Tommy Nutter, Savile Row and the Peacock Revolution. / VIDEO: David Saxby Talking about Savile Row Tailor Tommy Nutter (Smoking Jacket...

Tommy Nutter (17 April 1943 – 17 August 1992) was a British tailor, famous for reinventing the Savile Row suit in the 1960s.

 

Born in Barmouth, Meirionnydd to Christopher Nutter and Dorothy (formerly Banister), he was raised in Edgware, Middlesex, where his father owned a cafe. After the family moved to Kilburn, Nutter and his brother David attended Willesden Technical College. Nutter initially studied plumbing,[1] and then architecture, but he abandoned both aged 19 to study tailoring at the Tailor and Cutter Academy.

 

In the early 1960s, he joined traditional tailors Donaldson, Williamson & Ward.[3] After seven years, in 1969, he joined up with Edward Sexton, to open Nutters of Savile Row[4] at No 35a Savile Row. They were financially backed by Cilla Black and her husband Bobby Willis, Managing Director of the Beatles' Apple Corps Peter Brown, and lawyer James Vallance-White.

 

The business was an immediate success, as Nutter combined traditional tailoring skills with innovative design. He designed for the Hardy Amies range, and then for the man himself. His clients included his investors, plus Sir Roy Strong, Mick Jagger, Bianca Jagger and Elton John. Nutter was most proud that, for the cover of the Beatles' album Abbey Road in 1969, he dressed three out of the four: George Harrison chose to be photographed on the road-crossing in denim.

 

In the 1970s his bespoke business became less successful, but he branched out into ready to wear clothing, marketed through Austin Reed. He also successfully expanded into East Asia, establishing the Savile Row brand in Japan.[6] In 1976 Sexton bought Nutter out of the business.Nutter went to work for Kilgour French and Stanbury, managing his own workroom. Sexton continued to run Nutters of Savile Row until 1983, when Nutter returned to the row with a ready to wear shop: "Tommy Nutter, Savile Row". This new venture, which traded at No 19 Savile Row until Nutter's death, was backed by J&J Crombie Limited, who continue to own the "Tommy Nutter" trademark. At this time, Sexton set up a business in his own name.

 

In the 1980s, he described his suits as a "cross between the big-shouldered Miami Vice look and the authentic Savile Row. He created the clothing of the Joker as seen in the 1989 film Batman.

 

Nutter died in 1992 at the Cromwell Hospital in London of complications from AIDS. In 2018, House of Nutter: The Rebel Tailor of Savile Row, a biography of Nutter, with reminiscences by his brother David, a New York celebrity photographer, was published; it was written by Lance Richardson

 

NEWS, PROFILES31ST JULY 2018

Tommy Nutter: Rebel With A Cause

 

Tommy Nutter, the tailor who ripped up the rules of Savile Row, is remembered in a new biography. Tom Corby reports

https://savilerow-style.com/news/tommy-nutter-rebel-cause/

 

Just over a quarter of a century after his untimely death from Aids, the avant-garde Tommy Nutter, like so many creatives of his generation, is still regarded as a legend, remembered as the tailor who single-handedly  reconciled the traditions of Savile Row with  the male peacock revolution of 1960s swinging London. His contribution to some of the most iconic styles and pop imagery of the 20th century has become part of the history of his trade as he wore down the division between tailoring and fashion. Friends say that a statue ought to be put up of him, like that of Beau Brummel, the archetypal dandy who, in the 18th century, set the bespoke style for generations.

 

Tommy spent his formative years in Edgware, north London, where his father owned a café, catering, in the main, to customers like truck drivers, gas fitters and builders. He was destined to be a plumber but, over the years, emerged as a blue collar boy made good  in the class crucible of the 60s; a time when the alchemy of taste, cool, and sheer force of personality could transform lives in ways that would have seemed impossible in years gone by. Tommy, a 6ft 2 inches tall young man with matinee idol looks, arrived right on cue. It all started when, aged 19, he broke free from plumbing to study tailoring at the Tailor and Cutter Academy. He then landed an apprenticeship with Donaldson, Williamson and Ward, traditional Savile Row tailors, with premises in Burlington Arcade. There, he absorbed the lore and the rules of the English gentlemen’s classic wardrobe. His seven years with the firm gave him a thorough knowledge of his craft, and a lifelong respect for its hierarchy.

 

In 1969, Tommy founded his own business, joining up with Edward Sexton, a young cutter with brilliant technical skills. They were financially backed by Tommy’s close friend, the singer Cilla Black, her husband Bobby Willis and others prepared to take a risk. The venture was an immediate success although a writer in the Daily Mirror snarked: “Thomas Nutter is opening what he calls a ‘thoroughly square’ tailoring shop … in Savile Row next week. Well that will make a change. I mean there can’t be more than a dozen there now. Mr Nutter, who is 26, is weary of ‘all those Carnaby Street gimmicks’, and thinks that clothes, like hair, are settling down to something more sober … What, then, of rumours that Ringo Starr has ordered a pair of scarlet PVC trousers from Nutters?” Tommy replied curtly: “They’ll be very square scarlet PVC trousers.”

 

Savile Row, with its collection of Royal Warrants, had never seen anything like it when Nutters opened at No. 35a, the story of which has been brought back to life by Lance Richardson in his biography House of Nutter – The Rebel Tailor of Savile Row. A year on, the Daily Mail was declaring it “a whizz bang success  – the place for men’s clothes”, putting the charismatic Tommy in the class of actor Terence Stamp, photographer Brian Duffy, and hair dresser Vidal Sassoon, all the stylish young Londoners who had shot themselves into the new aristocracy. Clients came in from the hipper haunts of those named in Debrett’s, from the media, pop stars and even aspiring teenage dandies from the East End, whose ambition was to own a Nutter suit, drawn to Tommy not only because of his matchless sense of style, but also because of his personality. He welcomed them all.

 

Like Hardy Amies, a Savile Row dandy who dressed The Queen, Tommy produced lively, contemporary tailoring, but with roots deeply embedded in the craftsmanship of Savile Row. Amies named Tommy as “the most exciting tailor on Savile Row in decades.” For three decades, Tommy kitted out the biggest stars on both sides of the Atlantic. He was proud of the fact that, for the cover of the Beatles’  Abbey Road album, three of them wore Tommy Nutter bespoke. George Harrison chose

 

denim. Other leading dandies of the period were also his clients, including Sir Roy Strong, then director of the National Portrait Gallery, Mick Jagger and Elton John. Andrew Lloyd Webber was also a client as well as a friend. He has recalled: “There was a wonderful maroon coat I wore for Ascot – he was always such fun, very much part of my early life when Jesus Christ Superstar was going on – Tommy made clothes for Tim Rice too – we were all great mates.”

 

Mick Jagger sported an eau-de-nil three-piece for his wedding to Bianca Perez-Mora Macias in 1971. He was in another Nutter creation days later on his honeymoon in Venice, fitted so snugly that it left no doubt as to which side he dressed. Celebrity nuptials became something of a thing for Tommy. John Lennon wore cream corduroy for his wedding to Yoko Ono on Gibraltar. For Elton John’s marriage in 1984 Tommy made 20 suits, “two of each, in case of mishap”, as he later recalled, “in a wide range of primary colours, including orange and very bright yellow. With each outfit went the appropriate straw boater.”

