The Chronicles Of Savile Row 1818 To 1858

When you’re involved in the fashion industry, like we are, it’s wise to learn as much about the evolution of styles and progress of fashion, because some one may ask you an awkward question.

Savile row is a good place to start researching. As you will witness it has been the leading edge for innovations and fine tailoring for centuries.

Here are just a few excerpts, for your reading pleasure and information. There is a lot even we did not know.

1818: Burlington Arcade, a glassed-over esplanade of shops adjacent to Burlington House is constructed under the patronage of Lord George Cavendish who resides at No 1 Savile Row (now Gieves & Hawkes) where Brummell was a guest before his fall and exile in 1814.

1821: Joseph Ede, who would eventually give his name to Ede & Ravenscroft, assists
guv'nor William Webb as Royal robe maker when Prinny is finally crowned King George IV in particularly overwrought pomp and circumstance after enduring years of Regency deputising for his 'mad' father King George III. Walter Grant Norton opens his tailor's shop on the Strand. Norton & Sons would relocate to Lombard Street in the City and carve a niche for itself as the definitive City tailor before finally relocating to the Row where Norton & Sons remains today.

1846: James Poole's son Henry inherits the firm from his late father and earns his title of 'Founder of Savile Row' when he makes the Savile Row-side workshops of his father's tailoring shop at No 4 Old Burlington Street into a grand, Palladian entrance to a bespoke tailoring Pantheon called Henry Poole & Company at No 32 Savile Row.

1849: Henry Huntsman establishes his tailoring firm H. Huntsman & Sons specialising in riding breeches and sporting clothes. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert become customers as do the vast spider's web of European Royal houses connected to the Royal couple. Five of Queen Victoria's granddaughters subsequently become Queens of Spain, Romania, Greece, Norway and Empress of Russia.

1850: James Lock & Co invents a Savile Row icon: the Bowler Hat. The Bowler was commissioned by William Coke (a relative of the current Earl of Leicester) to be worn by his gamekeepers as protection against falling pheasants and poachers' sticks. The Bowler is still called a Coke at Lock.

1852: James Gieve acquires a partnership with Joseph Galt (established in 1823 and incorporating Meredith); christening the firm Galt & Gieves. His equally ambitious sister Elizabeth independently holds Queen Victoria's Royal Warrant as Dressmaker and Milliner (an honour she holds until her retirement in 1889 a year after James's death).

1858: Henry Poole earns the first of his Royal Warrants from the newly crowned Emperor Napoleon III of France to whom Poole and Baron de Rothschild advanced £10,000 to stage a coup in France to establish The Second Empire. At the accession of Emperor Napoleon and his Empress Josephine, Henry Poole erects an audacious gas illuminated eagle-and-coronet light show above the faÇade of No 36: a tradition he repeats on all great Royal occasions connected to customers of Henry Poole.

These historic facts have been extracted from our comprehensive data research bank for your reading pleasure and information.

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