Soho Patent

Soho Patent

A Tailoring Precinct Of Distinction

If you would like to learn a little about the evolution of Savile Row Tailors and what is today the most famous sartorial precinct in the world, then we have included a few facts. Plus interludes on British Fashion designers, silk neckties and cufflinks

 

1623:Piccadilly Hall, the country home of Strand tailor Robert Baker and the origin of one of London's most celebrated place names, is first recorded on the site of today's Great Windmill Street in Soho. Baker's tailoring shop sold pickadils or pickadillos: ruffs fashionable in the Jacobean era hence the (possibly ironic) name given to his house. When King James I married Elizabeth of Bohemia in 1613, collars recorded in the bride's trousseau were made by Robert Baker. It is rumoured that Queen Elizabeth coined the (surely ironic) name for the palatial residence built by her social climbing tailor-turned-property developer.

 

1668:Burlington House, arguably the grandest Piccadilly palace, is constructed for Richard 'The Rich' Boyle, first Earl of Burlington - a Restoration courtier during the reign of King Charles II - in what was then the verdant countryside a mile from St James's Palace and the site of Piccadilly Hall.

 

Cufflink Interlude

During the 1880's in America, George Krementz patented a device based on a
civil war cartridge shell-making machine that could mass produce one-piece
collar buttons and cufflinks. Suddenly every US business was commissioning cufflinks for advertising or as gift incentives for clients.

 

1689:In the year of William & Mary's coronation, the tailoring house now known as Ede & Ravenscroft is established by the Shudall family. The firm goes on to hold the Royal Warrant as robe makers to every monarch from King George III to our present Queen. Only in 1921 is it finally christened Ede & Ravenscroft: the oldest surviving family-owned tailoring firm in England if not the world.

 

1715:Handel stays with Lord Burlington and is given rooms at the back of Burlington House because he likes the sight of fields and trees from his stateroom window. Mayfair is still a grand, aristocratic enclave while the former Tudor palaces on the Strand and the side streets of St James's are developed into tradesmen's enclaves riddled with tailor's shops.

 

British Designer Interlude

Vivienne Isabel Swire was born in Glossopdale, Derbyshire, on 8 April 1941. Her mother had been a weaver in the local cotton mills and her father came from a family of shoemakers. Her parents ran a sub post office in Tintwistle before moving to north-west London in the 1950's.

 

In 1965 she met Malcolm McLaren together they went on to become one of the most creative partnerships in history and as they say the rest is history.

 

Vivienne Westwood accepted a DBE in the 2006 New Year's Honours List "for services to fashion", She has won the award for British Designer of the Year three times. In December 2003, she and the Wedgwood pottery company launched a series of tea sets featuring her designs, testimony to her versatility and maturity and the respect she has garnered, a far cry from Punk. Endurance in such a volatile industry for a prolonged time is a hallmark by any measure.

 

Necktie Interlude

With the advent of mass media, celebrities such as sports heroes, movie actors, and popular singers would create a variety of neckwear trends.

Humphrey Bogart often sported bow ties, while another actor, Ronald Colman, was considered one of Hollywood's sharpest dressers with his tailored, elegant look. Elvis Presley sported an old fashioned neckerchief, and helped prolong an out of date style a few more years.

Game show host Regis Philbin became influential with his luxurious looking designer ties in solid colours to match his shirts.

About the Author

Welcome to the home of finely crafted designer ties and cufflinks handmade from fine Italian and English silks.

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