THE KING'S TAILOR - BY APPOINTMENT

After the movie, now reality: the real-life tailor to George Vl – Benson & Clegg.

The tailor who made for movie king Colin Firth, in the Oscar-winning film ‘The King’s Speech’, was featured in the previous edition of Savile Row Style. But it is Benson & Clegg who can claim to have made for the monarch in real life, and have a Royal Warrant to prove it.

“Yes, we were making for the then Duke of York before he became King,” confirms Ken Austin of the company. “And we received a Royal Warrant of Appointment to King George Vl in 1944.”

In recent years, this well-respected tailoring house has not attracted much limelight, maintaining a steady business, but perhaps because it is sited outside the Row, not receiving the attention its history might warrant.

King George Vl pictured during the first year of his reign, 1937, wearing a Benson & Clegg double breasted suit.

That’s about to change. As m.d.  Ken Austin prepares to start reducing his work load later this year, his son-in-law, Mark Gordon has been brought in to spearhead a drive to promote Benson & Clegg’s tailoring credentials.

“Its got a fabulous history,” said Gordon, “and I plan to exploit that and to make people more aware of its heritage.”

The company was founded in 1937 by Harry Benson and Thomas Clegg, tailors who had learnt their skills at the illustrious Hawes & Curtis. Some customers followed them, including the soon-to-be King George Vl. Precious notes, written in his own handwriting, are part of a treasure trove kept under lock and key, giving such instructions as the width of lapel required to accommodate the king’s medals.

Above, Mark Gordon, who has just joined Benson & Clegg, wearing an striped button-two suit.

Ken Austin joined the tailors, then in Bury Street, St James’s, in 1976, and took over the company upon Benson and Clegg’s retirement. Moving to the Piccadilly Arcade in 1976,  one of the exclusive little shopping arcades that run off Piccadilly, it has concentrated upon classic tailoring and also built up a highly successful business in buttons and badges.

This speciality earned them another Royal Warrant, this one as suppliers of buttons and badges to the Prince of Wales, awarded in 1992.

“We’ve had a fair sprinkling of high profile customers over the years,” Austin reveals, “from old stars Maurice Chevalier and Steward Grainger through to Charlie Watts of the Stones, and Rod Stewart, and including Peter Sallis. But mostly our customers are business types who want classic quality.”

As Austin scales down his workload, Tony Martin is to become the mainstay of the tailoring operation. With training at Gieves & Hawkes, a stint at Lutwyche, and now 3 years with Benson & Clegg, he is ready to take the company into the future.

And Gordon is the man charged with planning how that developes and boosting the profile of the business.

“There is definitely a sense of people wanting to dress up once again, and an interest in tailoring,” he says.  “We want to meet that. But we’ve got to let people know about us. So we will be taking part in more events, such as the ‘Love Style, Love Fashion’ day at Canary Wharf, and the Warrant Holders showcase at Lancaster House. I’m on the committee of the Jermyn Street Association and we are planning an event for later this summer.

Rght, the then Duke of York, wearing his RAF uniform.

“And we have a refit of the shop coming up. Space is at a premium and the buttons and badges side has taken up much of it, because it is easy to see and to sell. We’ve let the tailoring fade into the background somewhat, so I’ll be looking to give it more of a presence. We are, after all, primarily tailors.”

He is a young man with a mission. New to the tailoring world, he brings a fresh eye and an outsider’s appreciation of the firm’s history to his task, and a determination that Benson & Clegg should take its rightful place in the tailoring hierarchy.

He may not be taking it global just yet but as an authentic exponent of real bespoke tailoring, he sees the company taking precedence over some of the newer, less tailoring focused firms that have moved into Savile Row’s environs.