 

John Reid, Elton John’s manager, has said: “It was quite an event going to Nutters. You’d write the whole day off. Maybe you’d have lunch and a couple of bottles of champagne.” Tommy has said that when things became “edgy” with Elton he would send out for a bottle of sherry “to smooth things along”. For Elton’s 36th birthday, Tommy made a suit overlaid with 1,009,444 bugle beads, each one painstakingly attached by hand. Tommy also applied his craft to dressing female icons of swinging London, like the red velvet suit for Twiggy which became a celebrated and much copied look when she was photographed wearing it in the early 70s.

 

People were attracted to Tommy not only because of his ineffable sense of style, but because of his ironic personality. He was a humorist with a wide and interesting circle of friends who were attracted by his enthusiasm,  his gentle self-mocking personality and his acerbic comments on the vagaries of others, always ending with the expression, “But who am I to talk?” He was a witty correspondent and his letters to his friends are treasured. In addition, he delighted in writing to the serious newspapers on topics as far ranging as the correct buttoning of the suit on a statue of John F Kennedy, to the scarcity of deckchairs in London’s Green Park.

 

Tommy died of Aids in August 1992, aged 49. “The saddest thing of all,” he once wrote, “is an in-between look.” No-one could ever have accused him of that. At his memorial service in St George’s, Hanover Square, just up the road from Savile Row, Cilla Black read an abridged excerpt from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, relating the story of “A true, a perfect gentle Knight … In dying in his excellence and flower, when he is certain of his high good name; for then he gives to friend, and self, no shame.”

 

The final words should go to Nutters loyalist Elton John who said: “Tommy completely glamorised Savile Row and made it accessible.” There’s no arguing with that…

Tommy Nutter, Savile Row Tailor, 49

Aug. 18, 1992

Tommy Nutter, Savile Row Tailor, 49

Credit...The New York Times Archives

August 18, 1992, Section D, Page 19

 

 

Tommy Nutter, a Savile Row tailor who described his clothes as a "cross between the big-shouldered 'Miami Vice' look and the authentic Savile Row," died yesterday in the Cromwell Hospital in London. He was 49 years old.

 

He died from complications from AIDS, said Peter Brown, a friend who lives in New York.

 

Mr. Nutter, who was born in Wales, became an apprentice with Donaldson, Williamson & Ward, traditional London tailors, in the early 1960's. After he started his own busines on Savile Row in 1968, Mr. Nutter's clients included the Beatles, Mick Jagger, Elton John, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sir Hardie Amies, the fashion designer who makes clothes for the Royal family.

 

Mr. Nutter is survived by his mother, Dolly, of London and a brother, David, of New York.

 

Obituary: Tommy Nutter

MEREDITH ETHERINGTON-SMITH

The Independent

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-tommy-nutter-1541027.html

Tuesday, 18 August 1992

 

Thomas Albert Nutter, tailor, born Barmouth Merioneth 17 April 1943, died London 17 August 1992.

 

TOMMY NUTTER, the avant-garde Savile Row tailor, came to prominence in the late Sixties as a man who singlehandedly reconciled the traditions of Savile Row, laid down in the late 19th century, with the male peacock revolution of the Sixties and the often extravagant demands of his clients, the leading dandies of swinging London.

 

Born in Wales in 1943, Nutter spent his formative years in Edgware, north London, where his father was proprietor of a cafe catering to a clientele composed of truckdrivers, gas-fitters and builders. The family moved to Kilburn and Tommy and his brother David had a normal suburban childhood, punctuated by highly enjoyable holidays at Butlin's holiday camps. He attended the Willesden Technical College where, according to his brother, he studied plumbing.

 

In the early Sixties, Nutter obtained a position with Donaldson, Williams & Ward, traditional Savile Row tailors with premises in the Burlington Arcade. Here, starting as an apprentice, he absorbed the lore and the rules of the English gentleman's classical wardrobe. His seven years with the firm gave him a thoroughgoing knowledge of his craft, and a lifelong respect for its rules.

 

In 1968, Nutter left Donaldson Williams & Ward to found his own business, first at 35a Savile Row, later in its present handsome double-fronted premises at No 19. He was backed by clients including Cilla Black and her husband Bobby Willis, Peter Brown, then Managing Director of the Beatles' Apple Corps, also situated in Savile Row, and by the lawyer James Vallance-White.

 

The business was an immediate success for, like Sir Hardy Amies, a Savile Row dandy of a previous generation, Tommy Nutter produced lively, contemporary tailoring whose roots were deeply embedded in the craftsmanship and knowledge of Savile Row. Indeed, he made suits for Amies as well as for newer residents of Savile Row, and in particular the Beatles. He was proudest of the fact that, for the cover of the Beatles' album Abbey Road (1969), he dressed three out of the four (George Harrison elected to be photographed on the road-crossing in denims). Other leading dandies of the period were also his clients, including Sir Roy Strong (then Director of the National Portrait Gallery), Mick Jagger and Elton John.

 

Nutter also applied his craft to dressing female icons of swinging London society at the time, including Cilla Black, a close friend, and Bianca Jagger, who was much photographed at the time in a white dinner jacket with white satin facings. Nutter also made a red velvet suit for Twiggy which became a celebrated and much-copied look when she was photographed wearing it in the early Seventies.

 

In 1971 he was elected to the Best-Dressed List in the United States, along with the Earl of Snowdon and Hardy Amies. At the time, American Menswear magazine said of Nutter that he was 'tradition spiced with daring'.

 

'He never got things wrong about clothes,' said the restaurateur and bookshop-owner Stuart Grimshaw, who was a client of Tommy Nutter's from the late Sixties. 'He really knew what he was talking about. One would go in and say, 'What do I wear to go on safari in Kenya?' and Tommy would make one an absolutely correct safari suit, a proper one with all the pockets in exactly the right place.

 

'This knowledge extended to such minutiae as the correct wearing of half or full brogues or co-respondent shoes. He was an encyclopaedia of correct, classical male style.'

 

Clients from the hipper purlieus of the aristocracy, from the media, pop stars, and even aspiring teenage dandies from the East End whose ambition, in the early Seventies, was to own a Nutter suit, were drawn to Tommy Nutter not only because of his ineffable sense of style, but also because of his peculiarly ironic personality.

 

Andrew Lloyd Webber was a client and friend. 'He made me a lot of things when one was younger and trendier,' Lloyd Webber said. 'There was a wonderful maroon coat I remember I wore for Ascot - he was always such fun, very much part of my early life when Jesus Christ Superstar was going on - he made clothes for Tim Rice too - we were all great mates'.

 

Nutter was a gentle humorist who had a wide and interesting circle of friends attracted by his enthusiasm, by his gentle, self-mocking personality and his acerbic comments on the vagaries of others, always ending with the expression 'But who am I to talk?' He was a prodigious and witty correspondent and his letters to his many friends are treasured. In addition, he delighted in writing to the serious newspapers on topics as far-ranging as the correct buttoning of the suit on a statue of John F. Kennedy, to the scarcity of deckchairs in Green Park. He was always very ready to spring to the defence if his beloved Savile Row came under attack, as it so frequently did in the anarchic Sixties.

