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• ravi tailor |
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Ravi Tailor is managing director and head cutter at the Anthony J Hewitt house (and of Airey & Wheeler, the firm known for lightweights acquired by Hewitt's), Mr Hewitt having opted for semi-retirement.
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His name, he explains, comes from being born into a long line of tailors, starting with his great grandfather who made clothes for British officers and civil servants during the days of the Raj in India.
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"I just naturally joined my father's tailoring shop in Zambia, where I was born, and that's where my training started. But I knew that to become an exceptional cutter I would have to move to London and to Savile Row, and so that's what I did in 1977."
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It was in 1979 that he joined A J Hewitt, where he was trained further by Mr Hewitt and also attended evening classes at the Tailor & Cutter Academy (now alas defunct).
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"The classic business suit is still what customers want," he reports, " but I keep an eye on all the latest trends and I can execute any new style features - but so that they have the classic fit and comfort of a Savile Row suit." |
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He visits New York regularly and this season will take his current undercutter trainee with him, young Elizabeth Brophy, who has been with the firm for three years and is set upon a career in Savile Row. |
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"It's important that we train young people in the traditional Savile Row skills, so that they can combine them with modern trends. And there are plenty of young people now who are interested in coming into the Row and learning the craft. I think it's a wonderful career." |
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• brian lishak & Richard Anderson |
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Brian Lishak, co-founder of Richard Anderson, chalks up 50 years in the Row this year, prompting a celebration to come this summer. He not only still gets tremendous enjoyment from the job but looks as though he does too, fit, cheery and tanned from a recent business trip to Florida . |
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"I came into the business by accident, really" he explains. "I was waiting for a university place and decided to get a job while I was waiting. My father saw an ad for a trainee at Huntsman, I applied and started as a junior salesman - and just fell in love with it. I was meeting all these famous people and everyone at Huntsman was so nice, it was wonderful." He made his first trip to the U.S. in 1956 (then travelling on the old Queen Mary ship as all the top tailors did) and has visited there regularly ever since, though now travelling in less leisurely style.
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His fellow director, Richard Anderson, also came into tailoring almost by accident, interested in clothing but not sure what he wanted to do. "Then I saw an ad for a trainee cutter at Huntsman. I started there in 1982 and it was certainly a bit of a culture shock, another world, but I'm sure the discipline was what I needed and I loved it." |
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They both left Huntsman in 2001 to set up Richard Anderson Ltd, just a few doors along the Row. They combine all the best of traditional Savile Row with a fresh approach, seeking out new cloths and colourings and concentrating upon a long, slim line, natural shoulders, high armhole, softly waisted and slightly flared. |
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They report all men, including Americans, are wearing their trousers a little longer now, and that the preference seems to be for flat fronts. There's also demand for more relaxed clothes, and they will make some quite eye-catching specials for anyone looking for something a little different. |
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An example of this is the black sequin dinner jacket that has proved an eye-catcher in their window - one English customer, an artist, has ordered two, one in black and one in scarlet. Who says Savile Row is staid? |
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:: Meet the Tailors:: |
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Ravi Tailor |
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Brian Lishak |
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Richard Anderson |
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