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Accessories, Grooming, Lifestyle, Wilde & Harte

Writing exclusively for Savile Row Style, wet shaving expert and Wilde & Harte Director Paul Thompson introduces an exciting new razor collection to the luxury grooming sector, which celebrates the exquisite craftsmanship of royal armours and British made razors

The ‘Line of Kings’ – Razors inspired by the grand armours of English kings and forged in partnership with the Royal Armouries.


The collection features a shorter length, more bulbous design of our best selling ‘Art Deco’ Eltham razor handle. The collection is named after Eltham Palace, the former Royal Residence to a young Henry VIII. Examples of the Henry’s armour are displayed by the Royal Armouries in the ‘Line of Kings’ exhibition.

Above: The ‘Line of Kings’ Eltham Mach3 Razor

The collaboration boasts a Gillette Mach3 razor, a Gillette Fusion razor and a stainless steel (plastic free) safety razor, each manufactured from stainless steel.

The ‘Line of Kings’ – A cutting edge attraction

From the reign of Henry VIII onwards, distinguished foreign dignitaries were invited to visit the Tower of London to inspect the royal armoury. First created in the second half of the 17th century – the ‘Line of Kings’ exhibition has a history spanning over 350 years and remains a popular visitor attraction to this day.


A ‘Line of Kings’ razor truly celebrates the magnificent craftsmanship of royal armours and is a historical connection to the past kings of England dating back to the 16th century. Each razor makes the perfect gift to oneself, or to the special person in your life.


Above: The ‘Line of Kings’ Eltham Fusion Razor & razor stand

 

Why use a Wilde & Harte razor?

• Razor Guarantee: Purchase in confidence with a 2-year Gillette razor guarantee or LIFETIME safety razor guarantee.
• Choice of designs:  Our razors are available to purchase in a choice of contemporary and traditional, classic designs.
• Hand polished finish: Each razor is polished to an impeccable mirror finish by skilled metal finishers.
• 100% Plastic-free shaving solutions: We offer a range of safety razors, which are kind to the environment, your skin AND your pocket.
• We are members of the Made in Britain campaign: An initiative which is endorsed by the British Government, supported by British manufacturers and recognised by global consumers.

About the brand

Wilde & Harte design and manufacture razor collections inspired by the splendour and grandeur of iconic houses and palaces in London. Where style meets sustainability, the brand offers hand crafted 100% plastic free shaving options and accessories to minimise plastic consumption and lower shaving costs. Wilde & Harte are members of the Made in Britain campaign.

To learn more and view the 20% OFF voucher code, our ‘Line of Kings’ offer exclusive to Savile Row Style, please visit www.wildeandharte.co.uk/savilerow

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Writing exclusively for Savile Row Style, wet

Dining, News

Food enthusiasts, certainly those who like their ingredients fresh and their food full of flavour, will be delighted to hear that Mayfair’s first Armenian restaurant will open its doors on Monday. The menu has been put together by Marcel Ravin, a two-Michelin-starred chef and the driving force behind The Blue Bay restaurant in Monaco. Dishes will range from the Famous Cherry Kebab – spiced kebab skewers, cooked over charcoal and then covered in home-made cherry sauce, with the fruit picked in Armenia – to the Signature Lusin Kibbeh: mixed meat, bulgur and nuts, seasoned with Armenian spices and pomegranate molasses. The dishes will be cooked by in-house chefs, rather than Ravin.

In the past, Ravin, left, has said: “I’ve always cooked for others before cooking for myself. I want to create emotions and make people happy. I want to move people. Eating is more than just an action. I don’t just cook to bring ingredients together. I design my dishes so that there’s a succession of flavours. An explosion in the mouth.”

Lusin, which takes its name from the Armenian word for “moon”, is the latest expansion of a restaurant chain that already operates in Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia. The restaurant itself will have space for up to 100 diners over two floors, with walls featuring stone originally sourced from the mountains of Armenia. The entrance showcases three outstanding pillars that have hand-made carvings resembling Armenian Khachkar, symbols and signs from the “Tree of Life” to the “Eternity” symbol. Cocktails include fresh twists on classics and the drinks menu has been crafted by mixologist Giancarlo Mancino, official beverage and bar consultant for the Rosewood Hotels worldwide. Armenian wines are also available to try.

