments you can make, assuming you have of the speculators, he says, as opposed to the true enthusiasts. Collins still goes to auctions or people approach him and sell a spare few hundred thousand in your pocket. To illustrate, Collins says that a 250 GTO that he bought for an privately. “I’ve been quite lucky at auctions with cars that have eyewatering £2 million in 1994 is worth an astonishing £45 million slipped through the net,” he says. One case in point being a today. Two years later he sold a California Spider for £750,000 Disney 14 Louvre 250 TDF that he bought for $6.7 million and sold it within one day at a higher price. that today is worth £12 million. “It’s one Some of the best and rarest Ferraris in of the most beautiful cars ever built,” he Like children, Collins is hard the world have passed through his hands, says dreamily. “You can’t make that kind pushed to pick a favourite including – for the petrolheads among of money on many other things.” you – most of the P-cars, including the So, what would Collins say to a of the cars he has sold, but P3, P4; the 410 Superamerica; 250 GTO; SRS reader thinking of buying a first he does have a soft spot for and the 330 LMB – the rarest Ferrari classic car? the 250 California Spider ever made. “It depends on the individual. Buy Like children, Collins is hard pushed something that you love,” says Collins. “That’s the beauty of Ferraris. When buyers come here, I take them to pick a favourite of the cars he has sold, but he does have a through the car’s history and also how they want to use it. Do they soft spot for the 250 California Spider. He points out that the sheer amount of cash needed to have want to race or go on casual tours or even just Sunday driving? I the number of classic Ferraris he once had in his showroom would want to sell to people who love the cars, not speculators.” Classic Ferraris dipped in value in the wake of the Brexit vote in be impossible today, now that a GTO costs up to £70 million. “Nobody will ever eclipse what I’ve achieved,” Collins says with June 2016 but Collins claims it was overheated anyway. At one point prices quadrupled within two years. “The market rose too quickly some satisfaction. “You couldn’t afford the stock I had back in and went too high,” he says. The price correction also weeded out the Nineties.”

WHY I LOVE DRIVING MY FERRARI Josh Cartu explains his passion for owning and driving his supercar I am a Ferrari driver. I could talk about a poster I was given as a child by one of my father’s dearest friends… the way my hair stood up the first time I saw one or the way my heart began to race as I heard one approaching … or how time stood still as one blew past me and I was able to picture it afterwards as if it was frozen in time. To pick apart what makes Ferrari so special is for me, almost heresy. What I love most about Ferrari today has very little to do with what began as an early obsession when I was young. Today, it’s about cherished friendships, unity and team spirit, doing things together and all the ties that bind Ferrari owners together. What do all Ferrari owners have in common beyond driving the same car? Passion, of course. Some of us are collectors, some of us are drivers, some of us crave to see the next F1 race. The cars are so exclusive, elusive and special yet the community is so large and so connected. Ferrari is something that gets under your skin over time, it becomes a part of who you are and something you love to the point of wanting to protect it. Owning a car like this is not a rational decision, it’s an emotional one. Seventy years later, this little company against all odds seems to have sussed out the formula for passion, emotion, and winning the hearts and minds of most as the greatest supercar marque in history. You see, what Ferrari understands is that while winning races is very important, the most important thing to win is love. Josh Cartu is president of the Ferrari Owners Club

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C H U L O Spain’s capital, Madrid is taking its rightful place among Europe’s most exciting city break destinations. Sarah Gordon gives an insider’s guide

