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The Tailor & The Drug Dealer

Posted on Oct 25, 2011 by Paul Tiernan

Of course, many of the most renowned Savile Row tailors have their own distinctive style - an individual signature, often born of a long history, stitched into each garment.

What we didn't know was that the evidence of one master tailor, Robert Bright (left) of Johns & Pegg, once sent a drug dealer to jail as he demonstrated how the heroin-stuffed shoulder pads in a pair of jackets were made by the same tailor, while the jackets had been the work of two different tailors!

We are currently 'looking after' an exquisite 1927 silk-velvet jacket by Johns & Pegg. One of Savile Row's oldest bespoke tailoring houses, founded in 1858, military and 'mufti' (civillian attire) tailor to the Household Division, they soon built up a client list of senior royals, no doubt thanks to an exceptionally discreet approach to publicity. Like many houses they were forced into shared promises at the end of a long lease, as a consequence of deregulation of property use in the West End, in August 1987, by the then Environment Secretary Nicholas Ridley. You can also see some antique Jonhs & Pegg pieces on the Victoria & Albert museum website here

Other distinctive 'house signatures' we have come across include:

Huntsman - long, structured and slim, evolved from the hacking jacket.

Anderson & Sheppard - soft and roomy, a beautiful drape.

Tommy Nutter - witty, classic with a twist, boxy, English tailoring with American loudness.

Edward Sexton - sharp as a tack, clean and structured.

Henry Poole, on the other hand, pride themselves on having no house style - rather 'a built-in elegance that shows' and a tendency to counsel moderation.

 

Comments

  • Hi Peter, there are few tailors left that have the skills required to work in silk-velvet. OB do offer a silk-velvet dinner jacket, though.

    Posted by Paul (Savvy Row)
  • You write you are looking after a silk-velvet jacket above and DC 1202/01 is described silk velvet. Why did the saleslady at Oliver Brown assert silk velvet is impractical for jackets?

    Posted by Peter O'Connor

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