John Kent - Trillion Dollar Tailor: How To Dress Like Dan Peña & Achieve Success

Full transcript: John Kent on London Real

3:56 This is London Real. I am Brian Rose. My guest today is John Kent, the world-renowned British tailor from London’s famous Savile Row. You’ve dressed members of the royal family, including the Queen, her husband the Duke of Edinburgh and their son Prince Charles, which has earned you a royal warrant for your services to the crown. But you’re most famous for dressing my mentor, Dan Peña, yeah, the fifty billion dollar man, who is rumored to have spent over 1 million pounds in tailored suits from you.

4:21 You’ve also dressed the biggest names in show business, including Sean Connery, Fred Astaire, John Hurt, Burt Lancaster, Bing Crosby and of course me. John, welcome to London Real. Thank you. It’s, it’s great having you here. I am wearing one of your creations and I feel great in this suit.

4:40 This is a proper Savile Row suit, so thanks very much. Thank you. You look good. Thank you. I just wore this up to Dan Peña’s castle, Guthrie Castle.

4:48 When he walked into the room to greet all of us, he always has his opening speech, yeah, that is full of fire and brimstone. There’s usually a lot of yelling involved, and he said, Brian, he’s like, if that’s not a tribute to me, I don’t know what it is. He would say that. And you’ve done all your good thing, yeah. And so he done, Sally, no, you obviously, because I know you’ve been doing tailoring for him for a long time.

5:10 You know, when I put this suit on that week, this week at the castle, I was with 25 other really high performance people from around the world, but when I put this thing on, you know, I feel great. I feel like I can take on the world. I feel in power and in control. I mean, is that the point of having a good suit? Yeah, that’s my question for you.

5:30 Yeah, absolutely. You feel you can walk into a room, already you’ve got an advantage as far as I’m concerned against somebody who may, you know, be a very wealthy guy but hasn’t quite got the hang of it, and he’s got a nice suit on but you know it doesn’t look snappy or, you know, you look good. I mean, not because I’m mad, you’ve got a good figure, and I think you’re under percent, right? I think you’ve got the edge if you’re going with something that fits and you know it fits and you’ve got the right tie on, the shirt.

5:59 It’s all a part of the accessories as well, you know. Going with the wrong tie, the wrong, it doesn’t, you know, you’ve got it together. And you know, obviously you love clothes, which is great for me, because some people just want a Savile Row suit to say they’ve got a Savile Row suit, that put the wrong shoes on. It’s it’s all about the accessories as well. And obviously, as you said, you walk in there, you’re already ahead of the game as far as I’m concerned.

6:23 But you’re gonna say that, but it builds yourself, as you’re right. Sure. And Dan Peña always says, he says, you know, when you go to make a first impression you’ve got two things: how you look and what comes out of your mouth. Yeah, period. Yeah.

6:37 And so how you look is so important, and in business, I think we were just talking earlier, you walk into a meeting, you know, you know you’re gonna be making judgments right away, right? Based on what? Yeah, we might be, you might be wrong sometimes, but I get, I would think the majority of the time you’re on the money. Yeah, right. Yeah.

6:56 Now a lot of our audience is watching from places that are all around the world that aren’t Britain, you know, you know, and so when they think of Britain they probably think of you know, Sherlock Holmes and James Bond. Ah. And, you know, all of this history of dressing, you know, properly and smart and, you know, and that kind of thing. Tell me, what is it, you know, what does it mean to be British in a fashion sense? You know, is this part of the culture?

7:21 Has it always been part of the culture? Yeah, definitely. All right. It’s kind of waned a little bit, although I’ve got, fortunately, quite a, you know, young clientele at the moment. I mean, I’ve got my oldest, oh thank God, but we’ve got, and I think I just think great.

7:38 I love, you know, jeans. I like kept those short jackets, you know, I don’t mind a pair of a knocked-out leather jacket and a pair of old Guccis, that is, and great for weekends or if you’re going out in the evening, but to me the culture is, you know, to have, just to have it, not necessarily if you can’t afford a suit, but have some form of a dress, you know, attire that that looks correct. Not to say you want to wear it all the time, but it is a tradition, I think.

8:07 People now, thank God, come all over from all over the world still to have suits made. There must be something. It’s not only the name, you’ve got to come, you’ve got to produce the goods. I mean, you know, you can’t trade on a name, and I think, you know, we’re busy for this, the way the crime is. Yeah.

8:26 I think, I think it is a, it’s a culture and long my last. And what makes a Savile Row suit as opposed to something I would get in Italy or something I would get from another country? What kind of defines this type? I think Italian suits are great. They’re not constructed to saying that, okay, you could arguably say ours are firmer, but that’s the way we make them.

8:53 It’s got, it, we create a waistline that some people haven’t got, you know, and it can’t all be Adonis, this type of thing. And I think the Italians, so is it’s kind of, it’s not got a lot of, I found over the years that we, I’ve got quite a good Italian base that want the waisted look, the that the gray flannels like the old days, the suede shoes, the cutaway blue shirt, ie what you’re wearing, which is great, and the knitted, you know, the knitted tie that they love that English look, because they’ll get an Italian suit and it’s great, I mean you can’t knock it, there’s some Brioni, Caraceni, wonderful tailors, but it’s not quite got that that snap that we get into it, you know. And I think that’s what we, we score, we can, we can produce that with the Savile Row look which they don’t.

