House of Nutter_The Rebel Tailor of Savile Row

by Lance Richardson

  “amazingly conventional”: Morden, “Why Tommy’s Ready to Wear a Big Smile.”

  “IN” list: Nigel Dempster, “The Ins and Outs of Our Social Minefield,” The Sunday Telegraph Magazine, March 11, 1979.

  “leading lights”: “Nutter Heads Up UK Design Boost and Points the Way,” Style, April 1979.

  “shooting star”: “Shooting Stars,” Tatler & Bystander, March 1979.

  “tradesmen grander than their customers”: “Tradesmen Grander Than Their Customers,” Harpers & Queen, May 1979.

  “Mr Holland has not lost sight”: Harvey, “The Marketing of Tommy Nutter.”

  “I think the Nutters girls”: Tommy Nutter to David Nutter, letter, August 11, 1977. DN.

  “Savile Row is a fine line”: Edward Sexton, quoted in Iain Finlayson, “The World Meets at Nutters,” Tatler & Bystander, July/August 1978. Details about the store’s physical transformation come from this source.

  his poppy-red bespoke “jogging suit”: “Daylight Joggery,” Man About Town, May 10, 1979.

  a pair of pajamas with a black bow tie: “Black Tie and Pyjamas!,” The Evening Argus (Brighton), January 10, 1979.

  “a cross between Cecil B. DeMille and a jockey”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in an untitled news item, Men’s Wear, September 7, 1978.

  “very me!”: Tommy Nutter to David Nutter, letter, November 14, 1978. DN.

  “very me—won’t last dear”: Tommy Nutter to David Nutter, letter, December 12, 1979. DN.

  a series of galas: I consulted numerous sources about the Reid & Taylor events. Some of the most illuminating were “Flashback: A Night in Venice,” Harpers & Queen, December 1977; “Castle Capers,” Daily Express, February 14, 1978; and “Russell Harty at John Packer’s Big Night,” a 1981 film of the Munich gala held by the BFI National Archive, in London. (Tommy features for a few minutes, gently making fun of John Packer by telling him one of his designs was inspired by a character from Coronation Street. Afterward, he wrote to David about the filming experience and admitted that he was drunk on sherry and came across as “very camp.”)

  which could cost more than £100,000: Rhys David, “Country Style,” Financial Times, October 15, 1977.

  “I think the nicest part about the whole jamboree”: Tommy Nutter to John Packer, letter, June 4, 1981. JJC.

  bakery workers to provincial journalists: John Shepherd, Crisis? What Crisis?: The Callaghan Government and the British ‘Winter of Discontent’ (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013), 3. My details about the strikes come from this source.

  “mounting chaos”: Ibid., 2–3.

  “will still eat good food”: Tommy Nutter, My Kind of Music interview.

  “there is nothing like a sober suit”: Jill Armstrong, “That Old New Look,” The Times, September 1980.

  “officially dead”: Tommy’s controversial comments caused an avalanche of press, with more than a dozen reports and responses. The best include: “Changing the Old Guard,” The Evening Argus (Brighton), September 12, 1980; and Anne Simpson, “The Micro-Chip Chiefs Who Need Advice from Nutter,” The Herald (Glasgow), September 10, 1980 (a syndicated column).

  “classic, respectable Savile Row jeans”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in “A Message in Their Jeans,” Evening Standard, May 12, 1980. Later in his career Tommy would apologize for the jeans in The Times letters page.

  “Is there an end to the success”: “The Nutter Numbers Ring in Japan,” Textile Forecast, August 1980.

  “Get rid of Are You Being Served? image”: Tommy Nutter, untitled notes for Kilgour, French & Stanbury, 1980. JJC.

  “second helpings of lamb and potatoes”: Judy Gould, “Envied,” Sunday Mirror, February 8, 1981.

  Savile Row tailoring would never be quite the same: “Ready to Wear Invades Savile Row,” press release, c. February 1981. JJC.

  “millionaire-on-the-dole”: Ibid. The theme is also discussed in a letter, Bill Tibbals to Tommy Nutter, January 13, 1981; and in “Tommy Nutter Goes Ready to Wear at Kilgours,” Men’s Wear, January 29, 1981. A good discussion of the collection’s strengths appears in “The Bespoke Path,” Country Life, January 22, 1981.

  “Rugged Couture”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in “Points of Sheer Genius,” Men’s Wear, October 22, 1981.

  “Large cashmere blankets with fringing”: Tommy Nutter, “Press Release: Big Sweep For Men,” September 1981. DN.

  “feeling a little absurd”: Liz Smith, “Blanket Coverage,” Evening Standard, September 8, 1981.

