Savile Row Fights to Stay Relevant as Suits Fall Out
of Fashion
Tailors adapt to popularity of casual wear and hotter
climate
New arrivals include bespoke streetwear brand
Clothsurgeon
.jpg)
Savile
Row’s 250-year-old tailor Gieves & Hawkes which is being sold.
Savile
Row’s 250-year-old tailor Gieves & Hawkes which is being sold.Photographer:
Hollie Adams/Bloomberg
By Katie
Linsell
6 August
2022 at 08:00 CEST
@KatieLinsell
When the
governor of the Bank of England stood up to address 300 City bigwigs last
month, there was a striking difference from previous Mansion House dinners --
no-one was wearing black-tie.
The
historic relaxation of one of London’s stuffiest dress codes was a relief to
many attendees after temperatures struck a record-breaking 40 degrees Celsius
(104 degrees Fahrenheit) earlier in the day.
But heat
waves and increasingly casual fashion habits pose a headache to one of the
capital’s best-known industries on the other side of town: the tailors of
Savile Row.
Savile Row
has faced a tough time after stores closed during Covid following several years
of rising rents, but the latest threats in its 200 years of history are perhaps
more subtle and pervasive.
“The
boundaries are blurred now” between the office and the outside world, said Nick
Paget, senior editor at WGSN, a retail trends forecaster. “The very traditional
pinstriped suit starts to feel like an anachronism.”
With many
professionals working from home part time and offices relaxing dress codes to
entice workers back, a freshly cut suit is losing its appeal. Record-breaking
temperatures this summer have put added pressure on formal dress and wealthy
Chinese buyers are not able to travel to the UK for their bespoke suits as
Beijing persists with its strict zero-Covid policy.
The
fundamentals are stark. In the last week of June footfall on Savile Row was
more than 40% below the equivalent week in 2019, the second biggest decline
among all the nearby roads including Regent Street and Oxford Street, according
to New West End Company data seen by Bloomberg News.
Smart vs Casual
Brits have
cut spending on suits, increased on tracksuit bottoms
It takes
several months to produce a bespoke two-piece Savile Row suit with an average
of 60 man hours and multiple appointments for fittings. The average price is
around £5,000.
Tailors on
‘The Row’ are trying to adapt to changing tastes, with many launching
ready-to-wear ranges alongside their bespoke offerings. Online sales are
becoming more important and tailors are also opting for lighter-weight fabrics
to cope with unprecedented temperatures.
Anda
Rowland, boss of Anderson & Sheppard.Photographer: Ian Teh
At Anderson & Sheppard, around the corner from Savile Row, customers are requesting jackets without the back lined for a more breezy feel and many are choosing linen. The 116-year-old company, whose clients include Daniel Craig and Tom Ford, is using colorful, lighter cloths to convince Brits to buy their summer wardrobes at home rather than shopping in France, Italy or the US, said its boss Anda Rowland.
It’s a
similar story at Edward Sexton, the eponymous brand of the Savile Row doyen,
with silk shirts “flying out the door”. The 79-year-old tailor, who dressed The
Beatles on their Abbey Road album cover, Mick Jagger and Harry Styles to name a
few, has brought out an unstructured jacket in an open-weave fabric in another
nod to comfort.
Sexton,
sitting in front of a vast mirror in a large fitting room, calls it “the
smartest cardigan you’ll ever wear” with fabric “as soft as butter.” The
company is also rebuilding its website to make it easier for customers to
compare prices and work out their size from home.
Deathly
quiet
Savile Row
has come a long way since Sexton started out, when store fronts were obscured
by heavy curtains and only opened by appointment with upper-class gentlemen.
Still, the street cannot afford to stop reinventing itself to entice today’s
shopper.
“Generally
Savile Row by 5pm or 6pm, and also on weekends, is deathly quiet,” said
Rowland, who as chair of the Savile Row Bespoke Association is pushing for
improvements on the street. “If a young potential customer travels all the way
from Seoul to come and see Savile Row, he should be able to have something
lovely to drink and spend time in the area, and that’s not really the case
today.”
