Book Review: The London Cut

London's Savile Row has been the home of some of the world’s best, or at least best known, tailors for more than 200 years. And for most of the first 199 of those years, anything that smacked of marketing was frowned upon. Times change, and an association of Savile Row firms has sponsored the first book to cover the Row in more than two decades.

The London Cut, edited by James Sherwood, borrows its title from the name given to Frederick Scholte's drape cut in the 1930's. It uses conversations with the tailors and an excellent selection of images past and present to paint a picture of today's Savile Row in a series of essays about individual firms.

Since more than a few of those firms have websites, some readers are likely to be familiar with the histories of established names such as Poole, H. Huntsman and Anderson & Sheppard. The book's value added is that it extends coverage to two dozen less known tailoring houses ranging from the well established Welsh & Jeffries to moderns like Spencer Hart and Ozwald Boateng, and gives space to half a dozen accessory firms and several of the cloth houses and mills as well.

That said, I was probably happiest with the 59 page section of photos, many in color, of famous clients.

The London Cut is currently available from Amazon UK and is scheduled be released in the United States on January 29, 2008.

Reader Questions

From James

"I just bought a pair of very, very nice suede Italian slip ons and wonder whether it will be ok to wear them with a suit in September. I will be in Florida. Also do you know where i can order a couple of pairs of authentic silk socks?"

You couldn't choose a better venue for your shoes than Florida in September. Even HRH the Prince of Wales has been known to wear slip-ons with a suit in summer, and September means you can safely ignore those who claim that you should only wear suede this season or that, or who think that different colors are more appropriate in summer. It's all good.

I can't recommend silk socks for day wear as they tend to fall down unless you're wearing sock suspenders. High quality cotton is better, and there's a wider variety of patterns available. But if you must have silk, CustomShirt1 and Woods of Shropshire both carry a couple choices in high quality silk Pantherella socks.

From Krishan

"Thank you for the interesting and educational articles, and for the time you've taken to assemble the Visiting Artisans Calendar.

I was thinking of making some appointments with Huntsman and/or Anderson & Sheppard for their upcoming visits but am new to the bespoke process.

And for shoes it is between GJ Cleverley and Foster & Sons.

I am sure they are all very good, I was just wondering if you might have some tips and suggestions beyond those in your posts.

Plus I was hoping to get your thought on the production timeframes, what to expect from each producer, etc..."

The shoe part of your question is relatively easy. For bespoke shoes you're typically measured on the first visit, and fit on the second. The shoes are completed and shipped to you, and the maker has you wear them for a while. You bring them in to have them looked at on the third visit, and if all has gone well the maker will take another order from you at that point if you're so inclined.

Each shoemaker will provide any of the classic styles, but if you have your heart set on something unique to one of them you should get it from that maker as the others will be reluctant to copy it. Cleverley and Foster are both very high quality and, unless you get to London periodically and can continue the process there at your convenience, an important criteria should be the regularity of their visits. One that visits semi-annually is going to require nine months to a year for the initial delivery and as much as 18 months before signing off on the first pair.

Before choosing a tailor, you need to choose a silhouette. The two you've mentioned produce clothes that are about as different from each other as you can get on the Row. A&S makes a relatively unstructured jacket (the suits that I'm wearing on my web site are from A&S) that's popular with American customers. Huntsman, on the other hand, makes a very structured coat. You may also want to consider Poole, whose style is a bit more flexible than the other two and whose jackets fall somewhere in the middle. All three are good, but you should first decide what you think you want to look like and let that drive your choice.

If you don't get to London with any frequency, once you choose your silhouette (and that may require you to visit each of the candidates this time around before you make a selection), your next criteria should be the frequency of their visits. Your first suit will usually take one visit for measurement and two for fittings (usually only one fitting is required after the first suit, but sometimes it takes more).

A tailor like A&S who visits once a year is going to take longer to deliver completed suits unless you can meet them in another city during the year. I prefer men who visit two or three times, and I get to London for intermediate fittings in addition. The more frequency the better, in my opinion.

The Cloth Club

About two years ago, Michael Alden of The London Lounge web site wanted a flannel suit in a large format Prince of Wales check and couldn't find suitable cloth anywhere. He solicited a dozen other London Lounge members to join him and have a length of the cloth woven to his specification. The success of that first project was the stimulus for The Cloth Club, perhaps the world's only informal organization commissioning custom weaving of cloth for classic men's clothing.

Fifty years ago, tailors accounted for much of the consumption of suiting cloth, and the cloth merchants offered them a wide variety of patterns and weaves. Today, the cloth suppliers focus on the ready to wear market, whose long production runs are incompatible with unique fabrics. They weave plenty of blues and grays but fewer of the patterned suitings of the past.

By commissioning its own cloth, The Cloth Club is doing what some of the large tailoring houses have done for years. Savile Row's Anderson & Sheppard usually offers several specially commissioned worsteds and Huntsman is famed for its house tweeds while Mariano Rubinacci of Naples is known for his house hopsacks. The difference of course is that Cloth Club members can take their fabric to the tailor of their choice for a "cut, make, & trim, " the tailoring term for the process of making a garment from customer-provided cloth.

Since the first commission, The Cloth Club has delivered a large scale black and white glen check tweed, and a gray flannel with a large blue overcheck, pictured in the drawing at the upper left. Current projects include a gray flannel with a blue windowpane called 'Eden in Paris' after the drawing to the lower left, a gun club tweed for odd jackets, an off-white flannel trouser cloth with blue and gray accents, and a striped worsted suiting.

To inquire about participation in The Cloth Club, contact Michael Alden through the web site.