  “Meticulously draped or artlessly flung”: Melissa Drier and Ruth La Ferla, “Swept Away,” Daily News Record, September 25, 1981.

  “marine blue will be the new colour”: “The Big Sweep,” Evening Standard, April 1982. I also consulted the original press release, “The Navy Commands the New Nautical Look.” JJC.

  “having a bit of fun”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in Thom O’Dwyer, “The World According to Tommy Nutter,” HeLines, 1991.

  “may lead to the sale of a substantial part of the group”: “Lincroft Share Halt,” Evening Standard, July 2, 1981. An earlier indication of financial pressures for the Lincroft Kilgour group appears in an untitled news item, Financial Weekly, January 21–30, 1980: “But turning the fruits of Mr Nutter’s labour into profits proved rather more difficult for Lincroft last year, thanks to the rise in VAT which had to be absorbed. On a record turnover of £14.47m, profits halved to £435,000: the first half had already been depressed by the severe weather and lorry drivers’ strike.”

  “boring and old-fashioned”: Tommy Nutter to David Nutter, letter, October 7, 1981. DN.

  “get all those Japanese businessmen”: Tommy Nutter, “Press Release: Mick Jagger’s Tailor…,” May 27, 1982. JJC. Unless specifically referenced, all details about the Japan trip come from a jumble of letters, notes, schedules, press material, and information packs held by the Archive of J&J Crombie Ltd.

  a fractured arm: “Far East Lectures,” Men’s Wear, June 3, 1982. Tommy also mentions his injury in a letter to Liz Smith (a journalist with the Evening Standard), May 1982. JJC.

  “Mr Hori—whiskey”: Tommy Nutter Rainichi Schedule, May 5, 1982 (with Tommy’s annotations). JJC.

  “part of Britain’s great heritage”: Tommy Nutter, press release, June 1982. JJC.

  “never been a megastar”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in “Are the Japanese About to Make Tommy Nutter a Megastar?,” Tatler & Bystander, June 1981.

  “Karate in the morning”: Charles Pritchard, “Karate steels IM chief,” The Yorkshire Post, August 24, 1983. Other details about Lewis’s character come from my interview with him, and from Gail Counsel, “Profile: The Recession Player,” The Independent, September 5, 1992.

  “quite a while”…“waiting for a suitable site”: “Tommy Nutter to Open Shop in Savile Row,” Daily News Record, August 16, 1982.

  “I’m getting some of the bright lights back”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in “Fashion Diary: Peter Pan Flies On,” Evening Standard, September 28, 1982.

  FOURTEEN: LOST BOYS

  Interviews with: Sean Chiles, James Cottrell, Simon Doonan, Catherine Everest (née Butterworth), Timothy Everest, Aldo Fleri, Terry Haste, Wendy Kavanagh (formerly Samimi), Alan Lewis, Ann Mitchell, Joseph Morgan, Eric Musgrave, David Nutter, Thom O’Dwyer.

  “the sun”: Andy Warhol, quoted in Jonathan Kane and Holly Anderson (eds.), Art Kane (London: Reel Arts Press, 2014). This book offers an excellent overview of Kane’s career. I also consulted Art Kane, Art Kane: The Persuasive Image (Los Angeles: Alskog, Inc., 1975); and A Great Day in Harlem, the 1994 documentary by Jean Bach that was inspired by Kane’s iconic photograph.

  determined to break into show business: David discusses these scripts in his diary, but only vaguely. More specific detail about them and Kane’s studio came courtesy of Holly Anderson at the Art Kane Archive.

  “It began suddenly”: Claudia Walli
s, “The Deadly Spread of AIDS,” Time, September 6, 1982.

  “Hello there Nutter fans everywhere”: Annie Frankel to Tommy Nutter, letter, October, 1982. JJC. Reproduced with permission Ms. Frankel.

  “an elegant ocean liner”: James Fallon, “Tommy Nutter Finds His Place on the Row,” Daily News Record, November 23, 1982.

  “I wanted it to exude quality”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in Ibid.

  “up-dated traditional look”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in “A Tailor-Made Flagship Store,” Men’s Wear, January 20, 1983.

  “I wanted customers to be able”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in Fallon, “Tommy Nutter Finds His Place on the Row.”

  “the suits revolution”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in Thom O’Dwyer, “The World According to Tommy Nutter,” HeLines, 1991.

  “The Old Men bought their suits”: Patrick Collins, “Run-Down Built-Up Shoes,” The Mail on Sunday, January 29, 1984.

