Cad and the Dandy take Savile Row style to New York

Savile Row is known for its craftmanship and traditional men's bespoke tailoring with a worldwide reputation.

The superb artistry is often sought after in particular by American gentleman, many of whom wish to carry the look like Cary Grant and Presidents like Bill Clinton and George Bush.

Now this mecca for the world's best-dresssed men is taking its talents abroad to its customers, instead of them having to travel to the UK.
One of the newest tailoring establishments in Savile Row, Cad and the Dandy (C&D), already dresses a long and impressive list of smart Americans, and has become the latest of the firms in the Row to offer an international service.

C&D co-founder James Sleater has taken offices in Manhattan and will commute across the Atlantic regularly to ensure that quintessentially elegant British cut and style are easily accessible to New Yorkers.

“We’re offering the full service to our New York customers – they get to choose fabrics, patterns, linings, and whether they want their bespoke suits or overcoats  machine stitched, half hand-stitched or fully hand-stitched ,” says James, who added that at a time when the Government is encouraging manufacturing initiatives, he is proud to be exporting the “best of British” tailoring.

James and his partner, Ian Meiers, are former bankers who turned their redundancy into a new career – dressing the doyennes of the City whom they used to work amongst.

Since opening C&D in Savile Row, the firm has expanded to include premises in The City and Canary Wharf, and the list of famous names now dressed in C&D bespoke style grows ever longer.

“It is a very exciting development that our international clientele is growing rapidly. We seem to be particularly well known in New York and the number of orders we have been receiving from there made it a logical step to open a Manhattan branch,” says James.

He said Savile Row’s popularity with American high society dates back to 1886, when a gentleman from Tuxedo Park, New York, took home a handsome dinner jacket emulating one he saw worn by Bertie, the rakish Prince of Wales, at Sandringham. In no time at all the“tuxedo” was adopted as uniform attire for stag occasions.

Traditionally Savile Row tailors are extremely discreet about revealing who their clientele is, but over the years great Americans from Valentino to Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra and even Whitney Houston  have been spied in the Row.