MUSEO NACIONAL DEL PRADO

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or culinary prowess that brings you to rnest Hemingway summed up the this city, Madrid won’t disappoint. And Spanish capital quite accurately with new boutiques, eateries and ultrawhen he said: “To go to bed at stylish bars opening every week, Spain’s night in Madrid marks you as a underrated capital is taking its rightful little queer.” place among Europe’s most exciting city After all, this is a city where dinner break destinations. doesn’t start until 10pm, where cosy bars are found on every corner and where and fried doughnut-style churros and WHERE TO STAY chocolate are served as breakfast to those For a city that never sleeps, Madrid returning from a night out at 6am. certainly has plenty of hotel options, Barcelona may be famed for its Gaudi offering everything from old-world architecture and beach style, but Madrid elegance to trend-setting style. The Gran is known as the true Hotel Inglés is the city of Spaniards, city’s newest luxury ‘Whether it is elegant where lively locals hotel… and also its love nothing more architecture, a love of art oldest. It went into than meeting in or culinary prowess that business in 1886, plazas for a caña welcoming the great brings you to this city, (small beer), where and the good from Madrid won’t disappoint’ writers to bullfighters, all conversations happen 10 decibels and has just reopened louder than necessary and where, as its doors following an extensive revamp. Hemingway noted: “Appointments with With Art Deco touches, a sleek spa and an a friend are habitually made for after oh-so-chic cocktail bar it is once again the midnight at the café.” place to see and be seen. Perhaps it was this laid-back love of Chueca is at the heart of Madrid’s life that attracted the writers trendy bar and restaurant scene and of Spain’s Golden Age to the its most stylish address is the Only smoky tapas bars of what is You boutique hotel in a 19th century now known as the Barrio mansion. Set around a glamorous de las Letras, or District of mirrored courtyard, the hotel unfolds to Letters. Miguel de Cervantes, reveal a library, all navy blue tones and Lope de Vega and Francisco Chesterfield sofas, and a low lit lounge de Quevedo all frequented bar where you can enjoy a fino nightcap this neighbourhood, which with the city’s fashionable set. is still famous as an artistic In January, another glamorous hotel hub thanks to Madrid’s three opens its doors. Bless Hotel in the spectacular art galleries: refined Salamanca district will have all The Prado, Thyssen and the requisites of a modern luxury hotel; Reina Sofia. a rooftop pool, spa and a restaurant by Whether it is elegant 10 Michelin-star Basque chef Martín GRAN HOTEL architecture, a love of art, Berasategui. SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

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and a tasting menu served in surroundings of pared-down elegance. From the exclusive brands that line the FACT BOX Beyond Michelin-star style, there are so many Serrano street in the Salamanca district to the wonderful eateries to choose from. Botin is Chueca-based fashion brand Ecoalf, creating For more information in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest fashion pieces from recycled plastic (Queen Sofia on what’s happening in restaurant in the world, having opened in 1725 is a fan), Madrid promises style at every turn. It Madrid, visit esmadrid. (and yes, Hemingway had his own table here), is also where you can find those specialised com/en. British Airways and Bodega de los Secretos serves contemporary boutiques lost long ago in many other cities. (ba.com) offers several cuisine to tables set in the alcoves of a Casa de Diego has been around for more than daily flights from London 17th century wine cellar. 150 years and sells and repairs everything from airports to Madrid from canes and umbrellas to castanets, but it is most £34 each way. Double famous for its beautiful handmade fans, while rooms at the Only You AN ARTISTIC HUB family-run Casa Hernanz has been selling Spain’s hotel (onlyyouhotels. Madrid is known as an arts city, helped in no iconic espadrille shoes since 1840. com) from £170 per small part by centuries of Spanish royals and Spanish tailors have often been overlooked in night, the Gran Hotel aristocrats buying works of art to decorate their favour of their European counterparts, but they Inglés (granhotelingles. many palaces. The grand Prado museum first offer great detailing and extremely good value for com) has doubles from featured works of art from royal collections money, with a tailored suit often starting from £240 and Bless Hotel and is now home to the Spanish masters Goya 1,800-2,500 euros (£1,600-£2,200). Try three of the (blesscollectionhotels.com) and Velázquez, as well as works from all over leading tailors; Reillo Sastre, Langa and Manuel offers doubles from £220. Europe. The Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, featuring Calvo de Mora. 20th century masterpieces, and the eclectic Beyond its sartorial credentials, Madrid offers a Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza complete the city’s delightful mix of other speciality shops, from the wine emporium spectacular artistic trio. that is Lavinia – complete with its own gastro bar – to the olive oils But Madrid’s artistic pedigree runs deeper still. The Caixa of Patrimonio Olivarero and cheese specialist Queseria Cultivo. Forum hosts everything from contemporary art exhibitions to poetry readings and festivals, the Museo Sorolla is dedicated to the beautiful Mediterranean light painted by Joaquín Sorolla, DINING IN STYLE and the elegant Real Academia de Bellas Artes is an impressive Madrid may be famed for its tapas bars, offering delicious jamon Old Masters gallery. iberico and crispy croquetas, but its food scene has undergone a Madrid is also an architectural delight, its wide boulevards sea-change in recent years. You can still enjoy tapas dishes at packed with Baroque grandeur (just take a stroll down Gran Via). traditional spots such as historic Bodega de la Ardosa and the The vast Plaza Mayor is lined with ochre-coloured buildings, bustling San Miguel market right by the Plaza Mayor, but you are the 18th century Palacio Real is well worth a visit and bullring also spoilt for choice when it comes to fine dining. Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas is still in use. Add in genteel El Retiro, With 21 Michelin stars in total, Madrid attracts the nation’s the landscaped park and gardens in the centre of the city, and the greatest chefs. David Muñoz’s DiverXO has three stars for its artistic huge Casa de Campo park just beyond the palace, and you can see menu and ambience, which he describes as similar to Cirque du why Madrid is considered such a liveable city. Soleil, while Ramón Freixa’s self-named restaurant has two stars 68 SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