  “cutting the buckles and taking the stuffing from a straitjacket”: Jay Cocks, “Suiting Up for Easy Street,” Time, April 5, 1982. Other good articles on the Armani influence include Suzy Menkes, “Sex and the Single-Breasted Suit,” The Times, November 15, 1983; and Ruth La Ferla, “Sizing Up Giorgio Armani,” The New York Times, October 21, 1990. Other sources are Eric Musgrave, Sharp Suits (London: Pavilion Books, 2013), which has an entire chapter devoted to the Italian influence, and Hardy Amies’s The Englishman’s Suit (London: Quartet Books, 1994), 38–41.

  “I hate to mention it”…“Armani came along”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in O’Dwyer, “The World According to Tommy Nutter.”

  “I don’t want to make everything too wild”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in Fallon, “Tommy Nutter Finds His Place on the Row.”

  “a gentleman never wears vents”: Tommy Nutter, undated notes for an autobiography. DN.

  “Not really”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in Rob Ryan, “Tommy Nutter: Well Bespoke,” Arena, September 1989.

  a gray horizontal chalk-stripe suit: There is a small news item in the Evening Standard on January 19, 1983. The museum purchase was also announced in a press release written by Tommy, currently held in the Archives of J&J Crombie Ltd. The purchase is referenced in Tommy’s obituary in The Times, August 19, 1992.

  “very well-made, but a little other-worldly”: Stephen Bayley, “The Measure of a Man,” British GQ, August 1990.

  questioned the quality of his finish: On September 4, 2015, Joseph Morgan gave me a demonstration of the differences between a Nutters of Savile Row suit and one of Tommy’s suits from the 1980s. The latter, in Morgan’s opinion, were vastly inferior. This view was echoed during my interview with Eric Musgrave.

  “all hung in a gentle arc”: Geraldine Ranson, “Scissor Man,” The Sunday Telegraph, January 8, 1989.

  1,009,444 black bugle beads: “Elton’s 36th Birthday,” press release, March 26, 1983. JJC. This press release also notes the number of hours it took to manufacture the suit.

  “You never know about romance”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in “Tailor-Made for One Another,” Evening Standard, April 19, 1983.

  “HEAVY!!!”: Tommy Nutter to David Nutter, letter, October 18, 1976. DN.

  “very Pink Flamingos”: Tommy Nutter to David Nutter, letter, November 14, 1978. DN.

  “complete surprise”…“that Elton John would never marry”: “Elton’s White Wedding,” Evening Standard, February 14, 1984.

  “heard all sorts of stories”: Renate Blauel, quoted in Philip Norman, Sir Elton: The Definitive Biography of Elton John (London: Sedgwick and Jackson, 1991), 409.

  “You’d think I was making the wedding dress”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in Al Morch, “Star Grab,” The San Francisco Examiner, May 29, 1984.

  “immature people [from] making”…“long time”: “Elton can marry tomorrow,” Evening Standard, February 13, 1984.

  reminded him of John and Yoko: David makes this comparison in Dorian Wild, “Happy event for Elton not a rush job,” The Daily Telegraph, February 16, 1984.

  “Good on you, sport”: Quoted in Philip Norman, Sir Elton, 415.

  £50,000 reception at the Sebel Town House: Ibid., 414.

  furious recriminations of theft and grandstanding: The discoveries of—and antagonism between—Luc Montagnier and Robert Gallo are examined in numerous books and articles. Most compelling is Randy Shilts, And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2007). More balanced and thoroughly referenced is David France, How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS (New York: Knopf, 2016).

  3,000 AIDS cases in the United States: Lawrence K. Altman, “Fewer Cases Filed at End of ’83,” The New York Times, January 6, 1984.

  a new study conducted in Washington, DC: France, How to Survive a Plague, 154.

  FIFTEEN: HUMDRUM LIFE

  Interviews with: Louise Aron, Ian Brierley, Peter Brown, Cheryl De Courcey, Carol Drinkwater, Catherine Everest (née Butterworth), Timothy Everest, Aldo Fleri, Tim Gallagher, Valerie Garland, Brian Gazzard, Tom Gilbey, David Grigg, Stewart Grimshaw, Terry Haste, Wendy Kavanagh (formerly Samimi), Bertram Keeter, Tony King, Robert Leach, Alan Lewis, Ann Mitchell, Joseph Morgan, David Nutter, Thom O’Dwyer, Prince Rajsinh of Rajpipla, John Reid, Tim Rice, Christopher Tarling, Roger Walker-Dack, Judith Wright (née Allera).

  “the most chic walk ever”: Roger Dack, quoted in “Chic Walk!,” Men’s Wear, April 24, 1989.

