Thursday 15 April 2021

Kent & Haste, Bespoke Tailors of The Duke of Edinburgh




John Kent

https://www.kenthaste.co.uk/about/john-kent/

 

“If you would be guided by me…” John Kent began his training as a 15 year old apprentice in the East End of London at Bernard’s Bethnal Green. After five years he transferred to the West End, furthering his knowledge of cassocks, frock coats and gaiters for the revered Ecclesiastical and Court tailor Adeney & Boutrey (estd 1775), where he made breeches for the then Archbishop of Canterbury.

 

In 1966 he moved to Military and Royal tailor Hawes and Curtis. It was here that he met shirtmaker Stephen Lachter and Terry Haste who would go on to succeed Kent as head cutter. At this time The Duke of Edinburgh patronised Hawes and Curtis where Kent had the privilege of making the trousers for His Royal Highness. Kent continues to tailor for The Duke to this day; his services have been recognised with the Royal Warrant which he still holds.

 

In 1986 together with Stephen Lachter, Kent set up his own eponymous business. In 2010 they were joined by their old colleague Terry Haste and opened a shop in New Burlington Street before moving to large premises at number 7 Sackville Street. Clientele HRH Duke of Edinburgh, Sir Donald Sinden, Sir Alistair Cook, Sir Terence Rattigan, Burt Lancaster, Rod Steiger, Tony Curtis, Cary Grant, Bing Crosby, Lord Mountbatten and Arnaud Bamberger.




Profile: The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince of Style

29TH OCTOBER 2015 / https://savilerow-style.com/profiles/aristocracy/the-duke-of-edinburgh/

 

The Duke of Edinburgh has never been cast as a fashion figure, but he could well be seen as a pin-up. Prince Philip typifies the restrained, even wary approach to clothes of the typical English gentleman, which appeals to men – and women – around the globe. While much attention focuses upon the Royal women and what they wear, the Duke, like other male members of the Royal family, is now largely taken for granted but over the years has undoubtedly been a fine ambassador for Savile Row’s finest.

 

And just who is the finest so far as His Royal Highness is concerned? Well, John Kent has been his long-time tailor, a ball of energy, a tailor’s tailor, noted as a cheery chap with a fine line in old jokes. A few years back, he suffered a bout of illness and it was thought he would retire. But he bounced back and was re-appointed as the Duke’s tailor and Royal Warrant Holder. He is now based in Sackville Street, with his partner of many years, shirtmaker Stephen Lachter, and another tailor, Terry Haste, formerly with Huntsman, making up the Kent, Haste & Lachter company. “You have to be able to judge the moment,” he says, “as with all customers. If he has a lot on, an important meeting, then you act accordingly. But if he is relaxed and has time, he has a wonderful sense of humour.”

 

Starting in the Row nearly half a century ago, Kent gives credit to training under some of the stars of the tailoring hierarchy – the Stanbury’s, especially Fred, and the Helman’s, Burt and Harry. Now, he has a wide cross section of customers and remains busy. “We charge the sort of prices that I would be prepared to pay,” he emphasises, “not some of those silly sums.” His main piece of advice to those ordering a suit is to go for a British cloth. “The French and Italian cloths are lovely but they go for a softer finish. British cloths are firmer and they hold their shape longer.”

 

While Kent is responsible for the Duke’s civilian dress, his military requirements are covered by Davies & Son, and his naval dress covered by Gieves & Hawkes. In addition, there are Warrant Holders for ceremonial robes, kilts, waterproofs, hats, shoes, knitwear, boots, buttons and hairdressing, et al. They all have to have chalked up five years service already to attain a Warrant, and by definition they have to represent quality and reliability.

 

Ede & Ravenscroft is the Duke’s robe maker, one of the oldest of companies holding a Royal Warrant, dating back to 1689. All the ranks of dukes and earls and lesser mortals at major royal events are wearing ermine-trimmed robes made by them. This would be a somewhat limited market to sustain a company, given that robes have little use and so last a long time, but the company is also big in the legal world, and the clergy, and also in bespoke civilian tailoring. Though their main base is in ancient premises in the City of London, they have a fine building looking up Savile Row.

 

duke_twoThe Duke may no longer wish to bare his knees very often in public but Kinloch Anderson remains his kilt supplier, and of Scottish and Highland dress generally. From their Edinburgh base, the firm has made uniforms for all the famous Scottish regiments, kilts and trews, and such is the on-going appeal of Highland dress that they also send off to would-be Scots around the world. There is a bespoke and ready-to-wear service and they will supply in any tartan, and provide all the traditional accessories.

 

John Lobb Ltd is the shoemaker responsible for shoeing the royal feet, both Prince Phillip’s and the Prince of Wales’. This family bespoke business in a lovely old building on St James’s is not to be confused with the John Lobb that now belongs to the Hermes Group, making ready-to-wear shoes. Lobb’s bespoke may be identified by looking for the Royal Warrant insignia, and by experiencing the handmade quality of their shoes and boots. The founding John Lobb started the royal connection by making shoes for Edward VII, and a long line of famous folk have followed in his footsteps.

 

Though Lobb’s handmade boots are well up to withstanding rough terrain, they are really too elegant for mucky country wear. That’s the preserve of Hunter Boots, the wellington boot of choice by the Duke, and which has come into the fashion spotlight in recent years since being seen on model Kate Moss at mud-soaked Glastonbury. From its basic rubber design, as worn by troops in WWI and II, and throughout the British countryside, it has now moved into town in a blaze of colour and new designs. But plain black and green wellies remain the country choice, guaranteed not to frighten the horses.

