Savile Row was once 'the' destination for truly tailored bespoke garments however there are many tailor in France, Italy and Germany who are riding on the coat-tails of this English institution. Fiona Fraser profiles the emerging popularity of the continental tailor who seems to be cutting quite a dash

Ihave a big customer base, a newspaper publisher, who comes to me for bespoke shirts, and I have tried to make him suits a couple of times, but now he is going back to Savile Row” laments Josef Radermaker. “Yet, by the same token, I have a customer in London who travels around Europe and he comes to me a few times a year for all of his suits. It’s difficult though, as Savile Row has a brand whose reputation can overwhelm any appreciation of the other options.” Radermaker should know, he is a German tailor at a 75-year-old business based in Dusseldorf, and Germany is not well known for it’s tailoring.

But should it be? In the 18th and 19th Century when a man-about-London went about selecting a tailor he had two options: the wealthy and well-to-do would head to Savile Row, the central street that has become the mecca for high-class bespoke tailoring. Those of a smaller income would find themselves in Soho purchasing cheaper alternatives of inferior quality. Today, the ease of international travel has made buying a hand-made bespoke suit- the artisan work of fine tailoring rather than the flash of high fashion from many other tailors all the simpler.

And more men are choosing to do so, both for cost saving but also because, by definition, what they are not getting is Savile Row. “The reputation for tailoring across the continent is growing now that people are prepared to look further a field, especially as a younger customer who is after a degree of style that not every traditional tailor can provide – and even to go to a tailor that few have heard of. It’s more of an insider approach.” Says Thorston Lewin, of Hamburg based T Lewin, which counts high flying lawyers, national TV personalities and architects amongst its customers. “In fact, we get customers over from London because they know they can have a nice weekend in Hamburg and get two suits for the price of one from Savile Row. And that’s including the cost of travelling.” 

Indeed, if the national stereotype has it that the English are good at tailoring, as much as the French are at fragrance, the Germans at cars and the Italians at shoes, increasingly expectations are confounded. Radermaker argues, for instance, that to the trained eye there are national styles of tailoring. English tailoring is heavy but very sharp and angular, the Italians style is more supple and casual and the German style is a balance between the two – lightly structured, clean and comfortable. Paris, too, has great tailors, among them Francesco Rovito, who tailored Salvador Dali’s suits, and notably, Camps de Luca. The French case highlights how there are cultural differences - if the English have applauded sartorial conversation, the Germans propriety and the Italian’s sensuality, the French male mode has long been studied indifference to clothing, the flea market find the battered and time–worn, the crumpled look of Serge Gainsbourg.

Maybe, just as Germany has seen the likes of Jil Sander and Hugo Boss revive fashion interest, Dior Homme’s designer Heidi Slimane is doing the same for the French menswear. “The company may have an Italian heritage but its style is essentially French,” argues Charles de Luca, grandson of the eponymous founder. “ It’s fitted around the shoulder but light – a hybrid of English and Italian styles. Certainly, although there are not may tailors in Paris now, a Parisian style is evolving, enough that we can attract customers from all over Europe who could get a very good suit locally if they wanted.” Getting across the message that there are other style options is a slow process. Shirt maker Ignatious Joseph notes, Savile Row continues to eclipse most continental tailors, not necessarily because the product is better, but because, unusually, the most famous tailors are grouped together in one area, which has helped put its reputation on the map internationally.

More important still is the fact that Savile Row has effectively been marketed as the best for centuries, even if other nations are at last making their own efforts at promotion- two years ago for example, de Luca helped revamp the Parisian Association of Master Tailors, which is now launching a series of campaigns. “It’s Savile Row and the Italian tailors of Rome and Naples who are arch competitors – are 150 years behind so have some way to go to accrue the heritage that many customers associate with fine tailoring. After all, great, great tailoring businesses tend to be built up over generations,” says Joseph. “But in some ways continental tailors are pulling forward- Savile Row is still considered rather traditional, while Italian tailors in particular have been more successful at reinterpreting tradition for a new audience. That’s providing fresh opportunities for tailors on the continent.”

No doubt Joseph is helping out, although based in Germany, for the last eight years, he has been travelling to Rome to have his suits made by tailor Sartoria Carbone. Italian Tailoring houses have been especially effective at promoting their style to a younger customer – it was the likes of Kiton who clothed Hollywood of the 1950’s and 1960’s, and although James Bond wears Savile Row in the Ian Fleming books, in recent years he has worn Brioni, and most recently suits by Tom Ford but tailored by Italian company Ermenegildo Zegna, who launched in 1910. “There is romanticism to Italian tailoring, it’s sexy and glamorous, whereas much of Savile Row might be perceived as stuffy,” says Julian Manning, UK sales director of Italian tailoring brand Canali – “But what the Italian tailoring houses are trying to do is not compete with Savile Row but offer an alternative.”

The Neapolitan
Certainly, of all continental tailoring, it is the Neapolitan look that is most set to rival that of Savile Row, as perhaps befits a country so strongly imbued with influential, world-class menswear manufacturers and brands. Italy’s first tailoring atelier, after all, opened in 1850 and “sarto” from which comes the word “sartorial” is the Italian word for “tailor”.  If Savile Row gave modern menswear its dark palette, a fully canvassed construction and the form-fitting jacket, then the Italians have added colour, handset sleeves, the dramatically angled boat pocket and other jaunty details. “One reason why people don’t know about Italian tailoring in the way they do about Savile Row is that Italians can’t agree on anything. They like to be dramatically different from everyone else. That means we can’t unite to make an impact, but its also the tailoring strength. It looks to the future and likes to break the rules,” says Domenicantonio Carbone, owner and founder of Sartoria Carbone. “You have to appreciate Savile Row, of course but you can also say it’s rather boring. Sometimes you want tailoring, but you also want it to be expressive and that’s why you should look further a field.”