Shears Out on Savile Row

O tempora! o mores! These are trying times for the traditional businessman who values a well-cut suit and fine leather shoes.

Open-necked shirts were bad enough, but jeans at corporate events? Black turtleneck? Really, Mr. Jobs. Sneakers?!?!

The unkindest cut has now come at the expense of Savile Row, for centuries the London home of tailors for English gentlemen, or those expat American bankers and traders who can afford to dress like them.

Britain's advertising watchdog has ruled that the term "bespoke" is not exclusive to Savile Row tailors.

The decision came in response to a complaint that Sartoriani, a retailer on Old Bond Street, near Savile Row, was offering, "Bespoke Suits," even though they were being machine cut in Germany.

Sartoriani responded that there are multiple definitions of "bespoke," including "made to order," which is true of their suits. The retailer also noted that at £495, no customer would be confused in thinking he was getting a Savile Row suit that can cost more than 10 times that amount.

The Advertising Standards Authority said that the majority of people would not expect a Sartoriani suit "to be fully hand-made with the pattern cut from scratch. We concluded that the use of the word "bespoke" to describe the advertised suits was unlikely to mislead."

A trade group of tailors, Savile Row Bespoke, is up in arms, and has trademarked the phrase "Savile Row bespoke."

"The A.S.A. has got the ruling wrong," a well-known Savile Row tailor, Richard Anderson, told the Telegraph. "They are saying the term 'bespoke' can be applied to what we would term a made-to-measure garment cut from a block pattern -- a ready-made suit. It is a shame really, because it is nothing to do with how we would make a bespoke suit."

by Jeffrey Cane