Faced with constant pressure from the bottom end of the market, such as low-cost operations that claim to offer “bespoke” goods made on Savile Row but are really madeto- measure suits sewn far from the street, and the top end, in the form of slick designer labels such as Tom Ford, Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren, Savile Row’s tailors had a choice —evolve or go extinct. And while several of the street’s oncefamous names have disappeared, those that remain have changed with the times. They’re no longer content to be tailors—they want to be brands.