Lusin will open on October 31 at 16 Hay Hill, London, W1J 8NY. For more information, visit lusinrestaurant.com or follow them @lusinmayfair

 

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Food enthusiasts, certainly those who like their

News, Suits

By Daniel Evans

Anyone looking for reassurance that the future of Savile Row is bright after a pandemic which has blighted many a retailer need only spend a few minutes in the company of the effervescent ball of energy that is Daisy Knatchbull. As she sits in the offices of The Deck, a women-only tailor at 19, Savile Row, Daisy is quick to sum up what she sees as the ambition of the business. “It’s where classical elegance meets modern femininity,” she says without hesitation. “I’m not a tailor – that takes years and it’s an impeccable skill – so I thought I’d go out and offer a made-to-measure service for women myself which we launched in 2019. The business just flew. We started in a little basement in the King’s Road. We dressed a lot of celebrities early on and we had a lot of loyal clients.

“Then, in September 2020, we got the opportunity to move here to Savile Row. It was a lifelong dream of mine to sit among the bastions of British tailoring. It’s an honour and exactly where I wanted us to be. I never imagined it would happen this quickly but it’s fantastic. We really want to make this work and be around the best in the business. We want to be here in one hundred years.”

Daisy, who has an all-women team behind her, continues: “I love that we’ve made history with the first shopfront for women on Savile Row and I’m excited for what’s to come. I want The Deck to become the place to go for all women’s tailoring – not just jackets, trousers, dresses, skirts but also for overcoats, jumpsuits, shirts, knitwear whatever it is. We want to produce timeless clothes that are never going to go out of fashion and which celebrate the woman of today. People had been doing women’s on Savile Row for ages but it made up a tiny portion of their business and no-one was really focusing solely on women because it was often deemed ‘more difficult than men’ due to our varying body shapes and curves. We have so many women who come in and burst into tears because they have never had a pair of trousers that have fitted them before. The ready-to-wear industry insists that women are one size. Of course, it is sometimes more complicated doing women’s tailoring because no two women are the same. I think a lot of women want what we have but don’t know we exist. That’s why it is so addictive. Once they have had something with us, they want to come back. It’s a really incredible feeling and suddenly, what you had before doesn’t seem as appealing.

“We ensure longevity, versatility and durability in everything we do. If you can help people understand why it is worth the investment and that this is something you can pass down to the next generation. And we do free repairs for life. As soon as people receive a garment from us, they understand. They’ve got something that’s made for them, with their choice of cloth, linings and buttons made with the highest quality cloth in the world from Savile Row merchants. It makes sense. There won’t be a child in a factory somewhere in Bangladesh making the clothes. The pandemic has only accelerated the changes that need to happen in fashion. And that’s exciting. Savile Row has always had this message that this is something to pass down to your son, your nephew. Now we can say the same for women. Bring your daughters, pass it down to your nieces, pass it down to your godchildren, your sister. When you deliver a good, quality product that people are happy with, they see the value in that and will come back.”

So why call yourself The Deck? Daisy explains. “We are called The Deck as there are four suits in a deck of cards and we start with four looks. You can mix and match and change all the styling details as you wish. The singe-breasted jacket, the double-breasted jacket, the boyfriend (a more over-sized, four-buttoned, double-breasted) and the safari jacket. Then for trousers – we have the cigarette, straight-leg, wide-leg and flair-leg. I enjoy making good-quality, beautiful things that make people happy. You have to have a belief and a mission when you start your own business otherwise what is it all about? You need to make money, for sure, but there has to be a driver in that you want to see change.

“Our clients are investing in craftsmanship. Good quality clothes made with natural fibres and traditions and techniques. It’s anti-fast fashion. It’s good for the planet. Our real ‘enemy’ I guess is fast fashion. People are wanting to turn to more slo-mo fashion and invest in hyper personalised products and craftsmanship. We are doing something so unique that we don’t need to be around other women’s shops.”

