Anderson & Sheppard
On a Thursday in December 2012, the atmosphere at Anderson & Sheppard was unusually tense. Old measure books, showing the records of prestigious customers over the years, were set out upstairs. Downstairs in the workshop, mannequins ran neatly along one wall, each displaying the work of a tailor or apprentice. It was oddly quiet.
Suddenly: “He’s here!” Sounds of welcome and greeting at the front door, and everyone assumed their places. After being a customer for over 20 years, the Prince of Wales was paying his first visit to the bespoke shop on Old Burlington Street.
Within minutes, he had put everyone at ease. Some practised charm, and the odd joke, had everyone smiling – particularly at the prince’s first set of measures in the books, which had been recorded under "Mr Charles Smith" for the sake of discretion. In retrospect, the alias was rather obvious. His Royal Highness met all the staff, inquired after each one’s background and work, and stayed long after the appointed departure time. The atmosphere he left behind was one of joy, satisfaction and, above all, relief.
Anderson & Sheppard has been one of Britain’s biggest and best bespoke tailors for decades. However it was not historically known for dressing royalty. The likes of Henry Poole, Huntsman and Gieves & Hawkes held most of the royal warrants.
Rather, Anderson & Sheppard was known as the tailor to the stars. Its clients included Hollywood royalty such as Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich. It was primarily a civil tailor, in an age when generally a man’s first encounter with bespoke tailoring was to commission his military uniform.
This is somewhat ironic, given that the famous Anderson & Sheppard style – often known as the "drape" cut – was inspired by the tunic of the officers in British Guards regiments. Tailor Frederick Scholte is said to have admired the masculine impression created by excess cloth in the chests of the uniforms, cinched in by a belt at the waist.
Scholte created a means of cutting a suit jacket in a similar style, with cloth being "draped" softly across the chest and then run closely through the waist. This also had the advantage of being more comfortable than traditional techniques – which aimed to create that effect of size through stiffer canvas and heavier shoulder padding.
Scholte passed his innovation directly on to Per Anderson, who founded Anderson & Sheppard in 1906. The style, which is equally reliant on a small armhole and other technical points such as a slanted shoulder seam, has been followed faithfully to this day. And although other tailors have copied it, none have established houses of any size – leaving Anderson & Sheppard as the prime proponent of the technique on Savile Row.
Over the years, many have praised the cut and its benefits. Fred Astaire was one of the most innovative and stylish dressers of his day, always adding personal flourishes to otherwise conservative outfits – such as a necktie worn as a belt. He was said to dance around the fitting room, leaping and turning to the mirror as he landed, checking that the jacket’s collar remained tight to the back of his neck. Watch his performance in films such as Top Hat and you are left in no doubt as to the elegance and practicality of the "drape".
The Prince of Wales's measurements at Anderson & Sheppard were recorded under 'Mr Charles Smith'
Today, Anderson & Sheppard remains a popular choice for many of the world’s most stylish men. Tom Ford, Manolo Blahnik, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren have all been customers – and the house has recently expanded into a beautiful haberdashery, around the corner on Clifford Street. For those who were there on that Thursday in 2012, however, there will always be a special place for a certain British royal, who put everyone so quickly, so wonderfully, at their ease.
Lock & Co
Horatio Nelson first walked into Lock & Co Hatters in November 1800. He had just returned from sea, and went into the St James’s Street store to order a cocked hat and cockade. The two-cornered style – the same as he would later be shown wearing on Nelson’s Column – was all the rage at the time. Nelson, a horrifically vain man, had an oft-stated fear of dying badly dressed.
On 6 January 1801, a couple of months later, Nelson was back. He bought another cocked hat, which would be worn at the upcoming Battle of Copenhagen, the bloody encounter that led to Nelson’s promotion to viscount. A few years then passed until his next visit, on 5 August 1805.
But this time he commissioned something special in addition to the normal cocked hat and cockade: an eye-shade.
