EXCLUSIVE: Colourful hedge fund boss Pierre Lagrange
is claiming taxpayers' money to furlough staff at his Savile Row tailor,
despite having a personal fortune of £240million
Pierre LaGrange, 48, used taxpayers' hand-outs to pay
some of the 65 staff at his upmarket clothes firm, Huntsman
The Belgian-born former hedge fund boss, 48, who is
famous for his colourful love life, lives in Monaco and has homes in London,
New York and Mustique
He was involved in an amicable £160million divorce
from the mother of his three children in 2010 after coming out as gay
After falling for a flamboyant male fashion designer,
he took a former US Presidential aide as his husband
Huntsman supplied outfits for Earl Grantham in TV's
Downton Abbey and for the film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
As well as furloughing staff at Huntsman, it is
believed other workers were made redundant last year
By NICK
CRAVEN FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED:
07:15, 18 February 2021 | UPDATED: 07:48, 18 February 2021
A
multi-millionaire has been claiming public money to furlough staff at his
Savile Row tailoring firm.
Belgian-born
Pierre LaGrange, who lives in Monaco, London and New York has used taxpayers'
hand-outs to pay some of the 65 staff at his upmarket London company Huntsman,
which inspired Matthew Vaughn's blockbuster Kingsman spy movies.
But former
hedge fund boss LaGrange, famous for his colourful love life, and whose
estimated worth is around £240m, will face fierce criticism for using the
bail-outs from the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme, which lists H Huntsman
& Sons Ltd as having claimed in December.
Ironically,
in 2019, LaGrange moaned to the Financial Times about Britain's high taxes
compared to 30 years ago, saying: 'The taxes have risen here dramatically in a
way that has killed the economy.
'Britain
was the most competitive place in Europe in attracting talent. It's lost a lot
of that.'
LaGrange
paid a record £160m divorce settlement to ex-wife Catherine Anspach after
falling in love with a flamboyant male fashion designer and recently took a
former US Presidential aide as his husband.
The latest
company accounts showed a loss of more than £10.4m for 2019, but also included
a statement from LaGrange pledging to continue to support the business - one of
the oldest on Savile Row - as a going concern.
After he
split from his former wife Catherine Anspach, Mr LaGrange came out as gay and
eventually married former White House adviser Ebs Burnoughtaken in Ibiza, Spain
in 2019
When
super-rich hedge fund boss Mr Lagrange separated from his wife of 20 years,
Catherine Anspach (pictured), in 2010, the split cost him a record-breaking
£160 million
As well as
furloughing some of its 65 staff, it is believed Huntsman, which supplied
outfits for Earl Grantham in TV's Downton Abbey and for the film Tinker Tailor
Soldier Spy, also made other workers redundant last year.
In 2019,
his MD Phil Kirrage said: 'Since Pierre took the helm at Huntsman, we have run
the business with a start-up mindset, taking risks and making investments that
will secure the esteemed tailor's success for the next 170 years.'
Before
acquiring Huntsman in 2014, LaGrange co-founded GLG Partners, criticised for short-selling
shares in stricken Bradford and Bingley at the height of the banking crisis,
and acquired by Man Group in 2010, netting him £340m.
He sold his
London mansion alongside Kensington Gardens to Chelsea FC owner Roman
Abramovich for £90m in 2011, having bought it for just £19m seven years
earlier.
LaGrange
also owns a fabulous five-bedroomed bamboo beach-house on the exclusive
Caribbean hideaway of Mustique, which he rents out for up to £30,000 a week.
Set in
acres of 'lush gardens with unparalled sea views' the 'ultimate party house'
also boasts a butler, chef and two housekeepers.
When Pierre
and Catherine, the mother of his three children, split amicably in 2010 after
he came out as gay, they marked the occasion by exchanging Ferraris, said to be
worth a total of around £450,000.
LaGrange
began a relationship with British-born Sudanese fashion designer Roubi L'Roubi.
LaGrange
told the FT: 'When I realised I was gay I was terrified. It was an
extraordinary moment. I was terrified that people would not love me anymore . .
. and that people who trust me would not trust me anymore.'
'I had
lived as a straight white successful male, married to a woman I loved and with
kids I loved and having just a perfect life.'
He
described the transition as 'nearly overnight', adding: 'I was thrilled that
aged 48 I had finally admitted to something that I had buried, not knowing what
was buried under there.'
In 2019,
after the relationship with L'Roubi ended, LaGrange tied the knot with his new
boyfriend Ebs Burnough, a former White House aide to President Barack Obama.
Naturally, LaGrange wore a Huntsman blazer for the nuptials in Ibiza.
He has
regularly invested in movies, and been credited as executive producer onKickass
and the Kingsman movies: The Secret Service and its sequel, Kingsman: The
Golden Circle.
Huntsman,
which was honoured with royal warrants by Edward VII and Queen Victoria,
supplied outfits for Earl Grantham in Downton Abbey and for the film Tinker Tailor
Soldier Spy
LaGrange
now lives with his husband Ebs Burnough between Monaco, London, Hampshire and
New York, but it's not clear in which jurisdiction he pays tax.
