We asked Anda Rowland, owner of Anderson & Sheppard, which recently celebrated its 100th anniversary, what the outlook is for the Row’s traditional tailoring firms.
“We are still getting new customers and many enquiries, but it has to be said that London is not really in the mood to spend and people are traveling [to London] less,” Rowland tells Luxist. “Luckily, despite the turn away from ‘bling’ spending, there has been a renewed interest in goods that have an underlying value, which is perceived as more solid and easier to understand and to explain to the customer. There is a shift from the ‘Because I’m worth it’ attitude towards one questioning ‘Was it worth it?'”
Asked about the influx of money from emerging markets, “Speaking for Anderson & Sheppard, we have not seen a growth in customers from Russia or from the UAE,” she replies. “We have had more press interest, but it has not filtered through to visits yet. China and India are growing markets [for us] due, perhaps, to a historical familiarity with the history and tradition of Savile Row.” As for the future, “I have heard from the other tailors that they believe that their trips abroad will be more and more important over the next couple of years,” Rowland says. “They feel that customers will be traveling far less and that overseas service will help them to keep the workshops busy and running efficiently.”
Summing up, Rowland, who inherited the business a few years back from her father, is optimistic. “As a relative newcomer to this industry where most houses are at least 100 years old, I am reassured by the reaction of most tailors who say that their firms have seen it all several times before,” she tells us. “I can imagine that for many of the big designer brands that are much younger, it is harder to be as quietly confident as we are on Savile Row.”
With the falling pound, it is time to pick up some more Savile Row Suits.
Worth their weight in Gold in a Down Economy. A flight to quality if you will.
The Rest is Up to You…
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA Your favorite International Playboy’s, favorite International Playboy
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
Police in Milan are investigating an unusual $1m (£628,420) robbery in the heart of the Italian fashion capital.
It was, said the victim, “a masterpiece of its kind”. It was certainly daring – in broad daylight and on one of Milan’s swankiest shopping streets.
Staff at Pederzani’s, one of the city’s exclusive jewellers, thought nothing amiss when a window cleaner went to work on the plate glass display.
Dressed in regulation overalls, he propped his ladder against the window.
But then, instead of using the bucket and squeegee to clean it, he calmly unscrewed it before scooping an estimated $1m-worth of jewels into his bucket and walking off into the Friday shopping crowd.
This is not the first audacious crime to hit Milan’s fashion district this year.
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA Your favorite International Playboy’s, favorite International Playboy
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
In response to complaints about marijuana use at summer concerts, the Del Mar Fairgrounds has banned cigarette smoking at the annual county fair and approved a policy allowing pat-down searches at reggae concerts.
The new rules will not apply to the dozens of other concerts and events – including the summer horse races – held at the fairgrounds and racetrack throughout the year.
Now I love The Del Mar Racetrack, and my family has gone here for years. But these people are killing it. This ban is just the first step in a total smoking ban. Bing Crosby is rolling over in his grave. And if they do a full smoking ban at The Del Mar Racetrack, I will just spend my summers in Monte Carlo.
They claim that “on-track season attendance dropped by 4.3 percent, to 688,097 (16,002 per day). Total handle slipped 7 percent, to $559,076,029 – the track’s lowest figure since 2002.” I was there all summer (more or less). Attendance was down at minimum 30%.
Now they are making the track more restrictive. When the only people that want to visit San Diego are broke families from Arizona and other hick bible belt spots and San Diego has no tourism dollars they will realize the stupidity of this.
Question: Where is a rich European or South American cat NOT going to go to spend $15,000 over a weekend for vacation?
Where is an overweight family of 5 with shorts and visors from Flagstaff or Oklahoma city or some shithole going to “splurge” $1100 for a 2 week vacation?
Where is a beautiful 20 year old Estonian Model girl NOT going to go with two of her model girlfriends for a weekend of dancing, smoking cigarettes and drinking without being ID’d past 1:29am?
Where is a weesh middle American 25 year old girl that can’t dance and wears jeans, flip-flops and tight tops going to go to party with her equally weesh girlfriends?
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA Your favorite International Playboy on the Rise’s favorite International Playboy on the Rise
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown’s racing career is over after injuring his right front foot during a workout at Aqueduct on Monday.
Trainer Rick Dutrow said the 3-year-old colt, who was preparing for the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Oct. 25, appeared to kick himself while working on the turf course at Aqueduct with stablemate Kip Deville. Big Brown was able to complete the six-furlong work when Dutrow noticed blood coming out of the foot.
Though the extent of the injury is unknown, Michael Iavarone of IEAH Stables, co-owners of Big Brown, said the horse who captivated the racing world during his Triple Crown bid will not race again.
“It’s in the best interest of the horse to let him recover and move on to his breeding career,” Iavarone said.
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA Your favorite International Playboy on the Rise’s favorite International Playboy on the Rise
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
Exclusive clothing boutiques line Avenida Presidente Masarik here. A Burberry coat? A Corneliani suit? A Gucci scarf? Have enough pesos, and they are yours.
But tucked on a leafy side street in the Polanco neighborhood is a shop unlike the others, one whose bustling business says much about the dire state of security in this country. At Miguel Caballero, named after its Colombian owner, all the garments are bulletproof.
There are bulletproof leather jackets and bulletproof polo shirts. Armored guayabera shirts hang next to protective windbreakers, parkas and even white ruffled tuxedo shirts. Every member of the sales staff has had to take a turn being shot while wearing one of the products, which range from a few hundred dollars to as much as $7,000, so they can attest to the efficacy of the secret fabric.