Click here to check out the Daisy Knatchbull gallery

Daisy’s early success has been confirmed by The Deck being chosen by Walpole as one of the Brands of Tomorrow and  a collaboration with Turnbull and Asser, where Prince Charles has had his shirts made since he was a lad.

Walpole is the industry body for the British luxury sector and its initiative will guide 12 of what Walpole calls “Britain’s most innovative fledging luxury companies”.  Walpole launched the Brands of Tomorrow programme in 2007 to build a pipeline of next-generation brands as part of its vision for securing the long-term growth of the UK’s luxury sector. Each of the selected brands will attend a series of practical workshops on key business development topics and will be paired with a mentor who is a senior leadership figure from the luxury sector. As Walpole chief executive Helen Brocklebank explained: “This initiative was designed to help early-stage luxury brands drive their success, creating economic growth for the country. As we move beyond the pandemic, and forge a new vision of Global Britain, its role has never been so important.” It’s a partnership which clearly delights Daisy. “It’s an amazing thing to be recognised as a brand of tomorrow,” she says. “That’s big. It’s lovely to get that recognition.”

Daisy is equally pleased by the Turner and Asser partnership. “We are doing a collaboration for four women’s shirts which is really exciting,” she says. “We’ve gone to the best in British shirt making and said we want to design four shirts – the four easy, breezy white shirts that you can wear smarten up, relax, tone down, pair up.”

Daisy has spent her working life in fashion. “It’s where I always wanted to work,” she explains. “From a young age I was interning wherever I could, doing work experience, making coffee – learning, growing, trying to figure out where I wanted to sit in the fashion industry. After various fashion internships, I got a job assisting the fashion director of the Sunday Times Style magazine. That was really cool and I loved it but I was always looking for the next thing. I like to think I have an entrepreneurial mind where I was always trying to find the gap in the market, trying to see if there was any room for me to make my mark on the womenswear world.”

Daisy landed a job on Savile Row with Huntsman as PR co-ordinator which gave her the chance to be in the heart of the tailoring world and learn about that. “I’d never been on Savile Row,” she says. “I was there for four and a half years and worked my way up to be communications director for the business. In 2016 I wore a top hat and tails to Royal Ascot and that got a fantastic reaction and set something going in my mind about this suit-shaped gap for women.”

As she rises to the top of her trade, Daisy is keen to help other women navigate the same path. “Young, female entrepreneurship is something I’m passionate about,” she says firmly. “I do a lot of stuff around mentoring young women trying to get ahead. It’s about nurturing young, female entrepreneurship. It’s harder as a woman entrepreneur.  When I started out, I hadn’t studied finance, economics, business. I wish I’d done that so I had to teach myself all of these things. I didn’t want to feel stupid or ask the wrong question or feel ashamed I felt that way.  I have a network of female founders who can share their experiences – their highs, their lows. It’s a very lonely thing starting your own business but talking about that with other people who are in the same boat makes us stronger. There are a lot of talented women out there. Change is coming. There’s never been a better time to be a woman.”

Unsurprisingly, Daisy is full of confidence about the future. “We want to scale globally,” she says. “We have so much demand overseas. There are some really cool things that are happening and I’m excited about that. I want The Deck to be somewhere as many women as possible know about. We get a lot of clients who come in and say ‘I wish I knew about you. I wish you had been around 10 years ago’. It’s just about getting that message out and consistently delivering on quality. Too many businesses as they grow lose sight of quality and the ethos that underpinned them at the very start. It’s important that we keep really tight on that as we grow. The next market for us would be the America. We are currently concentrating on the face-to-face but lots of exciting things for the online are coming up soon. It’s about being sensible.”

As I leave the store, where staff are busy dealing with a man who wants “something special” for his sister’s birthday, I can’t help feeling that Daisy’s will be a positive and energetic voice on Savile Row for many years to come.

 

DAISY’S QUICK-FIRE ROUND

Bowie or Jagger? That’s really hard…Jagger. No, Bowie.