In 2019
after becoming the first Savile Row tailor to establish a permanent presence in
New York, LaGrange enthused about Huntsman's traditions.
'Go down to
the shop,' he told Knightfrank.co.uk, 'and you'll see some of what's there is
the same as 100 years ago, and that's really important. It's about perfection,
process, repeatability and sustainability – doing the same thing again and
again but better and better.'
A spokesman
for Huntsman told MailOnline: 'As with the other tailors across the Row,
Huntsman's UK business has been dramatically affected by the COVID pandemic
with evaporating footfall and significant losses.
'During
this unprecedented time, Huntsman has actually elected to keep as many staff as
possible working from home, including providing logistical costs for them to do
so. While they have furloughed a small number of staff with the Coronavirus
Retention Scheme, in fact the government compensation covers less than five per
cent of the business losses.
'In an
effort to keep as many staff in place, Mr LaGrange has been carrying
significant personal losses to ensure this landmark heritage brand survives the
pandemic.'
The
spokesman declined to answer questions about where Mr LaGrange pays tax.
The unfair attack on Savile Row hero Pierre Lagrange
22 February
2021, 6:50am
From
Spectator Life
WRITTEN BY
Tom Chamberlin
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-unfair-attack-on-saville-row-hero-pierre-lagrange
The Daily
Mail has a new target – Pierre Lagrange. The enormously successful hedge funder
has found himself in the cross hairs because he claimed money from Rishi
Sunak’s furlough scheme for some of the staff at Huntsman – the All-Blacks of
Savile Row tailors – which Pierre bought in 2013. As hit-jobs go, it is as
ill-advised as it is misinformed, so I thought I’d explain why.
The
clickbait premise by journalist Nick Craven was that Pierre should have paid
all the staff out of his own pocket rather than get support from the
government. He backed up Lagrange’s evil-hedge-funder status by saying that he
was 'famous for his colourful love life' – whether by 'colourful' he meant
being gay, divorced or currently one half of an interracial marriage, I will
leave Craven to elaborate. It’s too icky an adjective for me to want to look
too closely at.
There was
one factor that was entirely omitted by this article, which was that despite
the shaky start – some tailors left unsure of the new direction it may take –
Pierre Lagrange is one of the heroes of Savile Row and British tailoring. A
declining interest in bespoke clothing – this was before people were not
allowed outdoors – could be levelled squarely at an industry unable to find a
modern heartbeat for those who see clothes as romantic. The intervention by
Lagrange has injected a new interest in British tailoring from domestic and
international clients as well as Hollywood’s opportunistic eye. As Covid has
hit, it is creative businessmen like Lagrange who can find innovative solutions
to complex problems.
Let’s begin
with his mission to take the message of British tailoring abroad (note I don’t
say just Huntsman but British tailoring as a whole). In 2015 Nick Foulkes
hosted an exhibition for Savile Row in Washington D.C at the U.K. Ambassador’s
Residence. Pierre helped to fund the operation and went to great lengths to
make sure that it was as good as it could possibly be, which included flying in
Buffalo Bill’s overcoat (made at Henry Poole) from Wyoming in a climate-controlled
container.
This is
just one of countless instances where Pierre has shown himself to be a champion
for the street’s future viability, celebrating a set of craft skills that the
government is doing nothing to help. Nick says that 'Savile Row is lucky to
have him. I think you’d have to be fairly curmudgeonly to not say that he has
been good for the street.' Master Tailor Terry Haste of Kent, Haste &
Lachter – who incidentally was one-time head cutter and MD of Huntsman –
agrees. He says: 'We were all delighted when Pierre was running the Savile Row
Association, as there was so much more happening, there was real energy. It was
sad to see him leave the post.'
Within
Huntsman the innovations are setting the tone for what tailors need to be doing
to survive. While the article did not specify how many of the 65 staff were
furloughed – 'some' Nick Craven says – the notion of a tailor employing 65
people in the first place is remarkable. A bespoke suit requires several
artisans to create, but not 65. You don’t hire that many people for a tailor’s
shop unless you’re trying to achieve something extraordinary and whatever the
motives may be, that is 65 jobs in a struggling industry that he has been
paying for, as the article states, covering annual eight-figure losses himself.
Furthermore,
he’s invested in technology for the company which remains a tough pill to
swallow for a 'handmade' industry. The ability for someone to create their own
tweed is indulgent for sure but it is innovative and helps not just Huntsman
but the mills in Scotand that create the tweed too. Mr. Hammick, the robot
which is sent round the world to help with international fittings (Colin
Hammick is the houses most famous head cutter) has meant the incumbent head
cutter, Dario Carnera (son of legendary shoe maker John Carnera), can keep
processing orders to clients who aren’t able to visit London. Huntsman are in
fact currently touring America, there is a permanent foothold in New York
(thanks to Pierre) but the appetite for British tailoring has allowed for a
tour of the major American cities by the Huntsman tailors.
