Maybe suit marketing has always been sorta bad. Un-narrated footage from newsreel service British Pathe shows tailors working on Savile Row in the 1940s–from British Pathe’s info, it’s unclear whether it’s at Henry Poole or Huntsman (any readers who’d know care to chime in?); exteriors show Hawkes and Co., pre-Jeeves. There’s some cool footage of tailors sitting cross-legged, while they work, a longtime tradition.
The kicker is the end, which shows a marketing campaign to sell Savile Row tailoring abroad–by putting on a traveling stage play somehow intended to illustrate the virtues of high-end tailoring. Maybe it was the 1940s equivalent of O’Mast. I bet there was a lot of girlfriend/wife eye rolling at the guys who wanted to go see that play. Date night!
–Pete