Boom for tailors as workers with lockdown waistlines head back in

SAVILE ROW tailors and shops selling formal wear in London’s famous Jermyn Street have seen a leap in orders from returning office workers, including requests for clothes to be adjusted after customers’ waistlines shrank or surged during lockdown.

Cad & The Dandy, in Savile Row, experienced a 30 per cent increase in business last week alone.

Co-founder James Sleater said: ‘There has been a huge shift. Everyone is in the mindset of being back at work and getting new suits made. Very few people have stayed the same size.’

He added: ‘Some have lost weight because of fitness regimes. One guy lost 10in on his waistline.

‘It’s like getting five years of your life back. That could be the difference between having corporate lunches and not. Others, like me, took the opportunity to drink too much red wine.’

But he added that the long-term fortunes of rivals on Savile Row would depend on the return of tourists to the Mayfair hotspot.

Jermyn Street shirtmaker Charles Tyrwhitt said it had enjoyed a 220 per cent rise in suit sales in store last week. Its founder Nick Wheeler said: ‘People have gone both ways – some fitter and some fatter. They are also spending more on suits, after saving in lockdown.

‘A lot of men have decided to do a clear-out, getting rid of old shirts and deciding, “If I’m going to wear a suit less, then the one I wear can be of better quality.” People have said the suit is dead and a lot of suit sellers have gone out of business, but we’ve seen huge increases.’

According to Public Health England, more than 40 per cent of adults in England gained weight during the pandemic, with an average increase of about half a stone.