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March 14, 2007
a royal headache.....
(what, ready made pads!)
Well, here's a blast from the past and another Savile Row tale. The picture you see here is of a jacket forepart. Not any old forepart but one that was mauled by a certain dog.
You can imagine the horror of its owner who went through the experience of choosing the fabric, cut and style. Spending time talking through his likes and dislikes with the cutter to get exactly what he wanted. Then after making the simple mistake of hanging his jacket on the back of a chair, paid the ultimate price. The soft embrace of the fabric that its owner enjoyed obviously tasted very good to the pet dog, good enough indeed to receive the consequential kick up the backside that pooch received.
(hmmm... tasty)
This is an example of what can happen in life, to all of us. Not the end of the world, but I bet he was cross. You may be interested to know a little about the coat and its owner.
Well you wont be surprised to hear it's an Anderson & Sheppard coat, well half of one. It's obviously a classic DB, of about an 11oz grey worsted. A very useful suit.
It's no wonder that it's owner went to the trouble of having another forepart cut and made to match. One thing that's very unusual about this coat, especially as it's from Anderson's, is that it's got ready-made shoulder pads. This as you know is something that I've only ever done for one person. The reason is that the fellow who it was made for had a good figure but with extremely sloping shoulders. If you think of Anderson & Sheppard's most famous customer you may be able to guess.
A very nice gentleman indeed, but one we all struggled to keep a coat up on his neck. It was, of course HRH Prince Charles. His favourite dog a Jack Russell "Pooh" got hungry for his coat one day. Because this was made by Paul's mentor, Pat Davey. He was asked to replace the damaged half. An extremely tricky job indeed, but one that worked and he was delighted.
(HRH tasting a Cumberland pint)
As you can see here, HRH knows how to enjoy himself, whatever catastrophes happen. He very kindly opened this wonderful little brewery here in Cumbria, which was bought by the villagers. He made it a very special day for everyone. Well done, Your Royal Highness.
Remember if you're not wearing your jacket, hang it up.
Posted by tom at March 14, 2007 9:14 AM
Comments
I enjoyed your post! You do however have a slight grammar problem in your last sentence which was probably just a slip of your wrist when typing! The "Remember if your..." should be "Remember if you're..." since 'your' is possessive. Thanks!
Posted by: Wren at March 15, 2007 4:18 PM
I know it's not funny, but I had to laugh. My wife and I breed and show Beagles and Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. As you may know, many of us use cooked liver to bait our dogs in the show ring. We've lost a few jacket pockets over the years after inadvertantly hanging a sport coat over a chair for "a few minutes".
Your site is great: both educational and entertaining!
All the best,
Tim Delaney
Stewiacke, Nova Scotia, Canada
Posted by: Tim Delaney at March 21, 2007 4:51 PM
What impressed me was - considering the resources Prince Charles has at his disposal, he chose to repair rather than replace the suit jacket. Is he a practical man?
I say this because here, (Canada) shops like shoe repair are disappearing because people do not repair anything, they toss it out and buy new.
Posted by: Ed Roach at May 10, 2007 1:43 PM