 

Nutter was also a firm believer in the supremacy of the English suit and of English cloth; during the Seventies and early Eighties he took part in huge international fashion shows put on by Reid & Taylor, the Scottish firm of woollen and worsted manufacturers.

 

With his untimely death, from complications arising from Aids, London society loses a witty and elegant dandy, whose hand-rolled lapels and insouciant manner masked a serious and continuing purpose; to make sure that the craft and traditions of Savile Row tailoring were preserved for, and valued by, his generation.

JEEVES ( António Sérgio Rosa de Carvalho ) visits TOMMY PAGE , Amsterdam, wearing a tweed suit made by Tommy Page Mantique

 

In the past I introduced Tommy Page in Amsterdam in this ‘blog’: "TOMMY PAGE vintage mantique in Amsterdam. "

https://tweedlandthegentlemansclub.blogspot.com/2015/06/tommy-page-vintage-mantique-in-amsterdam.html

Visiting Tommy Page is a truly unique experience. Tommy was born in Amsterdam, but his father was British. After a background as a designer in Fashion/Clothing his interests were directed to a vast and passionate study and knowledge of the entire British heritage of Men's Clothing. That's why Tommy besides being able to provide the acquisition of archetypes of Hacking Jackets, Norfolks, etc. represented by mythical labels like Harry Hall, Pytchley, Dunn & Co, Bladen Supasax or Daks, presents in the décor of his store a real and stimulating ‘arsenal’of inspiration through exemplary specimens which constitute  true sources of stimulating archetypes of study and reference.

These unique examples are study pieces and are not for sale, but to make up for this, Tommy offers an authentic and  true tailoring service with multiple possibilities of unique fabric choices of the best British mills  and various models of jackets and  suits that meet the measurements and choices of his customers.

So Tommy provided me with a suit made of a windowpane with the signature of the famous HARDY MINNIS.

The rest of the features and details of the suit in question, can be observed by the experienced eyes of the visitors of this 'blog', through the images I publish.

Greetings from JEEVES ( António Sérgio Rosa de Carvalho )

HARDY MINNIS. Cloth ( SEE BELOW )

 

HARDY MINNIS

https://www.hfwltd.com/hardy-minnis.html

 

Now

Hardy Minnis provides iconic British made fabrics to top-class tailors who value time-honoured ways and a knowledgeable, reliable service. We hold a Royal Warrant, granted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and are proud of our British manufacturing heritage.

 

 Best known for the Finest Worsted Suitings and Classic Country Tweeds, Hardy Minnis produces iconic British cloths with timeless appeal and is renowned worldwide for collections such as Alsport, Fresco and QZ.

 

 Combining innovation in our designs, and tradition in our outlook, the Hardy Minnis brand is the epitome of British elegance with global appeal.

 

 Then

Hardy Minnis was established in the late 1960’s by the merger of two famous Woollen Merchants, John G Hardy and J&J Minnis. The two companies were well known in their own right and had, over the years, become two of the most respected cloth merchants in the trade.

 

 Mr. John G Hardy founded his company in the 1890’s. An intrepid explorer and something of an eccentric, he scoured small mills around the UK for Tweeds and Country cloths. Legend has it he was one of the first cloth merchants to visit the Scottish Highlands and Hebrides, and to introduce Shetland and Harris Tweeds to the tailors of the world. He was allegedly so protective of his sources that on his return trips to London, he’d smuggle the new found fabric swatches under his top hat!

 

 As his reputation grew, the popularity of signature cloths such as Alsport caught the attention of the Royal Family and in 1929 the Duke of York who would later become King George VI, used a John G. Hardy cloth for the Regimental Tweed of the Brigade of Guards. When King Edward VIII was the Prince of Wales, he acquired from John G. Hardy the black & white district check that would later bear his name. Since the 1930’s the company has been privileged to hold Official Warrants for the supply of cloth to the Royal Household.

 

  J&J Minnis had an even earlier pedigree having been established in 1874 in London’s West End. Brothers James and John Minnis built up a company which is acknowledged as one of the oldest and most respected names in the cloth merchanting business world-wide.

 

 Savile Row was well established as the world’s most prestigious street for gentlemen’s clothing when J&J Minnis took up residence at Number 16, in 1902. The company soon developed a reputation for its luxury fabrics and fine designs and became the primary cloth resource for its esteemed neighbours along ‘The Row’. J&J Minnis is also widely credited with being the first British cloth merchant to introduce Savile Row quality fabrics into the Japanese market.

 

 The two companies merged in 1969 and J&J Minnis inherited the Royal Warrant, which is now granted jointly to Hardy Minnis.

 

Tomy Nutter another avant-garde Savile Row tailor

Tommy Nutter (17 April 1943– 17 August 1992), was a British tailor, famous for reinventing the Savile Row suit in the 1960s.
Born in Barmouth, Merioneth, he was raised in Edgware, Middlesex, where his father owned a local High Street Cafe. After the family moved to Kilburn, Nutter and his brother David attended Willesden Technical College. Nutter initially studied plumbing, and then architecture, but he abandoned both aged 19 to study tailoring at the Tailor and Cutter Academy.
In the early 1960s he joined traditional tailors Donaldson, Williamson & Ward. After seven years, in 1969, he joined up with Edward Sexton, to openNutters of Savile Row. They were financially backed by Cilla Black and her husband Bobby Willis, Managing Director of the Beatles' Apple Corps Peter Brown, and lawyer James Vallance-White.
The business was an immediate success, as Nutter combined traditional tailoring skills with innovative design. He designed for the Hardy Amies range, and then for the man himself. His clients included his investors, plus Sir Roy Strong, Mick Jagger, Bianca Jagger and Elton John. Nutter himself was most proud of the fact that, for the cover of The Beatles' album Abbey Road in 1969, he dressed three out of the four: George Harrison elected to be photographed on the road-crossing in denims.
In the 1970s his bespoke business became less successful, but he branched out into ready to wear clothing, marketed through Austin Reed. He also successfully expanded into East Asia, establishing the Savile Row brand in Japan. In 1976 Sexton bought Nutter out of the Business. Nutter went to work for Kilgore French and Stanbury, managing his own workroom. Sexton continued to run Nutters of Savile Row until 1983, when Nutter returned to the row with a ready to wear shop; Sexton set up a business in his own name.
In the 1980s, he described his suits as a "cross between the big-shouldered Miami Vice look and the authentic Savile Row." He created the clothing of The Joker worn by Jack Nicholson in the 1989 film Batman.
Nutter died in 1992 at the Cromwell Hospital in London of complications from AIDS.




Obituary: Tommy Nutter

MEREDITH ETHERINGTON-SMITH
The Independent

Tuesday, 18 August 1992

Thomas Albert Nutter, tailor, born Barmouth Merioneth 17 April 1943, died London 17 August 1992.

