Timeless suits from London’s Savile Row back in fashion
Timeless suits from London’s Savile Row back in fashion
September 20, 2021With a blazing fire, leather sofa, and a half-empty bottle of single malt whisky by the door, London bespoke suit-maker Anderson & Sheppard feels more like a gentlemen’s club frozen in time than a 21st century luxury retailer.
At the back of the shop a number of impeccably dressed tailors cut cloth on wooden work benches much like they have been doing for the last 100 years. One can almost imagine past customers like Charlie Chaplin, Pablo Picasso or some faded Victorian gentleman turning up at any moment.
This Savile Row tailor, where first names are banned and customers are always “sir”, may feel like a museum to Britain’s faded imperial glory but the bespoke menswear business on “the Row” is enjoying a remarkable resurgence.
Anderson & Sheppard is just one of the names on London’s most renowned street for high-end tailors.
Alongside Gieves & Hawkes, Dege & Skinner, Henry Poole & Co and others, tailors on “the Row” have been dressing royalty, aristocrats, statesmen, great warriors and the wealthy since British dandy Beau Brummel first introduced trousers to fashionable London society at the start of the 19th century.
Behind the fusty facade “the Row” is attracting a new generation of less exclusive young clientele despite suit prices starting at 3,800 pounds ($5,900) with a combination of client discretion, a subtle online presence and absolute attention to detail and quality.