9:49 So, you know, hope it lasts. And, you know, when people think about suits, do you think it’s something, well, first of all, why do we even wear suits? You know, we’re in England here, and pretty much the basis of what I’m wearing, which is a three-piece suit, started here. It started in, in royalty, right? It started, it did.

10:11 I think I only learned this a wee while ago, but it started Charles II, whatever period that’s, it’s 1516 something, I would think. I didn’t, I actually read it in a book and I wasn’t quite sure enough, but it’s perfectly true. Not as we now know a suit, they still had that doublet and hose and all this, but it was actually three pieces of the same material, which we gladly admit that, leaves silk waistcoats, brocade jacket, topcoat, breeches were made out of silk.

10:45 It was a, it looked great for the period, but he, obviously coming to the throne, Charles the First, I, they come to the throne and like all monarchs, you know, they like to change things and he just didn’t want to go down that route, so it was actually made, I think it was made of wool. I mean, it was a wool fabric that was probably this more or less the same design, but it was all of the one cut, same color. So it goes back quite a long way and it’s, you know, something that we’re proud of, I think.

11:18 And then in Victorian times the English, well, English everything got exported to the world. Yes. And the suit probably was one of those great exports. Yeah. I think you’re right.

11:28 I think you know, just say, yeah, in America, yeah, I think to say, you know, where’d you get your clothes? My Savile Row. That just that name, in that Savile Row, it’s a great, I think it’s a great name. I mean, it could be Move Whatever, but it’s, I don’t know, it just, it’s just there and it’s just correct. And so people don’t know, what is the history of Savile Row?

11:48 I mean, that’s a, that’s a, a road in kind of an area here in London, which is considered of course the best suits anywhere. Yeah, so I understand, and you know, don’t quote me, but I think I’m right, I think before it runs from, I think Conduit Street through to Vigo Street, that’s Savile Row, and on the corner, number I think number one, is Gieves & Hawkes, which is a very famous name, and then it goes, you know, down towards, conscious, but I think originally, and I might be wrong, but I think that street had professional guys in there, you know, like doctors and solicitors, and then it just, you know, opened, and then it became that, you know, you’ve evolved over, like, sort of premises come, tailors moving. I’m not a hundred percent sure about that, but I think I’m pretty well on the money.

12:36 And it, then, you know, produced, as I say, the look that we’re still doing, only we’ve modified a lot, policy to cater for the younger, you know. We do make the jackets a little bit shorter, but not to the extent that you see, you know, ridiculously short, but that’s fashion. I’m not knocking that, we, it’s just a cycle and it comes and goes and we stick with ours and we modify it and we’re still here after, what, so hundred years. It’s all done when we were doing many fittings on this suit, I was in the, your changing room and I saw, I think, on the on the wall your, your royal warrant.

13:13 What does that mean, to have a royal warrant, and how would you be selected by the palace to do my learning for the, for the royal family. I worked for a company and I made clothes for His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, and I said to the valet one day that I didn’t really want to work for this company anymore, I’d like to start my own, and unfortunately the valet went in and said, your tailor’s outside, and what did he say? He won’t, he’s not going to be, he’s no longer going to be with us.

13:52 And when I went in there and did the hot pants, bowed as you do, and he said, sir, you got a one of a sensi home very dry. He said to me, have you got a terminal illness? I said, no, sir. So I said, well, why you leaving me? I said, no, son, I’m gonna stop, my only thought.

14:08 He thought of Raziel jokingly and he followed me ever since. He’s been fantastic for me, and I know people that always should say that but it’s perfectly true. He, he was probably, when I started on my own he gave me orders for three suits that some, I mean he probably, you know, he had a good wardrobe, but he said, would that help? And I said, yeah, really would. You know, you can’t be further than that, can you?

14:32 Wow. What year was that that you started? Oh, sixty, hmm, I, I think. And your first client was the Duke of Edinburgh? One of them, yeah.

14:40 Okay, got him. So, you know, thank God. And now what does that Royal Warrant mean? That to me, everything. There’s, I mean, it’s a, you know, our old family, you know, to give you, to say that, that I’m very happy with what you do is, you know, it’s gotta be, it’s gotta be up there, isn’t it?

15:02 You know, and the thing is that it wasn’t that simple, because I left the company that had been going through for over 40 years, he didn’t just give me that. What you can’t, you have to work for three years to see if you can cut the mustard, so to speak, you know. No good to him following me, and I can’t, I can’t produce what they were producing, and but fortunately I’ve been making for him through this other firm for a long time, and he let me have it in two and a half years.

15:31 He said that, I’ll give it to him, don’t have to wait the three or so. That was great for me, I thought I must be doing something right. And that’s true. Yeah, so, and he’s, you know, I mean, he’s been fabulous. On what’s the word of advice whenever dealing with royalty, especially in the service sector, is there a way to treat them?

