The London Lounge

In surfing the web I came across the website for what I am assuming to be the Savile Row Bespoke Trade Association (the group of tailors looking to show more of a unified front in terms of the industry that is the Row). It will be launching in January but it already has several fantastic photos on it that slideshow through. Quite enjoyable to look at...would make a nice screen saver.

http://www.savilerowbespoke.com/

Looks like it will be a great site!

I hope it doesn't become decrepit like all those other websites become. Regular updates and a slick format are needed!

Savile-row.com wasn't an option?

Thanks for the URL, Jackson. Yes, wonderful close-up images, especially those showing gold military braids.

I hope the site would show a close-up image of the classical double stripes on a pair of full dress formal evening wear pants, especially around the side pocket area. It would be interesting to know how exactly Savile Row deals with the stitching of the double stripes over the formal trousers' side seams, while incorporating a side pocket at the same time.

Would you believe it, I have seen an actual instance of a military general's pants that got rid of the problem by not having any side pockets at all? That was a pretty good solution, one must admit.

Per some of the tailors I spoke to on Savile Row, a number of the real Savile Row bespoke houses have gotten together to (a) correct the misinformation about the row spread by DB, MG, etc. and (b) become a source for educating the customer. Some of the template pages that will appear on the site in the coming weeks are very cool indeed.

Wonderfull website!

It seems that this site will launch in the next couple of days.

There will be a list of quality criteria as well as other information about the 13 members of the association.

The Savile Row site is functional now. Does anyone have a comment? It seems to be missing quite a few houses. It also has a few houses too many.

And what about all the other small organizations, tailors, cutters, trousermakers who work on the Row? (They can be among the best.) Where are they represented?

Do ex-tailors of SR houses not qualify as SR tailors. Edwin De Boise, Tom Mahon, Steve Hitchcock...do you have any comments?

I am not sure what to make of this attempt at creating a DOC Savile Row.

The site is reallya mixed bag.

Pity

It is interesting.

As you said, trevorh, many notables are missing. And Evisu? Even Boateng is questionable.

Hitchcock is definitive Savile Row. The others you mention are undoubtedly excellent tailors but do not have a permanent presence there.

The site could certainly use some design assistance.

The site, on the whole, is positive. The attempt to define and create an “appellation controlee” for what constitutes bespoke tailoring in general and bespoke tailoring on Savile Row in particular is welcome.

There are a number of names among the founding members of the association that puzzle by their presence. There are also a few names that create a vacuum by their absence. Surely the reasons for their absence will become clear.

The association states that its committee will meet on a regular basis and accept to review the requests of new applicants. It will remain to be seen if new applicants are admitted.

The specifications regarding hand work essential to true bespoke tailoring are noteworthy. That these specifications are truly adhered to by each of the members is important information for all prospective clients. The site does not say that the suits are entirely hand made but details the areas that must be executed by hand to be considered SR bespoke. One could ask what a sewing machine is doing in the vicinity of a 3,000 GBP garment but that’s another discussion.

I don’t necessarily agree that having at least 2,000 choices of cloth adds a lot of value if they are 1,999 iterations of blue and gray from the standard merchants’ books. Most of the association’s members, to their credit, do have a limited selection of house cloth or tweeds to choose from. I would prefer to see 200 outstanding selections of cloth in a tailoring house, as a gauge of quality, than 2,000 lackluster.

The overview written by Nick Foulkes is a nice read while the SR history by James Sherwood does not live up to the billing.

The photography by Guy Hills is of excellent quality.

Whittaker is right to say that the design is challenging as it is cumbersome.

As one of the SR’s most fervent admirers, I was ready to really love this site. Instead I have to give it a "good" rating. When you consider the combined sartorial and financial resources available to define once and for all “Savile Row Style”, it could have been done better.

Sites evolve with time and hopefully it will be improved.

Mr. Alden,

Could it be that some of the houses declined the offer to participate,
hence their absence?

A site of this nature is a very expensive proposition, the photography alone being rather dear. I do not know the houses well enough, but wonder if some are less likely to advertise in such a manner?

Is anyone else suprised to find Anderson & Sheppherd on the list of members? I always thought of them as rather "detached" from any sort of public arena.

The site looks "half-baked". Perhaps it has been rushed out of the door in order to meet "Launching January 2007" promise.

Andrey