It's not which is why the row is in the state that it is .. this is after coming on the heels of a boom in the uk and focused in London Esp in financial services ..all that hot money is evaporating fast in this miserable economic climate and I predict it will get a lot lot worse ..

I reckon well see a lot more of these sales as well as outright closures ..it's a dying trade anyway but as they get squeezed the remaining players will put up prices further till its just a tiny coterie of people who use it..

Fruity

Last edited by Oldfruit1 (2013-01-13 03:54:17)

why do you think orders are up formby? in my experience whenever you ask a tailor how business is they say great .. part of the game as nobody wants to look unsuccessful .. however as im sitting around for half a day in some of these esteemed tailoring houses and nobody comes in apart from an odd cloth merchant or an odd customer to give some details or other you form your own opnions ..

fruity

Last edited by Oldfruit1 (2013-01-13 10:33:35)

well a lot of them do US trips .. yanks have deep pockets and still seem to like anything 'english' ..

as for china .. the key i think is conspicuous in the conspicuous consumption .. and a SR huntsman suit may be £5k a piece but its not obvious to the average joe or in this case average wong ..therefore from what i hear its all about gucci, LV, Prada etc rather than SR and the more obviously branded the better ..the old english discrete display of elegance is not a concept thats well understood  ..

fruity

Last edited by Oldfruit1 (2013-01-13 14:38:11)

^ What's your opinion of American RTW brands like Oxxford, Southwick and Hickey Freeman?

thats a great picture .. you either love the huntsman cut or hate it .. definately think its changed over the years to something less extreme, hammicks jacket looks very slender indeed ..

fruity

Last edited by Oldfruit1 (2013-01-16 15:16:09)

Quote from savile row style mag:
QUOTE "GLAMOUR ERA

HUNTSMAN in its heyday was the glamour puss of Savile Row. Under the lean genius of head cutter Colin Hammick during the 1950s through the 70s, it was Savile Row’s star.

Its present head cutter, Patrick Murphy, remembers watching from Davies & Son opposite, where he was a trainee, the cavalcade of cars that would arrive at Huntsman, delivering a stream of celebrities and aristocrats. “It was so glamorous,” he said." UNQUOTE


That's mighty interesting - because Davies & Son were at 32 Old Burlington Street between 1979 and 1999 and, before that, in Hanover Street! Moreover, Davies & Son has always had its fair share of 'celebrities and aristocrats'. Don't read everything that you read in the press - especially when it is produced by a trade cranking up the publicity machine.

I very much doubt that Savile Row has any popular appeal to exploit. The prices will (as they always have) exclude Joe Bloggs - however tight and skinny they make the suits for blockhead celebrities.

Last edited by NJS (2013-01-17 03:00:27)

^ Several tailoring firms have tried to exploit pop culture. Richard James has his High Street brand and works with Marks & Spencer. Ozwald Boateng is another prominent example. Timothy Everest's recent collaboration with Superdry appears to a similar attempt. A few independents (e.g. Mark Powell, John Pease, Sir Tom Jones) specifically target the "pop" market and have based themselves in and around Soho.

The main issue is whether the "traditional" houses can succeed with RTW. Kilgour, as discussed previously, tried and has now refocused on bespoke. Lodger, which stocked Lutwyche RTW, closed. Norton's E Tautz brand remains a puzzle.  Yet Richard Anderson is launching a new RTW range. Perhaps the key is just better design and marketing. If so, the new owners of Huntsman may have got a bargain.