All your life you go to Savile Row, a stone’s throw from Piccadilly, to spend seven or eight thousand euros on a suit made to measure in the finest wool, linen or cotton, to take your measurements as if you were a master. . , a Navy admiral or a member of the royal family, and appears as a dude in the style of Daniel Craig or Hugh Grant. Because to have a salad or have a coffee there are many other places as well very close by.
However, now the legendary Savile Row, the street of tailors par excellence for three hundred years, is in danger of losing its identity. The company that owns some of the buildings (The Pollen Estate) intends to renovate numbers 17 to 20 to turn them into art galleries, mini-malls, cafes, restaurants and casual clothing stores, which are spread throughout all city centers. .
work in crisis
Decreased demand for formal clothing has led to the closure of some of the most famous tailoring shops
This affair precipitated the existential crisis that Savile Row had experienced for some time due to the disappearance of some of its most emblematic tailors. Twenty-one establishments that survived the pandemic continue to operate on the street and now—waiting for the next recession—record sort of a little boom, because rising electricity and cart prices have never been a hindrance to those who buy a custom-made suit to continue to do so, they’ll be missing out on even more. It is a market like that of Aston Martins, luxury apartments on the Cote d’Azur, yachts and private jets, a world parallel to the ordinary economy.
But not entirely because of changes in habits in society and complex financial frameworks. Demand for formal wear waned, prompting classic establishments like Abrecrombie & Fitch, Chester Barrie, Hardy Amies, Kilgour, and Alexander McQueen to pack their bags. Gives and Hawkes Tailoring, a historic store, dressed in Kings George V, George VI, Winston Churchill, Noel Coward and Admiral Nelson, is itself quite solvent and works well, but has been acquired by a Chinese company called Trinity Limited which does not It works almost fine. Therefore, to avoid closing, the process of finding a new buyer began.
in danger of extinction
A custom-made Savile Row suit requires at least 50 hours of labor
These are changing times, full of uncertainty, also on Savile Row. Request to reconfigure numbers 17-20 pending approval of relevant urban planning permits, as they are historic buildings (the idea is to move the tailoring shops now located at street level to the first floor, and on the ground floor to place cafes, galleries and restaurants that appeal to a less exclusive audience) . But as it often happens, the neighbors are divided. Some believe that it is time to diversify and gain great popularity, and that it is worth attracting tourists and customers who are not necessarily interested in spending ten thousand euros on a suit, even if it is three pieces. Others put tradition, DNA, and the defense of identity first. It’s very much a generation issue.
It used to be said that the number one rule for those who wear Savile Row is not to mention Savile Row. Either they knew it was the right place to make the suit, or they didn’t. It was word of mouth, information passed automatically from father to son, a secret of the aristocrats better not to share with the vulgar middle classes (who already had Regent Street and Oxford Street). Giorgio Armani created marimorena a few years ago by saying that it was “an English comedy, melodrama well established in the past”.
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Historically, Savile Row was where students from Eaton and Oxford went to craft their first suits, high-society ladies in summer dress to wear to the Glindbourne Opera House, India’s Viceroys for tropical attire and explorers like Livingston and Stanley before embarking on their travels. The clients have changed, now they are Chinese actors, footballers and tourists, but something of the spirit remains. Changing sewing shops to pizzerias will undoubtedly be a great revolution.
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