Debates about clothes cheaply made overseas have been in the news lately. Consider the other end of the apparel spectrum. Savile Row is a shopping street in central London famous for men’s bespoke tailoring. The term “bespoke” is believed to have originated there when cloth for a suit was said to “be spoken” for by individual customers. The short street, termed the “golden mile of tailoring,” opened its first men’s store in 1846 when Henry Poole moved his 50-year-old establishment to Number 15. Since then, Savile Row’s customers have included Napoleon III, Winston Churchill, Lord Nelson, Lawrence Olivier, Duke Ellington, Muhammad Ali, and Prince Charles. Read more about the creative and competitive world of fashion and tailoring in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).
