How Savile Row measures up in an age of dressing down, in China and elsewhere
Tailors on the famous London street will never stop making bespoke menswear, but are adopting trendier styles, adding ready-to-wear lines and collaborating with sportswear brands to cater to fans of casual wear
From Virgil Abloh’s groundbreaking Louis Vuitton debut to Kim Jones’ splash at Dior Homme, luxury brands have been crossing paths with edgier, more casual menswear designers, and this hasn’t gone unnoticed by China’s affluent trend seekers.
Where has this left the sartorial authorities on menswear, the tailors of Savile Row?
T-shirt, trainers, US$6,000 made-to-measure suit: men’s style in China
“There will always be a demand for Savile Row suits,” says Robert Bailey, a senior cutter at Huntsman & Sons, a tailoring house on the famous central London street which has been in business for more than 160 years. Bailey’s confidence is reflected in the numbers: Huntsman takes its trunk show to 11 different cities in China – nearly twice the number of cities the firm visited the first time it went to China in 2015.
For several years observers of the fashion industry have wondered whether Savile Row can survive given the changing tastes in menswear. Recession and clients’ growing preference for casual wear have driven some of the small shops to look for new international markets or follow the luxury industry and introduce more fashion-forward offerings.
While a number of tailors stuck to making classic bespoke suits, others added trendier ready-to-wear lines priced to appeal to a younger consumer.