TOMMY NUTTER, the avant-garde Savile Row tailor, came to prominence in the late Sixties as a man who singlehandedly reconciled the traditions of Savile Row, laid down in the late 19th century, with the male peacock revolution of the Sixties and the often extravagant demands of his clients, the leading dandies of swinging London.

Born in Wales in 1943, Nutter spent his formative years in Edgware, north London, where his father was proprietor of a cafe catering to a clientele composed of truckdrivers, gas-fitters and builders. The family moved to Kilburn and Tommy and his brother David had a normal suburban childhood, punctuated by highly enjoyable holidays at Butlin's holiday camps. He attended the Willesden Technical College where, according to his brother, he studied plumbing.

In the early Sixties, Nutter obtained a position with Donaldson, Williams & Ward, traditional Savile Row tailors with premises in the Burlington Arcade. Here, starting as an apprentice, he absorbed the lore and the rules of the English gentleman's classical wardrobe. His seven years with the firm gave him a thoroughgoing knowledge of his craft, and a lifelong respect for its rules.

In 1968, Nutter left Donaldson Williams & Ward to found his own business, first at 35a Savile Row, later in its present handsome double-fronted premises at No 19. He was backed by clients including Cilla Black and her husband Bobby Willis, Peter Brown, then Managing Director of the Beatles' Apple Corps, also situated in Savile Row, and by the lawyer James Vallance-White.

The business was an immediate success for, like Sir Hardy Amies, a Savile Row dandy of a previous generation, Tommy Nutter produced lively, contemporary tailoring whose roots were deeply embedded in the craftsmanship and knowledge of Savile Row. Indeed, he made suits for Amies as well as for newer residents of Savile Row, and in particular the Beatles. He was proudest of the fact that, for the cover of the Beatles' album Abbey Road (1969), he dressed three out of the four (George Harrison elected to be photographed on the road-crossing in denims). Other leading dandies of the period were also his clients, including Sir Roy Strong (then Director of the National Portrait Gallery), Mick Jagger and Elton John.

Nutter also applied his craft to dressing female icons of swinging London society at the time, including Cilla Black, a close friend, and Bianca Jagger, who was much photographed at the time in a white dinner jacket with white satin facings. Nutter also made a red velvet suit for Twiggy which became a celebrated and much-copied look when she was photographed wearing it in the early Seventies.

In 1971 he was elected to the Best-Dressed List in the United States, along with the Earl of Snowdon and Hardy Amies. At the time, American Menswear magazine said of Nutter that he was 'tradition spiced with daring'.

'He never got things wrong about clothes,' said the restaurateur and bookshop-owner Stuart Grimshaw, who was a client of Tommy Nutter's from the late Sixties. 'He really knew what he was talking about. One would go in and say, 'What do I wear to go on safari in Kenya?' and Tommy would make one an absolutely correct safari suit, a proper one with all the pockets in exactly the right place.

'This knowledge extended to such minutiae as the correct wearing of half or full brogues or co-respondent shoes. He was an encyclopaedia of correct, classical male style.'

Clients from the hipper purlieus of the aristocracy, from the media, pop stars, and even aspiring teenage dandies from the East End whose ambition, in the early Seventies, was to own a Nutter suit, were drawn to Tommy Nutter not only because of his ineffable sense of style, but also because of his peculiarly ironic personality.

Andrew Lloyd Webber was a client and friend. 'He made me a lot of things when one was younger and trendier,' Lloyd Webber said. 'There was a wonderful maroon coat I remember I wore for Ascot - he was always such fun, very much part of my early life when Jesus Christ Superstar was going on - he made clothes for Tim Rice too - we were all great mates'.

Nutter was a gentle humorist who had a wide and interesting circle of friends attracted by his enthusiasm, by his gentle, self-mocking personality and his acerbic comments on the vagaries of others, always ending with the expression 'But who am I to talk?' He was a prodigious and witty correspondent and his letters to his many friends are treasured. In addition, he delighted in writing to the serious newspapers on topics as far-ranging as the correct buttoning of the suit on a statue of John F. Kennedy, to the scarcity of deckchairs in Green Park. He was always very ready to spring to the defence if his beloved Savile Row came under attack, as it so frequently did in the anarchic Sixties.

Nutter was also a firm believer in the supremacy of the English suit and of English cloth; during the Seventies and early Eighties he took part in huge international fashion shows put on by Reid & Taylor, the Scottish firm of woollen and worsted manufacturers.

With his untimely death, from complications arising from Aids, London society loses a witty and elegant dandy, whose hand-rolled lapels and insouciant manner masked a serious and continuing purpose; to make sure that the craft and traditions of Savile Row tailoring were preserved for, and valued by, his generation.

Partners In Crime - major new BBC One drama for Agatha Christie’s 125th celebration year /THE INTERNATIONAL AGATHA CHRISTIE FESTIVAL SEPTEMBER 2015 | TORQUAY, DEVON / VÍDEO: Partners in Crime scene

Partners In Crime - major new BBC One drama for Agatha Christie’s 125th celebration year

"In bringing these thrilling stories to the screen, it is our ambition for Tommy and Tuppence to finally take their rightful place alongside Poirot and Marple as iconic Agatha Christie characters."

David Walliams

Date: 18.09.2014 Last updated: 18.09.2014 at 08.42

Category: BBC One; Drama; Commissions and casting

BBC One brings Endor Productions and Acorn Productions' Agatha Christie’s married couple Tommy and Tuppence to life in a brand-new six-part adventure series for the channel. Partners In Crime stars David Walliams (Little Britain, Big School) as

Tommy and Jessica Raine (Call The Midwife, Wolf Hall) as Tuppence.

Directed by Edward Hall (Restless, Downton Abbey), episodes 1-3, 'The Secret Adversary', are written by award-winning author, playwright and director Zinnie Harris, (Spooks, Born With Two Mothers, Richard Is My Boyfriend) with the following three, 'N or M?' penned by Claire Wilson, (Where There Is Darkness, Twist).

Partners In Crime is produced by Georgina Lowe, (Mr Turner, Mad Dogs), executive produced by Emmy award-winning Hilary Bevan Jones (Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot, State Of Play), David Walliams, Hilary Strong (Poirot, Have I Got News For You) and Mathew Prichard for Acorn Productions/Agatha Christie Ltd and Matthew Read for the BBC.

Partners In Crime is an adventure series with espionage and humour at its heart. Set in a 1950s Britain rising from the ashes of the Blitz into the grip of a new Cold War, our beekeeping duo stumble into a world of murder, undercover agents and cold war conspiracy.

Tuppence is a woman who sees adventure round every corner, throwing herself head first into every mystery with passion and fervour, determined to get to the truth no matter what it takes, much to the dismay of her more cautious husband Tommy.

Hilary Bevan Jones, executive producer and founder of Endor Productions, says: “To introduce the iconic Christie characters Tommy and Tuppence and their adventures to a whole new generation, is a fabulous opportunity for all of us at Endor. Our incredible creative team of David Walliams, Zinnie Harris and Claire Wilson are crafting a drama that promises to be exciting, fun and fresh. With the inspirational Edward Hall directing the whole series, and Georgina Lowe producing, we have a clarity and cohesiveness of ambition that promises only the best.”