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One of the cities with the highest density of bars in the world, Madrid will certainly spoil you when it comes to evenings out. And there is something for everyone, from Hemingway’s favourite haunt Cerveceria Alemana, where little has changed since it opened in 1904, to the palatial glamour of 1862 Dry Bar, set in a grand 19th century townhouse. If it is tradition you want, the city still delights in classic bodega bars, often with a history stretching back more than a century. Dusty bottles line the walls at understated La Venencia (another Hemingway favourite), while Taberna de Angel Sierra is a delight of traditional coloured tiles and wood panelling and is perfect for a pre-dinner vermut (vermouth). Viva Madrid first opened in 1856 and has been given a new lease of life as a cocktail bar and traditional tavern in one by Argentinian mixologist Diego Cabrera, while the Spanish have their own take on the gin and tonic, serving it in grand goblets, at the aptly named Gin Club. Don’t miss Madrid’s many rooftop bars, perfect for enjoying great views and the warm evenings from spring to autumn. Gingko Sky Bar has just opened on the roof of the VP Plaza España Hotel, while The Roof at ME, atop the Melia Reina Victoria hotel, is an exclusive spot with signature cocktails and a DJ.

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Seven doyens of Savile Row, renowned for their sense of touch, tell us what their favourite men’s fragrances are... Alexander Lewis, Norton & Sons I have a very strong nose and it’s something I think carefully about. I wouldn’t go so far to say I’m a “nose” but I am very attuned to smells. I wear Lumière Blanche from Olfactive Studio, which works with different photographers. This particular one was a collaboration with Massimo Vitali. The top notes include cardamom and cinnamon with heart notes of almond milk and cashmere wood, with base notes of cedarwood, sandalwood and Tonka bean. I’ve been wearing it for a year and a half. I mix it with other fragrances such as a new fragrance from Diptyque and Escentric Molecules 01. I spray one on top of the other. www.olfactivestudio.com

Kathryn Sargent, Kathryn Sargent Tender by Miller Harris is my favourite male fragrance because of how unique it is; it is light, floral and leathery paired with the interesting note of ink which creates a really interesting and sophisticated smell. Harris created this fragrance in response to Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald. One of my first clients introduced me to the scent and it often brings back memories of when I first set up my tailoring company. www.millerharris.com 72 SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

Campbell Carey, Huntsman I travel often for trunk shows, so when in warmer climates I wear the Assam and Grapefruit scent from Huntsman’s Jo Malone collection. Whilst away, I prefer my fragrance to be light and invigorating. This scent is incredibly fresh with notes of maté and patchouli, so it’s the perfect summer or holiday fragrance. I’m currently wearing the Whisky and Cedarwood scent by Huntsman and Jo Malone. I love the dark, spicy notes of whiskey paired with the warm, wintery scent of cedarwood – they complement each other perfectly. It’s a great fragrance for the changing seasons – it makes me very excited for the wood burning fire to be lit at Huntsman. www.huntsmansavilerow.com

