December 12, 2005

savile row death-knell

2 Comments

Another article appea­red today soun­ding the death-knell for Savile Row. This time it was in the Finan­cial Times [Reg. requi­red].
Heh. English Cut and all the other tai­lors I know are doing fine. Demand for suits is gene­rally grea­ter than supply. We’re even thin­king of put­ting a mora­to­rium on new cus­to­mers after Christ­mas.
If the desig­ner labels want Savile Row as their address, no big deal. It’s just real estate– the tai­lors can always go somewhere else. What mat­ters more is the cus­to­mers, the qua­lity of the work, the tra­di­tions and the trai­ning of apprentices.

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2 Responses to “savile row death-knell”

  1. The Obvious? says:
    December 13, 2005 at 5:09 PM

    When real estate beco­mes a liability …

    If the desig­ner labels want Savile Row as their address, no big deal. It’s just real estate– the tai­lors can always go somewhere else. gapingvoid

  2. Antoin O Lachtnain says:
    December 16, 2005 at 11:26 AM

    Well, Savi­lle Row is a famous old brand …
    Why don’t you guys (i.e., tra­di­tio­nal SR tai­lors) club together and get a freehold, to have the address and con­ti­nue the heri­tage?
    If you com­ple­tely sepa­rate a heri­tage from the place where it grew up, it nearly always does damage to the heri­tage. You lose the com­mu­nity. I know you can pre­serve the com­mu­nity online and so on, but you defi­ni­tely lose cer­tain things. What about the appren­ti­ceship sys­tem, which must be the basis for the long-term sur­vi­val of the tra­di­tions? Will it work as well if there isn’t an actual Row any­more?
    The mar­ke­ting stuff mat­ters too. Look at the strug­gle there has been in the food world over use of regio­nal names.
    Any­way, English Cut’s mar­ke­ting is in safe hands wha­te­ver happens!