A 2016 report on tailors and the weak pound is a useful lesson in how London tailoring sells to the world
Savile Row Still Cuts the Dinner Jacket, and the Gentleman Who Wears It May Need References
A 2016 report on tailors and the weak pound is a useful lesson in how London tailoring sells to the world
By Roper Penberthy, fashion and style correspondent, London
A Street With a Long Memory
There are streets in London where the clothes seem older than the buildings, and Savile Row is the first of them. A Bloomberg piece by John Ainger, republished by Wealth Management in July 2016, describes what happened to the Row after Britain voted to leave the European Union. It is a decade old, so I read it as history. It tells us how the trade behaves when the pound moves, and the lesson holds.
The article says Savile Row has housed Britain’s top tailors for nearly 300 years. Henry Poole, founded in 1806, cut the first dinner jacket, and at the time of the report US customers made up about 40 percent of its sales, with British clients about 30 percent.
One Suit Becomes Two
The weaker pound made British tailoring cheaper for American buyers, who were ordering more suits, often at two for the price of one. Simon Cundey, managing director of Henry Poole, said, “What has changed is one suit has become two suits.” He added that some customers had even laid down deposits for suits, and that US buyers would return in July and August to choose them.
Mahesh Habugoda, retail manager at Ozwald Boateng, said of American visitors, “Sometimes we’ve got lots of U.S. clients who are just browsing, but actually this time they are buying,” noting that buyers were also adding shirts and ties.
The Cautious Local
The article also records the other side of the exchange rate. Local clients were more cautious, worried about job security in finance and banking. Cundey expressed concern that clients in property finance, law and banking could face job losses over the next few years. Tailors and nearby Jermyn Street shops were courting overseas buyers to offset weaker domestic demand. Hilditch & Key, a shirtmaker on Jermyn Street, emailed overseas customers to take advantage of the strong dollar.
I admire the cheerful practicality. A bespoke tailor is a craftsman and a trader at once. He cuts cloth in the morning and watches the dollar in the afternoon.
The article adds that, per advisory firm BDO, UK retail sales fell 3.6 percent in June 2016, the worst June result in more than a decade, while visitors from Asia and elsewhere flocked to Oxford Street, helping luxury brands such as Burberry.
What Has Changed Since
The report is from 2016, and I have no new figures for Henry Poole’s customer mix, so I will not pretend to. I can say that the argument about who buys a London suit has not gone away. Tourists, expatriates and the occasional reluctant groom still keep the cutters busy.
In 2026 the conversation is also about how clothes are resold. Vinted is now described as the third-largest fashion retailer in the UK and a well-cut suit is the kind of garment that a buyer is likely to look for there. I have no figures on resale prices for tailoring, so that is an observation and not a finding.
The Cost of a Fitting
A fitting is the most underrated part of buying clothes. The tailor pins, steps back, frowns and pins again, and you learn something about yourself that a mirror in a shop does not tell you. The 2016 article describes customers laying down deposits for suits to be fitted when they returned in the summer, which tells you that people were prepared to wait for it.
Waiting for a fitting is unfashionable now. It is also the whole point.
Dress for the Occasion
A dinner jacket is the one garment that has not been improved since 1806, which is what makes it interesting. It tells the eye where to look and the guest where to stand. Few other pieces of clothing give so much for so little fuss.
My advice, for what an unqualified critic can give, is to buy the best fabric you can afford and have the sleeves fitted. Everything else is detail.
For those with a business meeting in a warm country, and I will come to that later in this series, wool is not the answer. Linen is.
Reading the Funny Page Alongside the Data
Readers meet comedy and reporting in the same feed, so it helps to know the difference. On one overseas property story, see Manila News, the London Prat (see https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and Bohiney: each starts from a recognisable market fact and signals its tone through exaggeration. More material sits at prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about wardrobes and a property market.
For the lighter side of the news, there is always NewsBiscuit.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/