David Walliams says: “In bringing these thrilling stories to the screen, it is our ambition for Tommy and Tuppence to finally take their rightful place alongside Poirot and Marple as iconic Agatha Christie characters. I was first drawn to the delicious notion of a married couple solving crimes together, and the more I read of the Tommy and Tuppence novels and short stories, the more I realised they are among Christie’s very best work.”

Hilary Strong, Managing Director, Acorn Productions, says: “We are excited to be working with the BBC and Endor to bring Agatha Christie to a whole new generation of viewers as we continue to build the Christie brand worldwide. Partners In Crime is the first of two major new dramas for 2015, the second of which is a new production of And Then There Were None, one of Christie’s most popular novels of all time. I am delighted that our partnership with the BBC will play a central part in our 125th anniversary celebrations next year.”

Mathew Prichard, Chairman of Agatha Christie Ltd, says: “The first Tommy and Tuppence novel was published in 1922 and my grandmother, Agatha Christie, would be thrilled to see her crime-fighting team reinvigorated for the BBC over 90 years on from when she first brought them to life.”

Ben Stephenson Controller of Drama Commissioning, says: “This new and exciting partnership between David and Jessica promises to bring a fresh new take on these classic and well-loved adventures. With their combination of humour, wit and talent, I can’t think of two people better suited to take on the iconic roles of Tommy and Tuppence.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2014/partners-in-crime

http://www.agathachristiefestival.com/

THE INTERNATIONAL

AGATHA CHRISTIE

FESTIVAL

SEPTEMBER 2015 | TORQUAY, DEVON

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

AGATHA CHRISTIE: LIFE, LITERATURE, LEGACY

The 2015 International Agatha Christie Festival takes place in Torquay, Devon, UK between 11 – 20 September.

Celebrating the 125th anniversary of the birth of the Queen of Crime, the festival offers a week-long programme of new and unique events.

Our programme includes performances and film screenings, expert talks exploring Agatha Christie’s life and times, and opportunities to enjoy food, drink and dancing in some of the finest venues on the English Riviera.

At Torre Abbey visitors will find the International Agatha Christie Festival ‘hub’. The entrance ticket will provide access to the house, gardens and Book Tent as well as a free programme of daily activities and a very special newly-curated exhibition, Agatha Christie: Unfinished Portrait.

Ticketed events will also be held in The Spanish Barn at Torre Abbey, The Grand Hotel, The Imperial Hotel, the Princess Theatre, the Palace Theatre, The Little Theatre, Torquay Museum, Cockington Court, Greenway (National Trust), Churston Church and Oddicombe Beach.

For those seeking creative inspiration there will also be a professionally led workshop programme for aspiring writers and plenty of participatory events for young people

We will shortly be adding a map of Torbay showing quirky quieter spaces in which visitors may wish to do their own creative writing or simply read and watch the world go by.

Tickets for most of the festival events are available through our dedicated festival online bookings system. Some venues are selling tickets directly so please read the booking details carefully.

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THE 2015 FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

This year the International Agatha Christie Festival celebrates the life, literature and legacy of Agatha Christie on the 125th anniversary of her birth in Torquay with an exciting mix of literary talks from best-selling crime writers, theatre performances, talks, writers’ workshops, children’s events, cookery demonstrations, film screenings, a birthday garden party, a tea dance and a glamorous ball.

Each day of our nine-day festival has a theme around which the events have been programmed.

Friday 11 September – Festival launch

Saturday 12 September – Festive Family Fun

Sunday 13 September – Agatha Christie and the First World War

Monday 14 September – Miss Marple, Music and Unsolved Mysteries

Tuesday 15 September – The Birthday and the next 125 years.

Wednesday 16 September – The Golden Age of Detective Fiction

Thursday 17 September – International Christie and Adaptations

Friday 18 September – Agatha Christie and the Theatre

Saturday 19 September – Agatha for Everyone

Sunday 20 September – Festival Finale

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ABOUT AGATHA CHRISTIE

Agatha Christie: a life in brief

Born into a prosperous Anglo-American family in Torquay on 15 September 1890 and named Agatha Mary Clarissa by her parents, Frederick and Clara (nee Boehmer) Miller.

Acquires the name by which she becomes world famous in 1914 through her Christmas Eve marriage in Bristol to Clifton College graduate Archie Christie, a career soldier and qualified pilot already embroiled in ‘The Great War’.

As her war effort, Agatha becomes a Torquay hospital volunteer and so meets the Belgian refugees who are to influence the character of Hercule Poirot and gains, though her pharmacy duties, a basic knowledge of potions and poisons.

The first Agatha Christie crime novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles is published in 1920 and features the debut of Hercule Poirot.

Another 80 Agatha Christie crime novels and short story collections then follow, along with six romances published under the name Mary Westmacott.

In 1928 she and Archie Christie divorce and she subsequently meets and marries the archaeologist Max Mallowan, later Sir Max Mallowan. In 1938 they buy Greenway House, near Brixham, as a holiday retreat and it remains in family hands until 1999 when passes into the care of the National Trust.

During the Second World War, Max’s knowledge of Arabia sees him posted to North Africa while Agatha volunteers for pharmacy duties at University College, London.

On 21 September 1943, Agatha becomes a grandmother when her only child Rosalind – the daughter of Archie Christie and married to Hubert Prichard – gives birth to a son, Mathew.

In 1971, Agatha is made a Dame Commander of the British Empire, with the result that she and Max become one of the very few married couples in which both partners have earned a knightly honour in their own right.

Today’s estimate is that more than 2 billion of her books have been sold worldwide, making her the world’s best-selling author, out-ranked only by the works of Shakespeare and The Holy Bible.

Agatha Christie is also the world’s most translated novelist, with her books appearing in 100+ languages, according to UNESCO. She is also the most successful woman playwright.

Her play The Mousetrap holds the world record for the longest running theatre show, having opened in London’s West End in 1952 and still playing there, more than 25,000 performances later.

Agatha Christie dies on 12 January 1976, aged 85, and is buried in Oxfordshire.

The last book she writes is Posterns of Fate, a Tommy and Tuppence story, published in 1973 but it is followed into bookshops by Curtain, the last case of Hercule Poirot (1975) and by a final Miss Marple mystery, Sleeping Murder (1976) – both written more than 30 years earlier but held back in accordance with the author’s wishes.

Very many Christie stories have been made into films or television dramas and this year the number will rise even higher with the BBC making a new version of And Then There Were None and screening Partners in Crime, a series based on the Tommy and Tuppence stories and starring David Walliams and Jessica Raine.

A Visit with Joe Morgan of Chittleborough & Morgan Pt. 1

https://www.chittleboroughandmorgan.co.uk/

 

The History of

Chittleborough & Morgan

at Nutters

Roy Chittleborough and Joseph Morgan, together with Edward Sexton, were the sartorial skill that gave life to the glorious creations of Tommy Nutter. When NUTTER’S of Savile Row opened on Valentine’s Day 1969 and Tommy’s exuberant style burst forth into the public glare, both the realm of bespoke tailoring and the world of high-fashion were changed forever.

