DYLAN JONES
Editor-in-Chief of British GQ
These days it is quite common for a man to have a suit made, although when I started having them made it was considered rather rarefied. Thirty years ago, one only had a suit made if you were the sort of person who patronised Savile Row, and back then you had to be a very particular person to visit the Row.
Nowadays, anyone can visit a Savile Row tailor, but back then it was assumed you had to be of a certain class to get through their doors. A quarter of a century ago, if you were the sort of man who went up West to get his suit made, you were probably a banker, a politician or a barrister. Or maybe a rock star.You were certainly not just anyone.
All that has changed, as not only has the industry changed, but the customer has changed too. Britain today is more classless, more racially mixed, and far more attuned to the way in which fashion is no longer just a global lifestyle, but also an indicator of sensibility.
This is especially true in the world of menswear, but then as far as menswear is concerned, we have form. And if anyone ever asks you why Britain is so good at menswear, and so good at producing menswear designers, then you only need to say this: not only are the British good at tradition, but we excel at rebellion too. Britain, and especially London, is awash with great sartorial heritage, both recent and historical.
We have the greatest tailors in the world in Savile Row – we did, lest we forget, invent the double-breasted suit – and we are also responsible for just about every major youth cult since the end of World War II. Everyone from Edwardians to Teddy Boys, mods, rockers, hippies, skinheads, punks and New Romantics were born on the streets of London, right up to the multitudinous styles we see on the capital’s streets today. If it came from the street, it came from one of London’s streets.