PENNY: post 3: Savile Row

Savile Row is a street in Mayfair, London which, built between 1731 and 1735, still houses some of the most famous and expensive bespoke tailoring in the world.

The term 'bespoke' was coined in Savile Row and refers to cloth for a suit already 'spoken for' by a customer. The tailors of Savile Row have made suits to fit customers from royalty to movie stars with certain tailors holding the 'warrant' for certain royal customers. Savile Row tailors have traditionally designed and created the uniforms for the British armed forces. Many fashions over the years have reflected this styling.

In 1846 Henry Poole is said to have 'founded' Savile Row after opening a second entrance to his late father's tailoring premises.
Hawkes was one of the first tailors to expand his business into the ready to wear department. Hawkes was also a leader in the use of new and innovative fabrics, creating raincoats for everyday wear out of Grenfells new material which was used in Everest expeditions in the 1920'2 - 1940's.

Savile Row suits became the epitome of a gentlemans wardrobe and the leaders in mens fashion.


"In London, Beebe ordered his suits from Savile Row’s Henry Poole & Company, and he looked on being measured for a bespoke suit as something akin to taking the sacrament. The venerable gentleman’s tailor was “not only a cathedral of waistcoats and hunting pinks, [but] a repository of Victorian grandeurs establishing continuity with the past and the great names of English legend.” "

http://www.dandyism.net/?p=935

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savile_Row
http://blog.gievesandhawkes.com/features/gieves-hawkes-archive
http://www.dandyism.net/?p=935
http://www.savilerowbespoke.com/History/History_of_Savile_Row/
http://www.chesterbarrie.co.uk/About_us/