 

Tommy brought a new, revolutionary energy and a rebellious style to Savile Row. His signature broad lapels and roped shoulders worn on jackets paired with tight, high-waisted, pocket-less trousers formed a remarkably dynamic silhouette. Tommy, Edward, and Roy and Joe dressed the entire social spectrum from the Dukes and Lords to the celebrity elite, with clients including Elton John and Mick and Bianca Jagger. The Beatles were big fans and John Lennon, Ringo Star and Paul McCartney famously crossed Abbey Road in NUTTER’S suits.

 

In 1981, Roy and Joe established their own bespoke tailoring firm Chittleborough & Morgan on Savile Row. They created a contemporary, architectural house style that nonetheless retains an unmistakable energy and character borne of its NUTTER’S heritage. The quality of craftsmanship within Chittleborough & Morgan has always been of paramount importance to creating each individual piece, in harmony with our strong house style. Each garment made is a unique expression of the tailor’s art and of our commitment to the highest bespoke standards.  To this day, the house only produces bespoke clothing with no ready-to-wear or made-to-measure.

 

The Cutters and Tailors

Chittleborough & Morgan offer the highest standards of bespoke tailoring. There is no ready-to-wear or made-to-measure, so every garment created by Chittleborough & Morgan is unique and made with exceptional quality.

Roy Chittleborough retired in 2011 entrusting the house to Joe Morgan. Since then (thanks in no small part to Joe’s passion) the team has grown and the house has established itself as one of the most technically rigorous bespoke tailors on Savile Row and its focus on the most demanding aspects of the tailor’s art has become legendary.

 

A Chittleborough & Morgan suit today is meticulously handmade in authentic Savile Row tradition and the result feels dynamic, elegant and sharp. Joe and the tailors  working with him share a passion and pride in the clothing they create and are dedicated to satisfying the needs of every customer that walks through their door, no matter who they may be and what sartorial requirements they bring.

 

JOE MORGAN

JOSEPH MORGAN has been working in bespoke tailoring ever since he left school aged 15. Having completed a coatmaking apprenticeship at Meyer & Mortimer, Joe turned his attention to cutting and excelled in his apprenticeship with Dennis Wilkinson.

 

Identified as a young talent, Joe was head-hunted by the legendary NUTTER'S of Savile Row where he worked alongside Tommy Nutter and Edward Sexton to give life to the house's revolutionary stylish look. Upon leaving NUTTER'S to co-found Chittleborough & Morgan, Joe worked as Head Cutter alongside Roy. Developing his aesthetic to create a dynamic, architectural house style, pushing himself to produce the most technically demanding tailoring on Savile Row. Roy Chittleborough retired in 2012 and since then Joe has steered the house, becoming one of the driving forces of British bespoke.

 

In 2015, he was awarded the high accolade of Master Tailor by the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors in recognition of his extraordinary commitment to the art of bespoke tailoring. He constantly works to fulfil his philosophy; that nothing should compromise the quality of one's clothing. Under his guidance, his team strive to produce some of the most uncompromising and stylish Savile Row tailoring available today.

Saville Row / The Past. The Present . The Future / VÍDEO:Saville Row (1946)

20TH CENTURY (POST 1950)

1952: Douglas Fairbanks Jr declares, ‘Savile Row has recaptured the tailoring supremacy of the world.’ Fairbanks Jr is one of the 20th century heroes of Savile Row. It is recorded in Anderson & Sheppard’s ledgers that he recommended Marlene Dietrich to the firm when she was in England making the Russian revolution epic Knight Without Armour.

1953: Queen Elizabeth II is crowned with the tailoring firms Wilkinson & Son (owned by J. Dege & Sons) and Ede & Ravenscroft in attendance at Westminster Abbey to dress the monarch, visiting royals and peers of the realm for what is the most elaborate ceremonial occasion in the nation’s calendar. The military uniforms, the ambassadors’ court dress and national and colonial liveries on display show off the mastery of the grand old Savile Row houses of Henry Poole, Davies & Son and Welsh & Jeffries.

1955: Hardy Amies is granted The Queen’s Royal Warrant and remains court dressmaker until his retirement in 2002. Stanley Lock takes over C E Phipps, which was founded in 1898 to produce embroideries for the burgeoning fashion industry.

1958: G.J. Cleverley & Co, Savile Row’s preferred bespoke shoemaker, opens at 27 Cork Street in Mayfair. The firm goes on to make shoes for Sir Winston Churchill, Laurence Olivier, Fred Astaire, Clark Gable and Sir John Gielgud.

1959: Kilgour, French & Stanbury create Cary Grant’s iconic suits for Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest. Savile Row is recognised as the pinnacle of masculine elegance by cinema goers worldwide and North by North West and Grant achieve for bespoke Savile Row tailoring what Audrey Hepburn and Breakfast at Tiffany’s did for haute couture and ‘the little black dress’ two years later in 1961.

1961: Tragedy strikes Henry Poole & Co. The lease expires on Poole’s Savile Row palace and the company is forced to relocate to Cork Street. Despite protests in The Daily Telegraph, Poole’s inexplicably unlisted building is raised to the ground. Lost during this period are the patterns cut for iconic Poole customers Napoleon III, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens and Edward VII. Mercifully, the firm’s ledgers survive. Hawes & Curtis predict a glowing future as a ‘first class tailor’ for apprentice John Pearse. Instead, Pearse drops out, tours Europe, then opens the infamous boutique ‘Granny Takes A Trip’ in the Kings Road in 1965, where he dresses Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles.

1963: Maurice Sedwell opens his shop on Savile Row.

1966: H. Huntsman & Sons is invited to make bespoke suits for the England football team which wins the World Cup.

1967: Tommy Nutter and Edward Sexton meet as salesboy and cutter respectively at Donaldson, Williams & Ward in Burlington Arcade. They will go on to form the most creative partnership in Savile Row’s history.

1969: Nutters of Savile Row opens on Valentine’s Day and unleashes the Tommy Nutter/Edward Sexton style on swinging London. Backed by Cilla Black and The Beatles’ record company Apple’s executive Peter Brown, Nutters of Savile Row dresses the entire social spectrum from the Duke of Bedford and Lord Montagu to Mick and Bianca Jagger and The Beatles. Nutters is the first shop on Savile Row to pioneer ‘open windows’ and exhibits some wild displays by Simon Doonan. Mount Street bespoke tailor to the stars Douglas Hayward dresses Michael Caine in the famous bullion robbery caper The Italian Job. Caine’s skinny suits and tone-on-tone white shirt and tie combinations set a cocky, sharp tailored style that resonates today.

1971: Maverick screen actress Katherine Hepburn, whose long-term lover Spencer Tracey was a customer of Huntsman, takes the extraordinary step of ordering bespoke denim jeans from her late lover’s Savile Row tailor. Hepburn’s commission foreshadows bespoke denim collections launched in 2006 by Timothy Everest and Evisu. Huntsman’s very stylish Head Cutter Colin Hammick tops Savile Row devotees Rex Harrison, Lord Snowdon and the Duke of Windsor in Tailor & Cutter magazine’s prestigious best dressed list.