.jpg)
Edward Sexton Photographer: Emma Hardy
The Pollen
Estate, which owns most of Savile Row, is planning restaurant openings and new
stores. Recent arrivals include Clothsurgeon, which makes bespoke streetwear
including tracksuits and bomber jackets, and Savile Row’s first female-only
tailor The Deck. US interiors chain Restoration Hardware is set to open its
doors in the Abercrombie & Fitch Co. site. Edward Sexton is also returning
to Savile Row with a permanent store.
“Our
strategy is to enhance and cherish the best of the traditions of Savile Row but
introduce new, exciting and sometimes different offers,” said Julian Stocks,
CEO of the Pollen Estate.
Falling
Price
The average price for a suit has dropped almost 75%
The suit
isn’t only in decline on Savile Row. Retailers are selling them cheaper as
demand falls. The average price for a suit has dropped almost 75% over the last
two years to an average of around £200 in mid July, according to data from WGSN
by Ascential tracking 62 retailers in the UK.
The Office
for National Statistics removed the suit from its basket of goods used to
calculate the annual inflation rate in March for the first time since 1947. It
now tracks prices of formal jackets or blazers instead. Marks & Spencer
Group Plc cut the number of stores selling suits last year to 110 out of its
254 large locations. The retailer highlighted “the relaxation of formalwear”
when it unveiled a collection of smart-separates for the England men’s football
team this week, avoiding the “structured suit, shirt and tie uniform.”
.jpg)
Huntsman’s
robot which enables the tailor to fit bespoke suits remotely.Source: Huntsman
In a sign
of distress among suitmakers, 250-year-old Savile Row tailor Gieves &
Hawkes is being sold after its owner, Hong Kong-listed Trinity Ltd. was put
into liquidation last year. British suitmaker T.M. Lewin entered into
insolvency twice in recent years as the pandemic forced the 120-year-old
company to become an online-only business. Kilgour, who dressed icons Cary
Grant and Fred Astaire, closed its doors in 2020 after lockdown took hold.
Robotic
tailor
Back on Savile
Row, some of the tailors are turning to new technology to reach clients abroad.
Huntsman, which was established in 1849 and served as the inspiration for the
blockbuster Kingsman movie franchise, is managing to fit bespoke suits to
customers in China and Hong Kong using a robot created in the depth of the
pandemic.
Huntsman’s
tailors use the robot -- essentially a camera, microphone, speaker and frame on
wheels -- to remotely work alongside an assistant in another part of the world,
when they are fitting a client. Huntsman has done 11 fittings in China this
year and is fitting in Hong Kong every other week, said managing director Taj
Phull.
Wherever
clients are based, there remains an undeniable prestige to holding an address
on The Row. “Savile Row is 100% a destination,” said Phull, sitting in
Huntsman’s plaid-clad VIP Club Room across from two deer head busts above a
fireplace.
Clothsurgeon
founder Rav Matharu echoed the sentiment. It “had to be” Savile Row, he said,
ahead of Clothsurgeon’s first store opening next week. The company, whose
autumn winter 2021 collection was dubbed Rebel on the Row, is seeking younger,
“different” customers with its more casual clothing.
“Everyone
wants to be more convenient and more comfortable,” said Matharu, sitting at a
consultation table where clients can discuss their look. “We are disruptive in
a respectful way.”
The
tailor’s arrival has attracted attention to wider efforts to give the street a
make-over. With retail analysts warning that casual dress habits are here for
the long run, and the West End still struggling to find its way post-pandemic,
the need to adapt is more pressing than ever. If the City of London can change
its pinstripes, so can Savile Row.
— With assistance by Jack Sidders
1 comment:
The Row has been in a process of adaptation since it's beginning. It does not sell style but unrivaled quality and individual service; as long as there are clients with the resources to pay for such then the present set of preferences present just one more challenge in a long line of many.
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