Nelson had been blinded several years earlier, and finally wanted a permanent covering attached to his hats. So Lock & Co designed a flap that would sit on top of his blind eye, covering it from view (shades of vanity again). “We have the original design of that eye-shade in the records,” says Hannah Rigby of Lock & Co. “It was a semicircular piece of felt that would have been sewn to the underside of the brim.”
At the end of August 1805, Nelson returned for his last cocked hat. This one was worn at the Battle of Trafalgar, where he was shot and later died. Today, it rests as a memento on top of a wax effigy in Westminster Abbey.
Happily, however, Lock & Co’s connection with the Nelson family continues. A direct descendant of his, known only to staff as Mr Nelson, is still a loyal customer. A bit of a character, he rides around London on a tricycle with several Union Jacks flying from it.
Mr Nelson prefers square-crowned hard hats – known as a Homburg by most, but as the "Cambridge" at Lock & Co – which were also Winston Churchill’s headwear of choice.
There are so many stories at Lock & Co that it is sometimes hard to know where to begin – or perhaps more importantly, where to end. They are so treasured that the company recently began a two-year renovation of the archives. All of the ledgers apart from the most famous (Nelson, Churchill and Charlie Chaplin) have been taken to the London Metropolitan Archives, fully restored and meticulously catalogued.
Lock is also building a new heritage room at the back of the shop, which will contain that first order from Nelson, his eye-flap design, and several signed "head shapes" created using its well-known "conformateur".
This traditional method of head-measuring uses a wooden frame with movable pins around it. By adjusting the pins to fit the head, a perfect outline is created that can be translated onto a wooden block in order to stretch the hat.
The Queen used Lock & Co's conformateur to fit her crown ahead of her coronation in 1953
“It’s particularly important on hard hats, like top hats and bowlers,” explains Hannah. “If they don’t fit perfectly to the head they can be very painful.” The most famous user of the conformateur was Queen Elizabeth II, who required it when she had her crown fitted ahead of her coronation in 1953. Lock & Co worked with Garrard to adjust the crown, and then fitted the ermine around the outside itself.
The new heritage room will have several signed shapes, as well as notable orders from the likes of Oscar Wilde, and the first ever commission of a bowler hat.
Dunhill
Take two threaded needles. Hold them, one in each hand, on either side of an unstitched leather bag handle. Insert one through a hole in the leather. But only halfway. Leave it there, and then push the other alongside it, so the two needles sit companionably side by side. Now pull both through in opposite directions, with a wide, expressive motion. The arms, wing-like, rise up and outwards, and the waxen threads, pulling behind their needles, cinch the leather tight.
This stitch is called many things, but most commonly, it’s the saddle stitch. Its technique, with two needles looping around each other, is stronger than anything that can be achieved by machine. A machine cannot replicate the stitch because it is unable to feed a needle through a material and control it on the other side. There are few areas where hand-sewing is still superior, but this is one of them.
The saddle stitch was used in leather bags long before sewing machines were invented. Early leather goods – including those produced by Dunhill – were all hand-sewn. But even as machines have taken over, the saddle stitch, valued for its strength and longevity, has been retained by the highest-quality manufacturers. And Dunhill is one of a handful of operations still doing this work in London.
Dunhill’s Walthamstow factory is a quiet place. There is no production line – merely a handful of craftsmen scattered around the various benches, carefully attending to their work. The pieces being produced may be classics from the company’s hand-sewn line, or they may be more exciting bespoke commissions.
These commissions include small items, such as cases for car keys, and bigger projects, such as the travel case that was made a few years ago for a famous perfumer. The square case folds out into rows and rows of glass bottles, each holding a different version of a scent.
Mr Dunhill would have appreciated that. He was an innovator from the very start, quickly shifting his father’s company from saddles to motoring accessories when he inherited it in 1893. A motoring enthusiast as well as supplier to the industry, one of Alfred’s most famous driving inventions derived from personal experience.
The story has it that Alfred was the first person in England to be arrested for speeding – doing 25 miles per hour in a 12-miles-per-hour limit. He was so incensed that he invented "Bobby Finders": a set of binoculars that could be fitted to driving goggles and enabled the motorist to see policemen far down the road. The advertising proclaimed: “Will spot a policeman at half a mile, even if disguised as a respectable man.”