 

The ultimate country accessory is the gun and a Purdey gun at that. Purdey celebrates its bi-centenary this year, and is listed under the Warrant heading of ‘sports, hobbies and entertainment’. It began life as a gunsmith and has continued to make the finest guns over the years, decorated with exquisite silver engraving work. To mark their anniversary, the company has launched a commemorative trio, sure to become collectors’ items. This includes two shotguns and a double rifle, each handmade and inlaid with gold engravings. In addition to guns, there are new Purdey collections of country clothing and accessories.




How Prince Philip Navigated the Most Challenging of Corporate Dress Codes

 

How do you convey royalty without overshadowing the most royal?

 

By Guy Trebay

Published April 9, 2021

Updated April 12, 2021

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/fashion/prince-philip-style.html

 

There is a moment in the first season of “The Crown” when the actor Matt Smith, as the perennially tetchy consort of Queen Elizabeth II, bristles at the constraints of his job. With a case of lockjaw severe enough to cause concern for his molars, Mr. Smith portrays the Duke of Edinburgh (whom the queen would not make a prince until five years after she succeeded to the throne) as an arch complainer, a man who views the 20th-century monarchy as little more than “a coat of paint” on a crumbling Empire.

 

“If the costumes are grand enough, if the tiaras sparkle enough, if the titles are preposterous enough, if the mythologies are incomprehensible enough, then all must be fine,” says Mr. Smith, playing the man who would become Prince Philip. And, as it turns out, the script got it mostly right. Prince Philip, who died at age 99 on April 9, may have been wrapped in a cloak of dramatic hooey to become a character in the hit Netflix series. Yet the role, as written, is rooted in established fact.

 

Headstrong by reputation, opinionated, notoriously brusque (and often, in public, misogynistic and racist), Prince Philip was also in important ways the model of a company man. By the time he stepped down from his official royal duties in August 2017, he had spent seven decades obediently working for the Firm, a term for the royal family credited to the Queen’s father, King George VI. Fulfilling the requirements of a job for which there is no precise standard, unless you consider second fiddle a job description, the prince slogged through a staggering 22,219 solo public engagements over his long lifetime. In doing so, he navigated the most challenging of corporate dress codes for more than 65 years.

 

The brief was clear from the outset: The queen’s consort should be impeccable yet unassuming, irreproachable in style without drawing your eye away from one of the richest, and certainly the most famous, women on earth. If the clothes Queen Elizabeth II wore in public were engineered to meet programmatic requirements — bright colors and lofty hats to make this diminutive human easy to spot; symbolically freighted jewelry (the Japanese pearl choker, the Burmese ruby tiara, the Obama brooch!); symbols and metaphors embroidered onto her gowns — those of Prince Philip were tailored to keep him faultlessly inconspicuous.

 

As a clotheshorse, he had certain natural advantages, of course.

 

“He was staggeringly good-looking, tall and athletic,” said Nick Sullivan, the creative director of Esquire. “That never does any harm when it comes to wearing clothes.”

 

Beyond that, though, were a series of confident and knowing choices. For decades, the prince’s suits were made for him by John N. Kent, a Savile Row artisan who began his tailoring apprenticeship at 15. The prince’s shirts came from Stephens Brothers, his bespoke shoes from the century-and-a-half old boot maker John Lobb. In the neatly folded white handkerchief Prince Philip habitually squared off in his breast pocket (another was kept in his trousers) could be seen a telling contrast with the dandyish puff of silk favored by his eldest son.

 

Unlike other members of the royal family whose tastes run to costly baubles and fine Swiss timepieces, Prince Philip habitually wore “a plain watch with a brown leather strap,” as the Independent once reported, and a copper bracelet intended to ease arthritis. He left his large hands free of jewelry and roughly manicured.

 

If he looked best in sporting clothes, it was because he was a true sportsman, captain of both the cricket and hockey teams at boarding school in Scotland, a polo player well past his 40s, an active participant in international coaching competitions until late in life.

 

He was also the only member of the Firm’s inner circle before Meghan Markle to have been foreign-born. This, too, may have given him a style advantage since it is often true that outsiders can bring a fresh eye to staid sartorial conventions, both enlivening and improving them. (It took the Japanese to explain denim to Americans and the Neapolitans to demonstrate for the English how to perfect English style.)

 

Search online and you will not find an image of Prince Philip committing a style solecism. There is never a novelty tie or a funny hat. For that matter, and except on obligatory state occasions, there is little enough of the comic operetta regalia beloved of Prince Philip’s uncle, Louis Mountbatten, the First Earl Mountbatten of Burma — no braiding, no frogging, no sashes or fringed and gilded epaulets.

 

The paradox of Prince Philip’s life may have been that, as the husband of a queen and father of a future king, he was essential to power although insignificant to its workings. And he often jokingly disparaged himself as the “world’s most experienced plaque unveiler.” Yet it was probably in that role that he did his best work for the family business, since a glimpse of this elegant and diffident man was the closest most Britons would ever come to royalty’s attenuated realities and burnished grandeur. In that sense, Prince Philip was never “dressed,” in any conventional manner so much as he was outfitted for purpose.

 

Correction: April 9, 2021

An earlier version of this article misidentified the actor who plays Prince Philip in the first season of "The Crown." He is Matt Smith, not Tobias Menzies.


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