FRAGRANCES

Simon Glendenning, Dugdale Bros When it comes to my favourite cologne, I always opt for one that complements the season. That’s why in the autumn and winter months, you’ll find me reaching for a scent I’ve used for over 20 years, Czech & Speake’s bergamot-inspired No. 88. The invigorating smell of vetiver and sandalwood makes it rich, masculine and for some reason redolent of Christmas – all at the same time. However, in the spring and summer seasons, I prefer to use Creed’s Original Vetiver – my wife once bought me this as a birthday gift, and its light and earthy aroma of musk and mandarin has made it a favourite ever since. www.czechandspeake.com

Dominic Sebag-Montefiore, Edward Sexton I came across French Leather fairly recently. The brand was introduced to me by a client who’s a connoisseur and I wanted something that was disconnected and I really like Santal by Le Labo but I do find it a little bit everywhere. I wanted something a bit different. I went into Les Senteurs in Elizabeth street and they introduced me to French Leather. Previously I’ve worn vetiver and patchouli but I find vetiver a bit grassy and I find patchouli a bit strong but they’re in there with frankincense and juniper. I wanted something a bit heavy, a bit deep for winter, but the vetiver lifts it and it’s lovely and complex but still lasts beautifully. It’s a lovely scent. www.lessenteurs.com

Simon Cundey, Henry Poole Acqua di Parma is my chosen aftershave. I’ve been wearing it since 2001. Before that I used to wear brands like Eau Sauvage and Ralph Lauren Polo. What I especially like about it is the Bakelite top. I thought the freshness of it was incredible and gives life to it. Some fragrances are very heavy and musty and overpowering sometimes. Others are sweet and almost sickly. But this is timeless – you don’t get tired of Acqua di Parma. www.acquadiparma.com Geoff Wheeler, Huddersfield Fine Worsteds I wear Eucris by Geo F Trumper. It has a very old school class about it. It’s not fragrant, it’s almost musty. I first came across it mentioned in the James Bond novel Diamonds Are Forever, and I thought, if it’s good enough for 007, it’s good enough for me. The most annoying thing about it is its cap, which must have been designed when it was first invented. I can’t tell you the number of times it’s nearly gone down the plughole. www.trumpers.com

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N E E D TO VENT Vents in men’s jackets can be traced back to equestrianism and the military, says Robin Dutt

have to say that when it comes to vents, I am somewhat divided. Much tailoring and many tailoring devices still used today owe their origins to horse riding or the military origins – and frequently both. Vents are no exception. They were, and are, designed to make riding a horse more comfortable, as the skirt of the coat can flare over part of the horse’s back and improve the flow and feel of that garment. There are three types of vent – unless you find something quirky by some avant-garde designer type, who slices into the coat with whimsy, creating strips which might look more appropriate on a mediaeval tunic. Vents are a matter of choice (some might say, taste) but also the directive of the

garment itself. Personally, I favour, say on a blazer (particularly with wider than usual lapels), a double vent which always looks correct as it forms a balance and rarely a single – associated more with Italian sartoria and so perhaps, perfect for a Vespa. And in the case of an evening coat,

‘They were, and are, designed to make riding a horse more comfortable’ the skirting of that garment must flow seamlessly with the trousers – so no vents here. Just one, solid black, simple form. A coat without a vent can, especially in

a sporting example, look quite elegant and fluid. But in this case, this writer prefers the cloth to be made of woven material and multi-hued. A fine Harris Tweed, perhaps. Images of 1950s American actors sporting coats that were longer in the body spring to mind as mostly vent-less. On a traditional morning coat, one of those tailoring staples, little has changed since the very beginning. There are no pockets externally and rarely internally, to achieve a cleaner, smoother line. The vent here has a dual purpose. The first, we are already familiar with. This long vent sometimes edges to match the silk lapels, also conceals an internal slit pocket to house cash, cards – and other essentials for a night time’s campaign. SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE

Tailors Handbook CHARLIE ALLEN 1 Coopers Yard, 181 Upper Street, Islington, London N1 www.charlieallen.co.uk HARDY AMIES 8 Savile Row, London W1S 3PE www.hardyamies.com ANDERSON & SHEPPARD  32 Old Burlington Street, London W1S 3AT www.anderson-sheppard.co.uk RICHARD ANDERSON  13 Savile Row, London W1S 3PH www.richardandersonltd.com HENRY BAILEY 9-10 Savile Row, London W1S 3PF www.henrybailey.co.uk BENSON & CLEGG   9 Piccadilly Arcade, London SW1Y 6NH  www.bensonandclegg.co.uk GRESHAM BLAKE  143 Commercial Street, Shoreditch, London E1 6BJ www.greshamblake.com TOM BROWN 6 Sackville Street, London W1S 3DD www.tombrowntailors.co.uk BYRNE & BURGE  11 St George Street,  London W1S 2FD  www.byrneandburge.com OZWALD BOATENG 30 Savile Row, London W1S 3PT  www.ozwaldboateng.co.uk CAD & THE DANDY 1st Floor, 13 Savile Row, London W1S 3NE www.cadandthedandy.co.uk CHITTLEBOROUGH & MORGAN  12 Savile Row, London W1S 3PQ  www.chittleboroughandmorgan.co.uk DAVIES & SON   38 Savile Row, London W1S 3QE  www.daviesandson.com

TIMOTHY EVEREST 35 Bruton Place, London W1J 6NS www.timothyeverest.co.uk GIEVES & HAWKES 1 Savile Row, London W1S 3JR www.gievesandhawkes.com GEORGE BRUMMELL Savile Row, London www.georgebrummell.co.uk HENRY HERBERT 8 Lamb’s Conduit Passage, London WC1R 4RG www.henryherbert.com H HUNTSMAN 11 Savile Row, London W1S 3PS www.h-huntsman.com KENT, HASTE & LACHTER  7 Sackville Street, London W1S 3DE  www.kenthaste.co.uk KILGOUR 5 Savile Row, London W1S 3PB www.kilgour.com ALEXANDER MCQUEEN 9 Savile Row, London W1S 3PF www.alexandermcqueen.com MEYER & MORTIMER  6 Sackville Street, London W1S 3DD  www.meyerandmortimer.co.uk JOHN PEARSE   6 Meard Street, Soho, London W1F 0EG  www.johnpearse.co.uk MALCOLM PLEWS  6 Sackville Street,  London W1S 3DD www.malcolm-plews.co.uk HENRY POOLE 15 Savile Row, London W1S 3PJ www.henrypoole.com MARK POWELL   2 Marshall Street, Soho, London W1F 9BA   www.markpowellbespoke.co.uk BRIAN RUSSELL  6 Sackville Street,  London W1S 3DD  www.brianrusselltailors.co.uk

DEGE & SKINNER 10 Savile Row, London W1S 3PF www.dege-skinner.co.uk

KATHRYN SARGENT 1st Floor, 6 Brook Street, Mayfair, London, W1S 1BB www.kathrynsargent.com

EDE & RAVENSCROFT  8 Burlington Gardens, Savile Row, London W1S 3ET  www.edeandravenscroft.co.uk

EDWARD SEXTON 26 Beauchamp Place,   Knightsbridge, London SW3 1NJ www.edwardsexton.co.uk

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ANTHONY SINCLAIR 34 Montagu Square, Marylebone, London W1H 2LJ www.masonandsons.com SIR TOM BAKER  4 D’Arblay Street,  London W1F 8DJ  www.tombakerlondon.com THOM SWEENEY   1-2 Weighhouse Street, London W1K 5LR  www.thomsweeney.co.uk DAVID WARD -10 Savile Row, London W1S 3PF By appointment only www.davidwardbespoke.com WELSH AND JEFFERIES 20 Savile Row London W1S 3PR www.welshandjefferies.com L.G. WILKINSON  11 St George Street  London W1S 2FD  www.lgw500.com   Made to Measure CHESTER BARRIE 19 Savile Row, London W1S 3PP www.chesterbarrie.co.uk CROMBIE 48 Conduit Street, London W1S 2YR www.crombie.co.uk BEGGARS RUN 33A Charlotte Rd, London EC2A 3PB www.beggarsrun.com Women’s Bespoke LADY ROW 9-10 Savile Row Mayfair, London W1S 3PF www.ladyrow.co.uk Hats BATES Established over 100 years, now within Hilditch & Key. www.bates-hats.co.uk CHRISTYS Making great British hats since 1773. www.christys-hats.com LOCK & CO Oldest hatter dating back to 1676 and lovely old shop. www.lockhatters.co.uk Ties DRAKE’S Stylish handmade ties plus full range of accessories. www.drakes.com

