« looking to take on an apprentice... | Main | coming together... »
July 29, 2006
blight and sight...
[Mr. Anthony Hewitt, one of the great veterans of Savile Row, relaxing at his desk at Number 9 Savile Row. Mr Hewitt is also the exact same age as Giorgio Armani.]
If you've been living in the UK, I hope you've been enjoying the recent heat wave. I know when I meet our American friends over here in London, they're just astonished that it’s not raining, and finding the temperature quite normal for them. It’s a bit too hot on Savile Row for me, but buzzing around my local Cumbrian lanes in an old MG is a lot of fun. It's certainly a great way to commute to work.
I would like to thank everyone who has applied for the apprentice position. There are certainly some very passionate young people out there, and I'm delighted to have such a response. We'll start working through the pile of applications soon, and I’ll let you know of any news as it develops.
[My MG parked next to a visiting client's Italian Spyder. Now cars are one thing the Italians are really good at.]
Life is strange how it can throw up marvelous things one day, then totally disappoint you the next. I normally don't care to discuss things like this, but I've had a lot of enquiring mail asking my opinion of this bit of drivel in The Times: "Armani Attacks Savile Row".
I think the main reason why I'm disappointed by this article is not Mr. Armani's silly ramblings, but more the fact that a journalist of such a respected newspaper would take this story seriously. Then again, the writer is a journalist, and Mr. Armani is a couturist. They are both two individuals who know nothing about [A] true bespoke tailoring and [B] how business is done on Savile Row. For Mr. Armani to set himself up as an authority on this subject is ludicrous, and equally ludicrous is the journalist’s inability to separate reality from PR drivel. Had it appeared in some frothy fashion magazine I wouldn’t have given it a second thought, but for it to appear in one of our nation’s great broadsheets greatly concerns me.
We English tailors have been offering the complete sartorial package on the Row for over two hundred years, advising our customers on shoe makers, shirts, ties and jewelry. The difference is between us and Armani is, we direct them to other professionals in their particular field, we don’t pretend to be the best at everything. That way we help maintain the crafts, and also our clients get real authoritative service from the people who matter. We do it for reasons of heritage and tradition, we do not do it for the opportunity to be part of the "snob" group of customers that Mr. Armani so desperately desires. "Snob", by the way, is Mr. Armani’s word choice, not mine.
For anyone to pin the hopes of their new venture on the assumed “snobbishness” of future clients is astonishing. The very fact it's being marketed this way would make me avoid it like the plague, even if I was wealthy enough to spend £75,000 on an outfit.
The one thing I know about my customers is, they do not wear my clothes to impress their friends at cocktail parties, or because they wish to partake in a spot of social climbing. They wear them simply because they appreciate both the product and the people involved in creating them.
My clients range from twenty-year-old college students, to eighty-year-old farmers. I make for customers who do world-famous work in design and technology, and people who have the both the financial and intellectual clout to make or break any number of so-called "designers". They live in the real world and are very much part of it. They are not using my services in order to live up to some empty fantasy ideal, conjured up in some soulless media boardroom.
That being said, Mr. Armani, your unnecessary name-calling, uninformed opinions and ego trip notwithstanding, I'm pleased you are giving your craftsmen an opportunity to grasp the highest rung on the sartorial ladder, and hopefully some of them will excel there. Good luck to them.
But yes, to answer some of my readers, Savile Rows has heard all this sort of nonsense before. And it sounded tedious and vacuous back then, too.
[Me, without glasses, post-laser-eye-surgery.]
On a different but still relevant note, I've just had laser eye surgery. Not directly connected with tailoring, I know, but you must admit a blind Savile Row cutter would make an interesting blog post. It’s pretty obvious how valuable our sight is, especially for my work.
Until last Thursday I was long sighted. Not a problem, my glasses and contact lenses dealt with the problem. However, I knew as you get older things get worse, and Mister Magoo's glasses may eventually be required.
Therefore, I looked in to the possiblity eye surgery a few years ago, and I was sadly not impressed. The main reason was not the possible outcome, but more the way it was marketed to me. Like a lot of things, they were only giving me half the story, the good half. I was bombarded with statements like "Throw your glasses away", " Look more attractive" and so forth. Granted, we know the latter could never apply to me, but I still wasn't convinced, I felt misguided and hence my confidence waned. No matter, I decided to save up and wait for another day.
Then one day, quite by chance, a good customer of mine recommended Professor Dan Reinstein, of the London Vision Clinic. To use his words, my customer was “literally a couple of steps away from the dog and stick”. However, after few months, since beginning treatment his life was transformed, quite literally. He told his girlfriend he had to go and see the dancing girls of Paris again, as he had missed them the first time round.
So I decided to look in to them further. The thing that first pleased me about these people was their attitude. No excited sales pitches or promises, the most thorough eye examinations I've ever had in my life, and all for no fee. Although it was a totally different field from my own, it reminded me of how I like to think my customers feel. Before I take on a new client I want them to know as much as possible. What my style is, and the benefits and limitations it affords.
So then I immediately got my hammer and headed to the eye surgery piggy bank. I now was given confidence with clear information, from people who mattered. A clear informed decision was made.
Well, I've had the treatment and I'm happy to report, I’m amazed and delighted with the results. This of course is not the end of the matter, I have to return regularly over the coming twelve months, and then every year to monitor things. Although they now have my money and have done as they promised, that could’ve been that, however as they are more interested in the work that they do, they have offered to keep checking until they're 100% confident they have done the best possible for me.
The decision of choosing a tailor shouldn’t be taken lightly, but of course choosing an eye surgeon has considerately more serious connotations. So as with Savile Row, get the best you can. If you visit Dan, do say “Hello” for me.
And who knows, I may get lucky and find myself a beautiful wife one day. She will of course need to be almost blind to accept a proposal of marriage from myself, so after I've married her maybe he'll do us a deal and sort her out as well :)
Posted by tom at July 29, 2006 1:04 PM
Comments
Actually, I find you quite dashing! :-)
Posted by: Gigi at August 3, 2006 1:16 AM
The concern I have with laser eye surgery is that it is such a new technique that no-one knows what the effects will be twenty or thirty years down the line. At that time, I'm still going to be active and still need to see well, but none of the people offering this service can advise me on what might happen then as old age starts to degrade my vision. So I think I'll stick to corrective lenses thankyouverymuch.
Posted by: David Cantrell at August 3, 2006 10:38 AM
Valid point you have David, but by that same line of thought, lets say your mother comes down with cancer, and GSK comes up with a revolutionary new drug that will instantly put it into remission, but no one knows what kind of effects the drug could have in 30 years. Do you take the revolutionary new drug and possibly damn yourself 30 years down the line? I know, cancer doesn't compare to eyesight, but you can't always live for tomorrow.
Besides, if you continue on with your corrective lenses, your eyesight might have degraded so much in 30 years that you wouldn't have been any worse off with the surgery. It's all about quality of life. I'm plunking down the extra cash for laser eye surgery as soon as I have it.
Posted by: Ward at August 3, 2006 5:41 PM
What a thoughtful, well-written rejoinder. It's terrible that someone who claims to represent couture should choose to run down one of the best traditions of craftsmanship that it offers.
I'm from India, and growing up we used to hear of how fond our first Prime Minister Mr. Nehru was of Saville Row suits, even though the uber-nationalists in India gave him much grief for it :).
It is certainly something to aspire and dream of, I'm saving up for a Saville Row jacket (not a suit, I'm a woman and I detest pantsuits) as we speak.
Posted by: Thalassa at August 3, 2006 11:05 PM
Thomas,
The ability to be humble and self-efacing whilst not putting oneself down too much is as endearing a quality as the tradition and history that goes into a Savile Row suit.
Keep up the good work Thomas. Chances are, I may only ever be in a position to buy one of your suits from one of your apprentices, but at least I know he or she will carry the tradition on of fine tailoring.
Posted by: Paul Fabretti at August 4, 2006 9:41 AM
First off, nice car. It's a post 74, but what year? I myself have two MGB's a '73 and a '76. Love every minute in them.
George Armani's comments should be taken as flattering. That he feels the need to attack saville row sends a message that he's threatened by it. I can see why, more men are refusing to dress like peacocks in all that pink ("salmon") and such.
In my mind whenever I see someone attacking someone else, I immediately look to see what the attacked is doing right. Seems
Saville row is doing a few things right.
Posted by: Steve at August 5, 2006 2:15 AM
Thomas,
Keep up the tradition.
Posted by: MANIA by Giorgio Armani at August 5, 2006 4:53 PM
Great post - thanks. You make a good case for quality products that add customer loyalty. How could this industry work together to support more mutually beneficial deals in your mind?
Posted by: Ellen Weber at August 12, 2006 6:31 PM
How awful for Armani to say that stuff - he should be ashamed.
This is my first comment on English Cut, but I've been reading for a while. One thing I was wondering, is if you and Lucy ever finished her gold threaded suit? I would love to see a picture!!!!
:)
Posted by: stacy at August 12, 2006 10:48 PM