1973: Robert Redford stars in the definitive film of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald was a dedicated customer of Jermyn Street bespoke shirt maker Turnbull & Asser. The shirts that reduce The Great Gatsby’s socialite heroine Daisy (Mia Farrow) to tears with their beauty in the film all bear the Turnbull & Asser bespoke label.

1974: Gieves Ltd acquires Hawkes (and the precious freehold of No 1 Savile Row) and becomes Gieves & Hawkes.Tommy Nutter seeks sanctuary at Kilgour, French & Stanbury after his acrimonious exit from Nutters of Savile Row. Kilgour also incorporates the famed hunt tailoring specialist Bernard Weatherill. Nutters of Savile Row continues with Sexton, Roy Chittleborough and Joseph Morgan. Maurice Sedwell hires Trinidad-born Andrew Ramroop who will go on to become Managing Director and a Professor of tailoring at the London College of Fashion.

1976: Gieves & Hawkes and Anderson & Sheppard alumnus Anthony Hewitt opens his own bespoke tailoring shop on Savile Row, A.J.Hewitt. The company prospers thanks to the Middle Eastern oil boom and the advent of young cutters Ravi Tailor and James Levett in 1979.

1978: 007 actor Roger Moore becomes a tax exile and invites his friend and tailor Douglas Hayward to his Cote d’Azur villa to dress him for the next James Bond film For Your Eyes Only. It is acknowledged that Hayward’s back-to-classic navy pinstripe three-piece suit is Bond at his sartorial best.

1979: Davies & Son is forced to leave its handsome Hanover Street townhouse where a private room had been set aside for King George V that was fitted with a tube not dissimilar to a hose pipe to communicate with the tailors upstairs. While clearing out the attic sets, which were reserved as places of assignation for titled customers to meet their mistresses, the firm discovers a bill for Sir Robert Peel (founder of London’s first police force) from 1829.

1980: A year into Margaret Thatcher’s reign as British Prime Minister, Andrew Ramroop becomes unofficial tailor to half the Tory Cabinet, which restores a pride in Savile Row bespoke tailoring to the corridors of power in the Palace of Westminster.

1981: H.M.Sultan Qaboos of Oman confers his exotic Royal Warrant on J.Dege & Sons. In arguably the most exotic commission conferred on a Savile Row tailor, Sultan Qaboos commanded Dege & Skinner to create uniforms for his Royal Oman Police Camel Pipe Band.

1981: H.R.H. The Prince of Wales marries Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral. Gieves & Hawkes make the uniform for Prince Charles while the pageboys – including Lord Frederick Windsor and Edward van Cutsem – are dressed in Naval Cadet uniforms that were originally made by the firm for Prince Charles’s Grandfather King George VI and his Great Uncle The Duke of Windsor when they served as Royal Navy Cadets aboard H.M.S. Britannia. Roy Chittleborough & Joseph Morgan part company with Edward Sexton and continue trading under their own names. Edward Sexton opens his shop at 37 Savile Row and cements his reputation as Savile Row’s jet setting export, establishing a formidable business in the United States.

1982: Henry Poole MD Angus Cundey brings the firm back to Savile Row after twenty-years in exile on Cork Street.

1984: 24 year old East Ender Mark Powell opens Powell & Co on Soho’s Archer Street. His look – a re-mix of sartorial influences such as Neo-Edwardian, 30s Mobster and 60s Kray twin chic – pays homage to the creativity of Tommy Nutter and paves the way for the new generation of Savile Row tailors of the 1990s.

1985: After an encounter with Federico Fellini in Rome and a subsequent career as a maverick filmmaker, John Pearse returns to tailoring and opens a shop on Soho’s Meard Street.

1990: H.R.H. The Prince of Wales appoints Welsh & Jeffries his military tailor.

1991: Former Tommy Nutter apprentice Timothy Everest – who answered Nutter’s newspaper advertisement for a ‘Boy Wanted’ – opens his first bespoke tailoring shop in an East End Georgian townhouse declaring, ‘Opening a shop on Savile Row would be like moving in with my parents.’

1992: Richard James, the first of the ‘New Generation’ tailors, opens a shop on Savile Row. James introduces Saturday opening (a revolution on Savile Row) and a fashionable edge not seen since the house of Nutter’s glory days. Tommy Nutter dies. As a fitting epitaph, the outlandish purple suit Jack Nicholson wears playing The Joker, which was one of Nutter’s final commissions, appears on screen in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns.

1996: Ozwald Boateng unleashes his exotic, electric concept of Bespoke Couture on Savile Row from his new shop at No 9 Vigo Street.

1997: Ozwald Boateng, Richard James and Timothy Everest are christened ‘The New Generation’ on Savile Row and photographed by Michael Roberts for the London Swings Again issue of Vanity Fair. Alan Bennett buys Davies & Son, and incorporates Johns & Pegg, James & James, and Wells of Mayfair. Gianni Versace is shot dead outside his Miami palazzo. It emerges that in his later years the designer had become a bespoke customer at J. Dege & Sons (now Dege & Skinner), in addition to buying made-to-measure from Richard James. Diana, Princess of Wales is tragically killed in a car accident with Dodi Al Fayed in Paris on August 30th. Orders under construction for the Princess that were never collected are still held by Maurice Sedwell on Savile Row, John Lobb on St James’s Street and Turnbull & Asser on Jermyn Street.

1998: A.J. Hewitt acquires the colonial bespoke tailoring specialist Airey & Wheeler.

http://www.savilerowbespoke.com/about-us/history/20th-century-post-1950/

21ST CENTURY

2000: Richard James acquires the biggest shop space on Savile Row at No 29. The ‘goldfish bowl’ glass windows slice Savile Row and Clifford Street at right angles like a breathtaking infinity pool of bespoke, made-to-measure and ready-to-wear Richard James.

2001: Former Huntsman head cutter Richard Anderson opens his bespoke tailoring house at No 13 Savile Row. His partner and co-founder is Brian Lishak, a Huntsman man with half a century of experience on the Row. Having apprenticed while still at St Martin’s fashion college with Edward Sexton, Stella McCartney invites Sexton to develop the tailoring for her debut as creative director of Chloe. On the embroidery front, S. Lock and M. Hand come together to form Hand & Lock.

2002: In an intriguing collaboration, former Anderson & Sheppard apprentice and enfant terrible of British fashion Alexander McQueen unveils a bespoke collection made by H. Huntsman & Sons. The exquisite but prohibitively costly enterprise is quietly terminated. Nick Hart opens Spencer Hart at 36 Savile Row, combining a bespoke sensibility with the severe chic of old school Prada, Jil Sander and Helmut Lang. He goes on to dress David Bowie, Jay-Z, Jamie Foxx and Kanye West.

2003: After a management buyout, Kilgour drops the French & Stanbury and appoints Carlo Brandelli as creative director. The house sets about ‘sexing-up’ Savile Row in a strategy not dissimilar to Tom Ford’s at Gucci in 1995. Sir Hardy Amies, a Savile Row legend and one of its greatest patrons, dies. He is succeeded by his protégée Ian Garlant, who remains creative director of the house.

