The Art of Buying Well - Savile Row Style

Buy Once, Buy Well

The art of buying well almost never means buying cheap. Buy cheap and you buy twice, thrice...

This was the message our chums at Reuters were putting across when they ran our kind of news item recently. The gist of the piece was that sales at the quality end of the men's classic clothing market - in and around Savile Row - were doing very well indeed. The figures don't lie; people are seeking out lasting quality in increasing numbers.

Why don't our politicians bang the drum for this growing trend? They could start by shedding themselves of those awful shiny plain navy suits they all wear like a Politburo of clones. At the next G20 meeting I'd like to see the British Prime Minister appearing in a bespoke three-piece dark-grey chalk stripe suit with watch chain, handmade shirt and shoes, topped off with a bowler hat. Perhaps sporting an Inverness overcoat too. If I'm feeling the political pulse of the country correctly, it will go down a storm.

The Reuters piece featured Anderson & Sheppard and Budd Shirtmakers, with a very special guest appearance from the actor Edward Fox - appearing as 'Budd customer'. Witness the suavity in the video below. Have we ever seen him less than immaculate? Is he the male equivalent of Joan Crawford in that regard? I feel a clothumentary coming on.