Italian vs Savile Row tailoring

A question I am often asked is, 'what's the difference between Italian/ Neopolitian and British/ Savile Row tailoring.

There's a long held belief than Italian tailoring is softer and a Savile Row suit is like armour, which could stand up in the corner if left discarded.

Even when my video series "The making of a coat", was released on YouTube, with nothing to compare it too, it did nothing to undo the myth.

So it's an interesting question with an unusual answer.

I once visited an Italian tailor in NYC. Who talked about how Italian tailoring was so much better than British.

This Italian born tailor had trained at tailoring institute in Italy and moved to NYC to work for Ralph Lauren, which he did for many years.

When he lost his job, he finally decided to start his own bespoke tailoring house near Madison Avenue.

He spoke about how their tailoring was softer than Savile Row.

'But how was it softer', I asked,

his reply

 'its the cloth that makes it softer'.

I looked around the room and the cloth bunches he offered were the same as any Savile Row tailor.

'But these are the exact same cloths, Holland & Sherry, Scabal, Dormeuil', I exclaimed.

'It's deeper than that',

he explained, 

'The canvases we use are lighter, softer than Savile Row'.

I asked to see his canvas and the swing ticket said "The lining company". A British based trimming merchant who imported their product from Italy.

'I use the same canvas, tropical weight in an 9oz, medium weight in a 10oz etc'.

'It's not the canvas',

he said,

'Its how we sew it together that makes it softer, the hair cloth and domette'.

In the workshop a coat maker was sewing together a body-canvas and I asked to examine it.

'This is the same I said, I use this same haircloth and domette'.

'I sew it together using the same techniques'.

'But when it all comes together it just feels lighter', he said

"Really! I find that hard to believe!"

So I took my coat off my back, handed it to one of this coat makers and asked him to compare the weight to the one he was making.

'It feels about the same!'

The Italian tailor proceeded to walk me out the door.

I had over stayed my welcome.

The main difference is what we chose to believe it is.

This tailor, like many others I met, were never challenging on the belief they held. They believed they were better without any real evidence to back it up.

I never met a tailor.on Savile Row who tried to make out they were the best in the industry.

When I was on Savile Row, I worked alongsides, British, Italian, Greek, Irish, Indian, Maltese and Russian tailors. It was a melting *** of culture where ideas were freely exchanged.

Critics of Savile Row always fall into the same traps.

They fail to realise its a real place, that is constantly changing and moving with the times.

Cloths, fashion, cuts, silhouettes, even the people.

Since I was at Henry Poole, the machiner, presser and most of the cutting staff have moved on, with new people and new ideas filing in behind them.

Cloths now have diamonds and gold woven into it, something that was just being introduced when I left.

Savile Row is not stagnant!

If you visited there in the 80's, everyone cut wide shoulders and deep armholes, now it's natural shoulders and high armholes.

It is certainly one of those place, that if you asked some one to do something unusual you would find the tailor who could deliver it.

But try and make it out as one thing or another just goes to show how little you know about the place and the people there.