  “nigh on 1,000 people”: Pattie Barron, “Fashion Parade: Walk on the Styled Side,” Evening Standard, April 18, 1989.

  estimates varied: The figure of £90,000 appeared in Liz Smith, “Designer Jumble,” The Times, April 18, 1989. Men’s Wear gave the pledge tally as £800,000, noting that the organizers were aiming for “£1 million eventually.”

  1,116 red balloons: Barron, “Fashion Parade.”

  “an American problem”: Simon Garfield, The End of Innocence: Britain in the Time of AIDS (London: Faber and Faber, 1994), 29–30.

  “I hope you all get very scared”: Ibid., 37.

  241 cases of AIDS in Britain: Alkarim Jivani, It’s Not Unusual: A History of Lesbian and Gay Britain in the Twentieth Century (London: Michael O’Mara Books Limited, 1997), 186.

  refusing to perform the “kiss of life”: Garfield, End of Innocence, 43.

  “leading specialists believe”: Thomson Prentice, “Deaths Could Rise to 10,000,” The Times, January 10, 1987.

  swigs from a hip flask: Barron, “Fashion Parade.”

  Bill Wyman, for example: Valentine Low, “Bless Me, It’s Mrs Wyman,” Evening Standard, June 6, 1989.

  Christie Brinkley had worn: Playboy, November 1984.

  “Divine-sized mannequin”: Frank DeCaro, “Divine’s Offscreen Wardrobe Is Strictly Saville Row,” Detroit Free Press, September 25, 1986.

  “I guess they came to see me”: Tommy Nutter, “The Man Behind the Joker’s Outfits,” The Washington Post, July 2, 1989. When a newspaper printed that Tommy had personally designed the costumes, Warner Bros. issued him with a formal warning. Afterward, Tommy was very careful to clarify that he had merely tailored the suits based on Ringwood’s designs.

  “It’s common knowledge”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in “Thomas Albert Nutter: Savile Row Tailor,” CUT, November 1988.

  “supportive of British fashion”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in “Nuts in Store,” The Guardian, January 11, 1988. See also “Tailor Tommy Takes Up the Challenge,” The Times, January 12, 1988. Tommy’s first collection appeared in Fortnum & Mason in 1985; see “Fashflash,” The Times, April 23, 1985.

  “I couldn’t be doing with all those golf weekends”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in Thom O’Dwyer, “The World According to Tommy Nutter,” HeLines, 1991.

  “a relic of the Sixties”: “Tommy Nutter: Well Bespoke,” Arena, September 1989.

  “on a level with the best”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in The
Sunday Times Magazine, October 12, 1989.

  “I fall somewhere in between”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in O’Dwyer, “The World According to Tommy Nutter.”

  still nothing he could do: Tommy notes this himself (“It pains him a little…”), in “Tommy Nutter: Well Bespoke.”

  Fabric of the Nation: Details about the gala come from the April 1989–March 1990 National Museums of Scotland Annual Report, 7–8.

  “changing his image”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in “TV Tommy,” Men’s Wear, December 6, 1990.

  “I suppose it is a lot”: Elton John, quoted in Jill Turner, “Slimline Elton Packs His Bags,” Daily Mirror, January 2, 1991. See also “ ‘In’ Is Out, but ‘Right Now’ Is Right Here,” Daily News, January 8, 1991.

  Colour & Design Competition: “Region’s Mills Lay Claim to Three Cloth Awards,” The Yorkshire Post, October 3, 1991. The judging panel was convened at the end of July.

  “Perhaps a brocade waistcoat”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in “Suited to the Course,” The Times, June 8, 1991.

  “dreadful”…“people used to dress”: Tommy Nutter, quoted in “What a State?,” Men’s Wear, September 20, 1991.

  “Worth Its Weight”: Tommy Nutter, “Worth Its Weight,” Men’s Wear, October 17, 1991.

  “The move will mean that I will be seen”: Richard James, quoted in “Retail Flocks to Savile Row,” Fashion Weekly, April 2, 1992. In the article, Angus Cundey links the arrival of young talent like Richard James with “what Tommy Nutter has done for the trade.”

  “T. N. in Conduit Street getting inspiration”: Tommy Nutter to Barry Grigg, postcard, April 28, 1980. Owned by David Grigg.

  “Fashion King Nutter Fights for His Life”: These headlines come from Daily Express and The Sun, and were on clippings (clipped of their exact dates) given to me by Robert Leach.

  “Other eyes see the stars”: Cilla Black to Tommy Nutter, card, undated, c. August 1992. DN.

  “What really, really makes you happy, Tommy?”: O’Dwyer, “The World According to Tommy Nutter.”