Throughout, Alfred’s approach to manufacture was to produce the finest quality possible, in the belief that customers would always pay for it. In a 1923 article, he wrote: “My experience in the motorists’ trade has convinced me that, if one can exactly meet the desires of a good class of public, time alone is necessary to make it profitable. Compared with quality, price is relatively unimportant.”
The company expanded into tobacco and pipes in 1907, creating a long line of similar innovations for smokers. It was particularly known for its "combination" cases, which contrived to combine lighters, cigarette cases, clocks and other useful mechanisms into single pieces. In the 1970s and 1980s it expanded further, adding tailoring, perfume and accessories. Today Dunhill sells thousands of items, with stores around the world. But a short visit to the Walthamstow factory will convince anyone that the spirit of Alfred’s innovation, and his approach to quality, lives on.
John Lobb
The lobby of number 12 Charles II Street, an office building just off Lower Regent Street, has a piece of modern art hanging from the ceiling. It is made up of a series of seemingly abstract shapes, attached to a brass fixture. The casual observer may note that some of the shapes appear to be leather, with brightly painted faces. But little else will capture the attention, even as they are stirred by the opening and shutting of the doors to the street.
One of those shapes is a representation of a bespoke shoe created by the designer Lola Lely. It was made by the craftsmen of John Lobb, in their workshop just a five-minute walk away, and it demonstrates the perennial influence that the company has on the stories and identity of the area.
“Lola had to pitch alongside several other designers, so she did a lot of research into the identity of St James’s and the companies here,” says Nicholas Lobb, the youngest and latest addition to the family management. “Eventually she found her way to Lobb and was fascinated by the Tardis-like nature of our premises – the way that the small shopfront leads through to the shop and then down and into the workrooms below.”
It’s not surprising that the artist was inspired. As soon as you walk into John Lobb you are hit by the history of the business (it was founded in 1849). On the right are row upon row of shoes in antique display cases; in between are letters and warrants declaring John Lobb the royal bootmaker to one head of state or another; and here and there are artistic works inspired by the shoes.
There is another such sculpture on the windowsill in Nicholas’s office upstairs. On the wall is a series of cheques written by famous individuals paying for their Lobbs. (It is worth noting that this is the original, family-owned bespoke shoemaker. John Lobb Paris is a ready-to-wear brand that is owned and has been run by Hermès since 1976.)
“There is a story behind almost everything in this room – such as the certificate up there for the Society for the Preservation of Lobbs, which my great-uncle set up,” says Nicholas, indicating the framed certificate surrounded by letters of royal thanks all headed with the red "Buckingham Palace" stamp. (Lobb currently holds two Royal Warrants.)
“The greatest story has to be how the business was founded,” asserts Nicholas, and he’s probably right. John Lobb was a crippled farmer’s son who managed to walk all the way from Cornwall to London in the mid-19th century. After being firmly rebuffed by the greatest shoemaker of the time, Thomas’s, Lobb sailed to Australia to cater to prospectors in the gold rush. Before returning to London, he sent a pair of riding boots to the then Prince of Wales, who was so impressed that he awarded John Lobb his first Royal Warrant.
Within a few years, John Lobb went from being no one to one of the best-known bootmakers in London. And he was relentless in his marketing – creating an enormous royal coat of arms to sit above his first London premises at 296 Regent Street.
Today, John Lobb doesn’t have to be anywhere near as brash. In fact the company is remarkably discreet, both in terms of its promotional activities and its discussion of customers. “We’ve always found that word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing,” says Nicholas. “And while many of our customers are in the public eye, as my father and no doubt his predecessors always stressed, our focus has always been on giving each customer what they want and making the best shoes and boots we can. Everything else follows from that.”
Best of British: The Stories Behind Britain’s Iconic Brands (Prestel) is out now. Concept and creative direction by Toby Egelnick; stories by Simon Crompton; photography by Horst A Friedrichs.