Should
Savile Row be relevant at all in the next 20 years, while one can also mention
Anda Rowland, Gaziano & Girling, Thom Sweeney (who have opened up round the
corner), a great chunk of that credit can go to Pierre Lagrange. The bespoke
suit, is of course an expensive, indulgent, luxury item, but it is an icon of
Britain’s cultural history. Money from China had helped bolster the financial
standing of Savile Row back in the noughties, but several of the houses bought
up by Chinese finance have padlocked chains on the door handles and the shops
have been gutted. Over half of the shops on Savile Row have no tenancy because
businesses can’t pay the bills, but Huntsman manages to inspire a soon-to-be
trilogy of films and exports the good name of British tailoring almost better
than anyone else. While the Government have been great with protecting jobs
during the pandemic, part of the reason Rishi Sunak is popular no doubt, their
efforts to protect British heritage brands has been woeful, and that pre-dates
Coronavirus. It has required people like Pierre Lagrange to keep the pulse
steady, the street would be in even bigger trouble without him.
WRITTEN BY
Tom Chamberlin
2013–2015
Since
taking over the company in 2013, Owner and Non-Executive Chairman Pierre
Lagrange has introduced a number of developments which differentiate Huntsman
from the majority of Savile Row tailors. Under Lagrange's direction, Huntsman
launched its 'Archive Collection' in 2013, a capsule collection of
ready-to-wear tailoring, shirting and accessories, returning a ready-to-wear
product to Huntsman. The collection focused on both rejuvenating some aspects
of Huntsman's traditional block, but also sought to integrate true menswear
classics into the collection, as inspired by Huntsman's extensive historical
archives. E-commerce was introduced at the same time, allowing for the
ready-to-wear collection to be purchased online. Huntsman's website states that
newly appointed Creative Director Campbell Carey is responsible for overseeing
the ready-to-wear collection. The house's new General Manager Carol Pierce
(formally the head of Dunhill's bespoke division) was also appointed in 2015 to
oversee the house's bespoke operations.
Alongside
regular visits to the east coast of America, visiting clients based in New York
City, Boston and Washington (as well as Chicago), the house also undertakes
regular west coast tours, visiting San Francisco and Los Angeles. Huntsman is
also the first Savile Row tailor to open a permanent location in New York, a
move that was announced in May 2015. An Asia tour has also been scheduled for
September 2015, including a trunk show in Seoul and visits to Tokyo, Singapore,
Hong Kong and Beijing.
Additionally,
Huntsman is the sponsor of selected initiatives in the world of professional
Polo. In June 2014, the Huntsman Polo Team was formed and won bronze, silver
and gold cups in the Land Rover International Polo Tournament. In November
2014, the house partnered again with another team led by His Royal Highness
Prince Harry, dressing his 'Huntsman Sentebale Polo Team' for the Sentebale
Polo Cup in Abu Dhabi. A limited number of exclusive polo shirts were available
to purchase after the tournament, with a percentage of the proceeds going to
Sentebale.[39] Huntsman also designed a unique lining for the contest,
featuring a motif of forget-me-nots, a mark of respect to those children which
the Prince's Sentebale charity (the motif of which is also the forget-me-not)
works to protect from poverty and disease.
Huntsman
was one of five founding members of the Savile Row Bespoke Association - Savile
Row's protective trade body.
2016–2017
In February
2016, Huntsman became the first Savile Row tailor to open a permanent location
in New York, with a location at 130 West 57th Street. American clientele now
enjoy a permanent home in the States in a pied-à-terre in New York with antique
Huntsman tweed covered furnishings and historic photographs from Huntsman's
past adorning the walls.
Alongside
regular visits to the east coast of America, visiting clients based in New York
City, Boston and Washington (as well as Chicago), the house also undertakes
regular west coast tours, visiting San Francisco and Los Angeles. Huntsman
expanded its trunk shows, pioneering visits to different corners of Asia,
including a trunk show in Seoul and visits to Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong and
Beijing.
With
daytime fashion in mind, 2016 featured a busy social calendar for Huntsman. The
house participated in the polo and racing seasons with the highlights being
Huntsman's Royal Ascot residence on the Rosebery, as well as the house's
post-racing party. 2016 also saw Huntsman taking on more modern projects including
cutting bespoke tweed driving suits for Marc Newson and Charlotte Stockdale in
the 2016 Mille Miglia Race.
Huntsman's
Savile Row premises play host to a variety of exciting events, including
charity auctions for several worthy causes, which have raised up to £80,000 in
donations. Exhibitions for artists such as Cecil Beaton, Alex Talbot Rice and
Gray Malin were hosted by the house, as well as whisky tastings, private
lunches, and book launches
In 2016,
over half a million people tuned in live to learn all things bespoke from
Huntsman owner Pierre Lagrange at an event in Beijing. In February, Huntsman
even graced the London Fashion Week catwalk as a part of the inspired Gareth
Pugh show. The ‘Treasures from Chatsworth’,[52] a miniseries presented by
Huntsman and produced by Sotheby's, was launched in 2016 too - detailing the
magnificent collections of the Cavendish family whilst also putting a spotlight
on how contemporary Huntsman's age-old bespoke craftsmanship is.
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