IRATE TAILORS FORM NEW RIVAL ALLIANCE

Hostilities have broken out in Savile Row, sparked off by the recent three-part TV series 'Savile Row'.  A new body is being formed, 'Savile Row Alliance', in direct competition to the existing one, 'Savile Row Bespoke', which was given prominence in the series.

Savile Row Bespoke was set up three years ago to represent the tailors’ interest, but has allowed only houses actually on the Row or within yards of it to become members.

This has generated considerable ill-feeling among other bespoke houses – “It has divided the trade,” Malcolm Plews of Welsh & Jeffries , left, told us – and so the Savile Row Alliance, is being formed. This is to be “broad, roomy and all-inclusive”, Edward Sexton explained.  After meetings attended by eight others of the trade’s established houses, the new body is to invite all of those they judge to be real bespoke tailors to become members, without the geographical constrictions of SRB.

These restrictions are by no means the only cause for ire among those outside its ranks, however.  They feel there needs to be more concentration upon the true merits of Savile Row’s bespoke craftsmen and upon the future of the trade, not the past.

“SRB – that stands for Slightly Round Back,” says the irrepressible Edward Sexton, right, a Row veteran, who trained under the great Fred Stanbury. He was featured in the TV series but is not eligible for SRB membership because of his Knightsbridge location. “They are looking down at their toes, not raising their eyes to the future.”

“The Savile Row Alliance is about putting the heart back into Savile Row,” David Cook of Denman & Goddard explained, seen below.  As one of the major motivators behind its launch, he is at pains to emphasise the new body will concentrate upon true bespoke standards and on those who are hands-on tailors. “Most of the companies we see becoming our members are owned by the people who do the work.”

“We’re in the process of contacting potential members now and I reckon have about

18 lined up who are eager to join.  We should all cooperate, not be aloof and exclusive, and all decisions must be taken collectively.”

To the layman, this may all seem a storm in a teacup.  But the bespoke tailoring craft, under the generic title of Savile Row, is an important sector of excellence and exclusivity for Britain, earning considerable revenue from overseas clients and with a world-wide reputation.

It receives no special considerations, as it might in Italy or France, is constantly worried about rising rents and leases, and has been swamped by ready-to-wear competition in recent years. Committed to labour-intensive personal service and  to a customer confidentiality that has disappeared elsewhere in this ‘Hello’ age, it is deserving of wider appreciation through the spotlight of publicity.

Alas, Savile Row’s traditions of reticence make it ill-equipped to understand marketing, and its equally traditional parsimony means it can ill afford it. And we must not under-estimate the jealous rivalry between these craftsmen, and women, proud of their skills and protective of their reputations. Like all artists, they can be temperamental.

To manage to get one new organisation off the ground, therefore, was quite a feat, largely due to the efforts of Mark Henderson, right, at Gieves & Hawkes.  But there’s another rub.  Many of the tailors see Gieves as a major menswear outlet rather than one of their bespoke houses, despite Gieves’ bespoke section.  Resentment was bound to fester about the ‘big boys’ - Gieves, Poole, Dege & Skinner and Anderson & Sheppard  - getting too much attention.

Now, to get another tailoring body started shows the strength of feeling in the trade – and perhaps provides Savile Row (generically) with potential for more promotion and attention than it has had for many a long year.