Savile Row might be the beating heart of bespoke men's tailoring, but it was named after a woman
Savile Row is the home of the bespoke suit, but its history is a lot more colourful than you might expect.
What do you think of when you read the words ‘Savile Row’? I bet it’s a Bond-like gentleman, standing in front of a mirror in a white shirt while another gentleman, his mouth full of pins, takes down various measurements. Neck; chest; waist. While Savile Row is the home of the bespoke suit (in fact the word ‘bespoke’ is believed to have originated here), the street’s history and contemporary make-up is much more colourful than first impressions imply.
Savile Row came about in the 1730s courtesy of the 3rd Earl of Burlington — who owned the land, the Burlington Estate, and named the road after his wife, Lady Dorothy Savile. Originally, it was a fashionable residential street for wealthy military officers, statesmen and their families. Over time, tailors and dressmakers, who benefited from their custom, moved in.
Livery manager Keith Levett displays rubbings of civil and diplomatic uniforms in the archive room at Henry Poole & Co. Suits are measured, cut, fitted, sewn and finished by the highly skilled tailors entirely by hand, with each suit taking over 60 hours to create. Famous customers include Sir Winston Churchill, Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde. Henry Poole received a Royal Warrant in 1869 after making liveries for Queen Victoria. Their livery department continues today.
James Poole is widely considered to be the Row’s ‘founding father’. In 1806, he set up shop on Brunswick Square, selling linen cloth and by the Battle of Waterloo, in 1815, he was making finely cut custom military tunics. Stores on Regent Street and Old Burlington Street soon followed. The offering expanded when John’s son, Henry, inherited the business in the mid 19th century and went about creating equestrian and fieldsports attire for aristocrats. As the first ‘celebrity tailor’, he served Napoleon, Queen Victoria and Edward VII — who, in 1865, commissioned a short evening coat for informal dinners at Sandringham. And so the dinner jacket was born. Henry extended his Mayfair premises and the new entrance opening out onto Savile Row proved to be something of a landmark moment.
Other notable businesses soon followed: Hawkes & Co, now Gieves & Hawkes (1912), Huntsman (1919), who produced dress uniforms for British officers in the First World War, and Anderson and Sheppard (1906), whose ‘London Cut’ house style, crafted for the then Prince of Wales by Frederick Scholte, was descended from from the English drape (a softer tailoring style).
The street and its surroundings quickly transformed into a close-knit community of tailors who spoke their own language. A draft with many alterations was referred to as a ‘Clapham Junction’, an unclaimed garment was called a ‘pig’, and a night on the town was known as being ‘on the cod’. Apparently, the slang is still in use today.
In 1945, Hardy Amies Ltd, financed by Virginia, Countess of Jersey (and the first Mrs Cary Grant), arrived at 14, Savile Row, catering to both men and women. ‘A woman's day clothes must look equally good at Salisbury Station as the Ritz bar,’ Amies said. Deprived of couture during the War, women, including Elizabeth II, snapped up his designs. He became the monarch’s dressmaker for 50 years, and designed the gown she wore in her official 1977 Silver Jubilee portrait, among many others. He later branched out into ready-to-wear for men, making history in 1961 when he staged the first men’s ready-to-wear catwalk show — at The Ritz.
The Beatles staged their last live public concert on the rooftop of the Apple Organisation building on Savile Row for director Michael Lindsey-Hogg's film documentary 'Let It Be'.
The ‘peacock revolution’ of the 1960s heralded a shift towards more colourful and flamboyant menswear — a trend that was not entirely Savile Row friendly. However, in 1969, Tommy Nutter and Edward Sexton collaborated on the opening of Nutters of Savile Row and tore up the unofficial rulebook by infusing bespoke tailoring with contemporary (‘out-there’) tweaks. Mick Jagger and Twiggy were fans, and three of the four Beatles are wearing bespoke Nutters suits on the cover of their Abbey Road Album (their final performance took place on Savile Row the same year). In the 1990s, Oswald Boateng satisfied the ‘cool crowd’ with his colourful suits in slim silhouettes, which he sold on neighbouring Vigo Street. The move attracted a much-needed new clientele to the now struggling Savile Row. Oswald was only 28 at the time.
Once a men’s playground, women are now getting a look in on Savile Row. In 2016, Kathryn Sargent became the first female to have her ‘name above the door’ in the street’s 213-year history. It was followed, four years later, by The Deck London (which recently rebranded to Knatchbull) — the first female-only tailoring house to have a shopfront on Savile Row. Fittingly, founder Daisy Knatchbull, a former Country Life Frontispiece, was the first woman to wear a top hat and tails to Royal Ascot.