Ascot or Henley? Ascot

Pimm’s or champagne? Pimm’s

Cornwall or Cotswolds? Cornwall

Skiing or sailing? Skiing

Rugby or football? Football

Coffee or tea? Tea

Salmon or steak? Steak

Favourite Bond? Sean Connery

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By Daniel Evans Anyone looking for reassurance that

Art, Motoring, News

Daniel Evans talks to London-based artist Anna-Louise Felstead

The first time I meet Anna-Louise Felstead, we are standing beside a cocktail bar at Henry Poole & Co on the first evening of the Concours on Savile Row. Outside, vintage cars are lined up in both directions, from a Ferrari Testarossa Spider to a 1964 Jaguar E-Type Coupe and from a 1937 Bentley 4.5-litre Gurney Nutting Sedanca Coupe to a Morgan Super 3. Inside, car enthusiasts and tailors, fashionistas and film stars are enjoying the friendly jostling and bonhomie of the crowded bar as they chat about how the exquisite style of a Savile Row suit compares with the fine lines and eye for detail seen in the classic motors on display.

Anna-Louise at Goodwood

The second time is a few weeks later when Anna-Louise – known to her friends at A-L – has found time to meet at Vardo, a popular restaurant near Sloane Square, to talk about her love of art and, particularly, her love of painting and drawing motor cars. A-L is a well-known face at Monaco, Le Mans, Goodwood and Pebble Beach out in California, to name just a few of the places she has worked which are famed for their motoring heritage. “The Concours on Savile Row was a delight,” she says. “I love being around cars and car people and to see all those vintage motors in one place was a real treat. Magnificent cars and delicious cocktails. What’s not to like?”

A-L, who trained at Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art, started painting cars when she was introduced to James Wood, a well-known driver of historic cars. “James suggested I should paint pictures of racing cars,” she explains. “He sent me pictures of him racing in Monaco so I went down there with him in 2008 where he introduced me to lots of people. I started painting pictures in the paddock and, before I knew it, I was being commissioned. People would wander past and see me at work and buy them on the spot. I was asked if I was going to Monza, to Spa, to Goodwood, to the Nürburgring, to all these car events and it spiralled from there.”

As her reputation as a talented painter of cars grew, one interesting side-line – which she calls her ‘naughty car paintings’ – emerged. A-L takes up the story. “I was at Pebble Beach in 2010 and an Aston Martin dealer approached me and asked me to paint his car. He sent me a picture of it but asked if I could paint his girlfriend in the picture too.

“I said: ‘Absolutely – just send me a picture of her as well’.

“He said to me: ‘Well, if I send you the pictures, I don’t want you to be offended’.

“What do you mean? I asked.

“‘Well, she’s wearing quite provocative clothing. We’re into bondage. Is there any way you could give the painting a slight bondage theme?’

“I said ‘sure’ but wondered ‘what have I got myself into here?’

“I returned to the UK and he sent me some pictures of a woman in a tight black PVC mini dress and stockings etc. I produced a sketch which he approved, he just asked me to change the whip I’d drawn into a paddle. Not knowing what that was, I Googled ‘bondage’ and quickly found a lot of inspiring material… When I produced my final painting (with a few additions to really get the theme across) he cracked up with laugher and said ‘I can’t hang that in my office!’

“What did you expect? I said. You commissioned a bondage painting! I think it ended up hanging in his downstairs loo…”

A-L put the picture on Facebook, tagged a bunch of her car clients and friends, and was inundated with requests from people asking her to paint their cars. “I had one client in Switzerland who commissioned 30 original paintings and they are all hanging in his garage. He loves the reactions they provoke. Recently, I had a stand at Salon Privé. I had all my reportage paintings of Monaco up on the wall but put some unframed naughty ones in a browser, so people could see them and, surprisingly, they were incredibly popular. People are very amused by them. They are not too rude, just a bit of cheeky fun.”

A-L was destined to be an artist from childhood. “I always drew from a young age,” she says. “My father used to come back from his job in the City with these empty diaries and I would fill them up with sketches. I knew it was something I was good at and my friends at school would ask me to draw things for them.”