STOCKISTS

And Everything Else... RORY HUTTON Innovative bow tie specialist. www.roryhutton.co.uk

TANNER KROLLE Another old English leather name with bespoke service. www.tannerkrolle.com

VANNERS Top silk weavers, as well as makers of luxury neck wear. www.vanners.com

TUSTING Run by 5th generation of family. www.tusting.co.uk

Cuff Links

Shoes

LONGMIRE Hand crafted cuff links with hand enamelling a speciality. www.longmire.co.uk

BERLUTI Elegant handmade shoes. www.berluti.com

LINKS OF LONDON Original link designs for men and women. www.linksoflondon.com Umbrellas JAMES SMITH Beautiful old Victorian emporium for umbrellas and sticks. www.james-smith.co.uk BRIGG UMBRELLAS Handmade brollies for 250 years for every occasion. www.swaineadeneybrigg.com FULTONS Umbrella makers for 60 years. www.fultonumbrellas.com FOX UMBRELLAS Another maker of handcrafted umbrellas. www.foxumbrellas.com Braces ALBERT THURSTON The ones that keep up most bespoke trousers. www.albertthurston.com

CLEVERLEY Bespoke shoemaker favoured by Savile Row. www.georgecleverley.com CARREDUCKER Bespoke shoemaker within Gieves & Hawkes. www.carreducker.com HARRYS OF LONDON Innovative footwear for town and country. www.harrysoflondon.com GAZIANO & GIRLING Bespoke and ready-to-wear shoes from two young craftsmen. www.gazianogirling.com JEFFERY-WEST Beautifully made shoes with a twist. www.jeffery-west.co.uk JOHN LOBB LTD Famous bespoke name based in St James’s. www.johnlobbltd.co.uk TRICKER’S Maker of bespoke shoes and boots. www.trickers.com

Gloves

Nightwear

ALFRED DUNHILL Guaranteed style on and off the road. www.dunhill.com

DEREK ROSE Luxury nightwear and robes in silks, cashmere and cottons. www.derek-rose.com

Socks CORGI Luxury socks and also knitwear from a family firm. www.corgisocks.com PANTHERELLA Extensive collection of hand linked socks. www.pantherella.com

BONSOIR Men’s and women’s night clothes in classic styles. www.bonsoiroflondon.com Country Style

Leather Goods

J BARBOUR & SONS Clothes and accessories for all country pursuits. www.barbour.com

ETTINGER Family business making hand crafted leather goods. www.ettinger.co.uk

BELSTAFF Tough outdoor clothing without   compromising elegance. www.belstaff.co.uk

FARLOWS OF PALL MALL One-stop shop for the great outdoors. www.farlows.co.uk HOLLAND & HOLLAND Luxury clothes to accompany their bespoke guns. www.hollandandholland.com JAMES PURDEY & SONS Top gunsmith that carries a full   wardrobe of country clothing. www.purdey.com LA MARTINA City and sporting polo kit and clothing. www.lamartina.eu Shirts BUDD SHIRTS Makers of finest bespoke and readymade shirts for over 100 years. www.buddshirts.com EMMA WILLIS Stylish bespoke and readymade shirts. www.emmawillis.com FRANK FOSTER Master chemisier with amazing cloth collection. www.frankfostershirts.com HILDITCH & KEY Bespoke as well as ready-to-wear shirts. www.hilditchandkey.co.uk NEW & LINGWOOD Bespoke shirt makers plus all home for all wardrobe essentials. www.newandlingwood.com SEAN O’FLYNN Master shirtmaker with a Savile Row background. www.seanoflynnshirtmaker.co.uk TURNBULL & ASSER Famous old shirt name now into all sorts of clothing. www.turnbullandasser.co.uk Knitwear BEGG & CO Creators of exquisite scarves, wraps and throws. www.beggandcompany.com JOHNSTONS OF ELGIN Renowned for great cloth and fine knitwear. www.johnstonscashmere.com JOHN SMEDLEY Noted for fine gauge, hand finished knitwear. www.johnsmedley.com N. PEAL Specialists in luxury, stylish cashmere. www.npeal.com SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE