savilerow

The Classicist: A Savile Row Makeover

Filed under: Apparel, Men's Style, The Classicist

Welcome to The Classicist, our new column devoted to timeless style, enduring elegance, and true, built-to-last luxury as opposed to mere extravagance....

Savile Row stalwart Anderson & Sheppard, which recently celebrated its 100th anniversary, is steeped in tradition, to say the least. Yet while other old-fashioned bastions of upper-class masculine British taste have been sold off or hideously modernized, A&S has managed to adapt and survive -- thanks to a strong-willed woman.

Anda Rowland, daughter of the firm's longtime owner, natty British millionaire Roland "Tiny" Rowland, who took over the business a few years ago, has set about bringing it into the 21st century without sacrificing one whit in the way of elegance.

The firm not only outfitted the great Fred Astaire - perhaps the best dressed man the modern world has ever known - but also Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin, authors Evelyn Waugh and Somerset Maugham, Gary Cooper, Noel Coward, Sir Laurence Olivier, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Duke Ellington.

Gallery: Anderson & Sheppard: Savile Row Style