When she was training, A-L became aware of the work of Linda Kitson, the official Falklands War artist. She says: “I really liked her work and, at a family wedding, I was sitting next to a sub-mariner, telling him how I’d love to do what Linda Kitson did. He clearly knew someone because I was then invited to go and stay on HMS Cornwall in Plymouth. I spent a week at sea, sketching the Royal Navy at work, in the ops room, in the mess, doing man overboard exercises, fire exercises. I’d do drawings all over the place and I ended up having an exhibition of my paintings at the Colville Place Art Gallery in London.

“I was then invited to board another ship, HMS Illustrious, the aircraft carrier. I was flown in via SeaKing helicopter and did a load of drawings there and had another exhibition at the Naval Club in Mayfair. I was actually invited for a whole year away with HMS Cornwall but turned it down because I was about to start my MA at the Royal College.”

A-L is clearly delighted to be an artist. “I absolutely love my life,” she says. “I’m very lucky. No two days are ever the same. I’m my own boss. I work hard. I don’t have to be at a certain location. My philosophy in life is to say ‘yes’ to everything and do as much as I can because I think you have a more interesting life by saying ‘yes’ to stuff. I was amazed by friends who said they couldn’t work for themselves – that they would never get out of bed and would watch TV all day. That drive of not knowing where my next pay cheque is coming from excites me. I have a young son who takes up a lot of my time. I’m a single parent. I can’t afford to sit around all day going for long lunches. I get up in the morning, take my son to school, go for a run and then start my day’s work. Last weekend, I drove down to the Le Mans Classic, bumped into a bunch of friends who introduced me to other people and I already have a few commissions.”

When I ask A-L to describe her style, she is quite definite. “I would call my style impressionistic,” she says. “I’m not interested in representing something in a photographic way. I prefer drawing from life rather than from my imagination. I am envious of people who can create incredible illustrations from their head although I like to be physically in front of something.”

Looking to the future, A-L is planning on bigger and better works of art. “Because I’ve always worked on location, the majority of my paintings have always been in a size and format that would be easily transported. Now, I’ve got a fantastic studio in Earlsfield which allows me to work on a much, much larger scale.”

The life of an artist has certainly allowed A-L to travel the world. She says: “Before my son was born, I lived in Cornwall, Sussex, New York then Wiltshire. I was tempted to move to Singapore for a while. I go to Pebble Beach every year. I’ve never really stayed in one place for too long. And I don’t just paint cars. When I was in New York, I did lots of abstract cityscapes. I’ve got a couple that I won’t sell. They are only small, but I just love them.”

Anna-Louise at Monaco

One area A-L thinks might interest her in the future is working on TV. “I was being filmed as I was painting when I was at the Silverstone Grand Prix a few years ago and Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, who were racing for Red Bull at the time, were looking through my portfolio of paintings. I then received a phone call from Formula One Management. We went for a brief chat and drink at Chelsea Arts Club and, before you know it, I was covering the Singapore World Championship for FOM. That was an amazing experience. I had to interview Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, Christian Horner, Ron Dennis and Niki Lauda. I was nervous – it was quite overwhelming, actually – and I realised presenting in such a pressurised environment wasn’t for me. To do that job, you have to be quite pushy and that’s not me. However, in a non-pressurised environment, I would love to do more TV work. I’ve done quite a bit with my mother and sister and it’s a lot of fun. I tend to get on with people, I don’t find that difficult, but race-day morning, with a very famous F1 driver, I was completely star-struck. He did not want to talk to me. He gave me quite a hard time and I wasn’t comfortable at all. I’d had no training and was thrown in completely at the deep end.”

Whatever else the future holds, A-L is certainly not going to be very far from a vintage car for long. “I fell into this world quite by chance and I love it,” she says. “I will always paint cars because I find them fascinating. There are a lot of collectors and dealers I know in London who I go and see. It’s like a travelling family in a way. You meet such a mixture of successful, enthusiastic, talented and interesting people who all come together for their genuine love of the sport and I really love that about the historic car world.”

alfelstead.com

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Daniel Evans talks to London-based artist Anna-Louise