Alexander McQueen'€™s shop on Savile Row.

For hundreds of years the Row has been the bastion of tailoring, the pinnacle of true British style and it is probably now the only street in the world that houses a rare breed of tailors.

There in Mayfair, one of the most expensive locations in the City, the term '€œbespoke'€ was coined before it becomes heavily used and misused globally.

As a customer picks a cloth for his suit, the cloth is said to have '€œbeen spoken for'€ by him, to be tailored perfectly to his specifications and needs. He will be measured, go through several fittings, and wait for months before he can finally don the suit and feel the luxury.

'€œA sleek, well-cut suit can turn everyman into the ideal man: serious, powerful, physically charismatic,'€ Esquire wrote in The Handbook of Style. '€œThe modern suit has been about two things: power and sex.'€

A bespoke suit doesn'€™t come cheap and only a small percentage of men in the world can afford it. A fully handmade two-piece suit from Savile Row will cost at least a couple of thousand pounds.

What separates a Savile Row suit and a tailored suit made in Asia is in the details. The Savile Row Bespoke Association demands a two-piece '€œbespoke'€ suit to be crafted from a choice of at least 2,000 fabrics and it requires at least 50 hours of hand work.

The result showcases a true British style. Typically the jacket will have two side vents, some will look more structured and some will look softer, it comes with working cuffs, it has full floating canvas '€” it is a suit that will last a lifetime.

Turnbull & Asser shop in Jermyn St. Prince Charles is a regular customer for their shirts.
The British like to wear their suits close to the body, but not overly slim like the Italians and definitely not sack-like like the Americans. A local example of how the British wear their suits may be Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa.

Just off the touristy Regent Street, Savile Row is a must visit for every suit aficionado, though business has become harder that the old houses such as Huntsman and Gieves & Hawkes at the prestigious No. 1 on the Row now sell ready-to-wear suits, while trying to stick to true to bespoke tailoring.

High street chains such as Next and Marks & Spencer can sell a pair of jacket and trousers as low as £100, forcing them to go into the RTW business. Moreover, there are more and more clientele coming from overseas to the Row but with limited time or budget to have a bespoke suit made.

An RTW suit by Gieves & Hawkes will cost about £800 and is just not comparable to a bespoke suit, but many customers think they are buying the brand, despite the RTW suit is not made at the Row.

There is a downside to the growing RTW business by Gieves & Hawkes, according to bespoke tailor Thomas Mahon who was the personal cutter of Prince Charles and formerly worked at Anderson & Sheppard, the most respected house on Savile Row.

'€œI don'€™t think the bespoke side of the business is that prominent any longer. They have a very department store feel in their shops; they also have a lot of concession stands around the fancy department stores,'€ Mahon wrote in his blog englishcut.com that provides an insight to bespoke tailoring.

Savile Row has undergone some changes with the establishment of more fashion-forward tailoring houses such as Ozwald Boateng and Richard James who are trying to sex up the Row. Designer brands such as Lanvin and Alexander McQueen have also opened up shops there.

If Savile Row is famous for tailoring then Jermyn Street, which is about five minutes away from the Row, is renowned for shirtmaking. There stands the statue of English dandy Beau Brummell, who is said to have changed the way the British dress.

Of all the shirtmakers with premises on the street, Turnbull & Asser is the best regarded in menswear forums, such as Styleforum and Ask Andy About Clothes.

Their shirts and ties are still fully made in Britain, while many designer brands have their clothes produced in developing countries like China or Bangladesh.

Turnbull & Asser offers bespoke service as well as selling RTW shirts with prices starting from £150. This is not cheap and the shirt surely will make a good accompaniment to a Savile Row suit.

Huntsman, one of the old tailoring houses at the Row. Their suits have strong, padded shoulders and are cut slim through the waist.
Prince Charles and his son William are known as loyal customers of the company, a testament to their quality.

But an average man may prefer to opt for lesser brands such as TM Lewin or Charles Tyrwhitt who most of the time, sell four shirts for £100. While the price does reflect the quality, most members think Lewin or Tyrwhitt shirts are decent enough for office wear.

Besides shirts, Jermyn Street is also the place to get a nice pair of English shoes '€” the sleek looking Crockett & Jones or the country style Tricker'€™s as well as the more affordable Barker or the premium Edward Green.

While the Italians do know how to make a decent pair of shoes, many Englishmen prefer to wear shoes made in Northampton. The shoes represent the English in many ways: sturdy, using the finest leather available, with Goodyear welt construction which is the best in the trade.

English musician David Bowie once said: '€œWith a suit, always wear big British shoes, the ones with large welts. There'€™s nothing worse than dainty little Italian jobs at the end of the leg line.'€

In the latest James Bond installment, Skyfall, Daniel Craig wore at least four pairs of Crockett & Jones shoes. While they aren'€™t the most expensive in comparison to some other English shoes, they are among the best that a man can buy.

A decent pair of made in England shoes from Barker or Loake will cost upwards of £200, Crockett & Jones will be a step up at £300 and above, while Edward Green is in a different class at above £600 a pair.

There are more English shoemakers in Northampton, about an hour away by train from London, such as Cheaney '€” run by the Church brothers after Church'€™s is sold to Prada. A shoe enthusiast will be delighted to travel to this town and visit the shoe factories.

But if time is a constraint, just make sure to pick up a beautiful pair of English shoes. After all, if a man is not in bed he will surely be on his feet.

'€” Photos by Aditya Suharmoko