One morning, Ali said, “We’ll go for a drive into town, I’ve got an appointment.” We drove to Mayfair, to Harry Helman’s. Helman and his brother had been in business since the Twenties and had made suits for everyone from Prince Philip to Terence Stamp. Ali had seen Life magazine photographer Gordon Parks in one and had asked for the tailor’s details. He’d told Parks, “I’m ordering six just like it, in different colours. I’m a gentleman now, I have to look like one.”
– John-Michael O’Sullivan on the story behind Muhammad Ali’s first bespoke suit
(via Journal of Style)