2004: The Savile Row Bespoke Association, the organisation designed to represent bespoke tailors’ interests on the Row, is formed. Founder members include the Royal Family of bespoke tailoring: Anderson & Sheppard, Dege & Skinner, Gieves & Hawkes and Henry Poole. Having flirted with liquidation, H. Huntsman & Sons is saved by four sympathetic investors including present MD David Coleridge. The Savile Row Bespoke Association acts to protect the craft and good name of Savile Row and ward off interlopers by registering the Savile Row Bespoke Association label. The label is to appear in each of the Savile Row Bespoke Association members’ bespoke garments and serves as a guarantee to the customer that he or she is in receipt of a genuine, bespoke, made on Savile Row piece of clothing.

2005: Anderson & Sheppard is forced to vacate No 30 Savile Row and relocate to 32 Old Burlington Street. Gieves & Hawkes make morning coats for The Princes William and Harry to wear at the wedding of their father Prince Charles to Camilla Parker-Bowles (now Duchess of Cornwall). Timothy Everest edges closer to Savile Row with a bespoke and made-to-measure studio on Bruton Place in Mayfair. Young entrepreneur Patrick Grant and his investors acquire Norton & Sons from the Granger family. Tom Ford exits Gucci Group as creative director and commissions Anderson & Sheppard to make white tie and tails for a defiant photo shoot in W magazine to publicise the launch of his own bespoke tailoring house. Embroiderers Hand & Lock move to Margaret Street.

2006: Gieves, the fashion-led boutique brand within Gieves & Hawkes designed by Joe Casely-Hayford, is shown on the catwalk during Paris Fashion Week for the first time. Henry Poole’s Savile Row lease is signed for a further 15 years and both shop and workshops are gutted and refurbished to bring Poole’s into the 21st Century. Ozwald Boateng’s US reality TV show The House of Boateng is aired on Robert Redford’s Sundance Channel and brings his vision of New Generation Savile Row dandyism to the cable generation. Chittleborough & Morgan open a new space in the basement of No 12 Savile Row. Richard Anderson rocks the Row with a black sequin dinner jacket that is ordered by Bryan Ferry and photographed worldwide. Douglas Hayward’s daughter Polly succeeds her father as MD of the company.

2007: Florentine fashion foundation Pitti Immagine Uomo commission the first major exhibition dedicated to Savile Row bespoke tailoring. Titled The London Cut, The exhibition runs for a month at Palazzo Pitti and is accompanied by a book written by the curator James Sherwood. The Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture invites Savile Row to bring The London Cut to the British Ambassador’s residence in Paris during July Couture Week. Richard James opens a new shop on Clifford Street dedicated entirely to his bespoke service while Ozwald Boateng takes Anderson & Sheppard’s old site at No 30 Savile Row for his first flagship store and cutting room. After a brief, unhappy marriage between Japanese jeans brand Evisu and Anthony J Hewitt, Hewitt MD Ravi Tailor leaves the Row to work from L.G. Wilkinson on St George’s Street. Robert Gieve, the fifth and last generation of the family to serve Gieves & Hawkes, dies.

2008: The legendary celebrity tailor Douglas (The Italian Job) Hayward dies. A new Archive Room at Gieves & Hawkes at No 1 Savile Row is curated by James Sherwood and inaugurated in honour of the late Robert Gieve. In March 2008 The London Cut exhibition is invited to show at the British Ambassador’s Residence in Tokyo. A satellite exhibition then travels to Isetan in Tokyo where Savile Row dominates the prestigious store’s windows and exhibition space. A three one-hour episide documentary mapping a year in the life of Savile Row is aired on BBC4 while BBC2 follows The London Cut to Tokyo for a further British fashion series to be aired in the autumn. One of the Row’s best dressed men, former Huntsman Head Cutter Brian Hammick, sadly dies.

2009: Queues form when Savile Row puts on its revealing ‘Below the Row’ show for one of the Victoria & Albert museum’s Friday Late exhibitions. Curated in conjunction with the V&A by students Chris Pollard and Susan Paisley, the exhibition shines light on the ‘dark art’ of bespoke tailoring by creating a working tailor’s shop and rarely seen subterranean workshop. The public’s increasing interest in the inner goings on of the Row is served with the publication of Richard Anderson’s fascinating book Bespoke: Savile Row Ripped & Smooth.

2010: Savile Row gathers en masse at the vibrantly refurbished Savoy hotel in London to celebrate the publication of James Sherwood’s definitive study of the Row’s inhabitants and their craft, Savile Row: The Master Tailors of British Bespoke. To help the occasion along, the Savoy invents the Savile Row Collins, a fine, stealthy gin based cocktail. Onlookers are agog as sheep appear on a grassed over Row for the hugely successful Savile Row Field Day, which is held in support of the Campaign for Wool, whose aim it is to increase demand and awareness of the wool industry.

2011: Another insider’s account of life on the Row as Michael Skinner’s (he of Dege & Skinner) enthralling book The Savile Row Cutter is published. The 150th anniversary of the tuxedo is celebrated by its inventor Henry Poole & Co and students of the London College of Fashion, who, in conjunction with fabric supplier Dormeuil, set about re-inventing the iconic jacket. The 21st century tuxedos go on display in Harrods and Burlington Arcade in London before appearing at the tuxedo historical society in New York. Does any other jacket have its own historical society?

2012: Emma Martin of Dege & Skinner wins BBC3’s jazz themed Young Tailor of the Year award, with her Oxford Bags wowing the judges. Savile Row is the scene of a very well dressed protest as scores of readers of The Chap magazine assemble outside No. 3 to protest against Abercrombie & Fitch’s plans to take over the building. June, and the tailors of the Row play their part in the British Fashion Council’s inaugural London Collections: Men by hosting Savile Row Open Day (see the News section) and a stunning cocktail party in Burlington Arcade.

2013: Savile Row’s stunning contribution to the second London Collections: Men is The English Gentleman at Spencer House. Sixty models are dressed by the Row’s tailors and effortlessly demonstrate that Savile Row remains the centre of classic men’s style. March, and the Savile Row Room opens at The Campaign For Wool’s Wool House exhibition at Somerset House with queues quickly forming for the cutting and tailoring masterclass demonstrations. An exciting new chapter begins for Huntsman as internationally acclaimed couturier Roubi L’Roubi takes the reins of this most venerable of Savile Row houses as owner and Creative Director.

2014: The Row makes its own inimitable contribution to London Collections: Men men’s fashion week with its brilliantly original The English Gentleman presentation at The Cabinet War Rooms in January and the fascinating Meet Me in Rio film in July. May sees Open Row, as our members work together with our partners Chivas to open their doors and give 300 style-conscious individuals a never before behind-the-scenes look at the workings of our famous street.

2015: The year gets off to a flying start with Savile Row’s The English Gentleman taking up the prestigious closing spot of January’s London Collections: Men with another eye-catching presentation of the art of bespoke tailoring and contemporary men’s style, this time at Apsley House, the palatial London home of the Duke of Wellington. To coincide with LC:M, the revered Huntsman opens an in-house pop-up store at 11 Savile Row to showcase the collection of clothing inspired by the role of a fictional spy HQ that it plays in the major new feature film Kingsman: The Secret Service.

http://www.savilerowbespoke.com/about-us/history/21st-century/