Boss of top Savile Row suitmaker famed for dressing Prince William calls for protected status like Cornish pasties
A TOP tailor has called for Savile Row suits to be given protected status like Cornish pasties.
Sean Dixon, chief cloth-cutter for suitmaker Richard James, said internet fakes using the name threatened its reputation.
He also wants Unesco heritage site recognition for the street itself in Mayfair, West London.
He said: “Our street has traditions going back 200 years and how we make a suit hasn’t changed.
“There are people working by hand in our building and that is something that we feel deserves to be protected.”
Mr Dixon has fitted the likes of Prince William and Sir Elton John and said actor Barry Keoghan was a recent visitor.
He said of the Saltburn star, 31: “He’s someone who is quite adventurous in his fashion choices so he was really a pleasure to work with.”
Other top clients include, Oasis, who arrived in Mayfair less than a day after playing to 100,000 at Knebworth in a concert now considered one of the greatest of all time.
The top tailor – who also fitted Blur but admitted the Gallagher brothers are better – recalls: “That was a great moment. I mean, that concert has gone down in legend now.
“They kind of came in after that fairly perky, probably a little bit worse for wear, but all kinds of very keen and enthusiastic.
They were probably buzzing, after a fantastically successful gig.
“Liam was a very good example of someone knowing exactly what they want and exactly how they want to look – and he was really good at conveying that.
“I think he went for some sort of narrow-collared suit.”
The younger Gallagher, now 51, even came back six months later, before his aborted wedding to Patsy Kensit in February 1997 – two months before the pair secretly tied the knot in a registry office.
He added of ex-James Bond star Daniel Craig: “He came in quite a few times after he was announced as Bond.
“I was at a GQ party, he came over and said hello… my friends were like, ‘You know Daniel Craig?”
Suits fell out of fashion at the start of the pandemic as working from home meant commuters could stay in their pyjamas.
But Sean insisted sustainability and new trends are bringing modern two and three-piece ensembles back into fashion.
He said: “I think people want to dress smarter, want to have finer things and appreciate everything that goes into a suit.
“It is a very sustainable item of clothing in that you can wear it again and again.
“I think the change has been colour and texture becoming a much more of a bigger deal.
“But also the way the suit fits, maybe a bit softer, and a bit more relaxed and a bit more comfortable, and that’s important.
“It’s important for us to make suiting, tailoring in general attractive, and to bring our younger audience, which is what we’ve been trying to do for the last 30 odd years.”