15:48 Do you treat them like normal people? Absolutely, yeah. Explain. Yeah, absolutely. You, you’re, let’s just get this straight, I’m a tradesman and I’m really good at it.

15:59 I think the hope, um, you’re giving them a service, hopefully they like you, otherwise you wouldn’t believe me, you wouldn’t be working from within if you weren’t good, but you’ve got a going there every day, that sorry, every time you see them, you know, they want to order something, they, last time you went in there, you know, it was great, but in between they may have had a problem come up with their, you know, with their office, or with the, you know, the, they’ve got to meet some ambassador that’s gone, you know, I didn’t pick him up, and so you, you go in every time and you as if you’re the first time, that’s era, and if you make a mistake, if something doesn’t fit, because you know I’m human, I died, you know, you don’t say, I’m ever so sorry, Your Royal Highness, I’ll have a word with the tailor.

16:48 No, no, no, no, you just saw them, ever so sorry, so I’ve made a mistake and I’ll put it right, and that’s fine. Don’t say he doesn’t know what the hell that tailor is who made it, he don’t, he knows me. So, you know, just play it straight, and he’s like that, he’s straight, he’s just a straight guy, you know. I mean, he’s, he’s a man, you know, he’s not, you don’t want any sort of, you know, I’m terribly sorry, it wasn’t me who did the trousers, and you know, you just every time you come in there as if it’s the first time, and then you obviously see how things are going, you look, you know, you, you’d not servile, and I don’t think I want to be servile.

17:23 I just, you just don’t know what might have happened, that, you know, if you haven’t seen you for two weeks, you know, in your, your lives, it lives what it is, you take it for what it is, you know, things go wrong in between. It’s as if you’re pitching new business every, every time, so you bring your A-game every time, every time, and you own the mistakes yourself. Correct. Okay, don’t blame it on anybody else, on the tailor. He’s given the warrant, so not some guy works in workshop.

17:50 We made them, I cut them, he made him, but it’s me, I’ve made a mistake, so and he’s great, you know. I actually once said, he said, why is this wrong? I said, your tailor’s getting, I would say, made a mistake, and he laughed, and I said, what, I put it where, I’m sorry, you know, that’s how it works for me, that’s how I see it. And I’m guessing that in, in, in Buckingham Palace, um, of all the events they do, they have very different types of wardrobes, right?

18:17 I watched The Crown and they have different things they wear to special occasions, and absolutely, it’s, it’s there, that’s your uniform, and it’s great. I mean, you know, you’re presenting a program, you look on clothing, you look, not ’cause I made it, you had good suits before you came to me, but you know, you know you look correct in my, in my eyes. Um, they’ve just got, it’s, it’s evolved, isn’t it? Let’s be honest, you know, this has gone back hundreds of thousands of years and it’s just, it might be a jacket that they used to wear a hundred years ago but they alter the color a bit because it’s, you know, looked a bit corny.

18:52 It’s just, it’s just the, it’s their uniform, is, is their, what they have to wear because you’ve got an ambassador coming over and the, the correct garb for him is this uniform, then you put it on. You don’t say, you know, I’ll put a lounge suit on. It’s just correct, isn’t it? And that’s what they are, and it has to be. I mean, that’s why we have, you know, I mean, I think we’re still a great nation and we’ve got, our history is second to none, I mean, you know, and I think they play for me and they may feel, you know, it’s really hot out there and they’ve got this chimney, con, but that’s oh boy, some of those, why, I mean they’re, they’re doeskin and they’re really heavy, but you know, that’s what you do, isn’t it?

19:36 You wear this. When you’re sitting here you could quite easily sit here in jeans and a t-shirt, but you wouldn’t, right? You wouldn’t do it. And those details are important, right, because they are presenting, you know, they’re, they are presenting England to visiting heads of state, and what they wear and how they wear it is important because it’s a first impression, it’s a protocol, it sets the stage for everything to come, negotiation. Absolutely, opinions and dress matters, right?

20:02 I agree. I mean, you know, as I say, you’re going, you’re going to see Dan and he says, you know, I want you to be casual. You know what does that mean? I’m gonna wear a sort of a leather jacket and a pair of G, that’s fine, but, you know, they’ve got a present, they’re actually representing my country, and you know, if you look at whether you agree with it or you think it’s a bit, you know, over the top, but it’s, it’s their job, isn’t it? It’s, it’s, it’s their job, it’s, it’s you know, like I, I wear suits.

20:35 I mean, come the weekend you probably wouldn’t, told you they I’ve got, and I’ll jack it on and a pair of old duties with a suede ones and a suede, but you know, when I, when I go to work, I hope I look right. Right. So about five years ago I had an episode where a guy walked into my studio and I wasn’t dressed this way, and his name was Dan Peña. Yeah. Right, also known as the fifty billion dollar man, and I was wearing a skater t-shirt, I know it’s hard to, it’s hard to imagine, John, and some cargo pants and some Muhammad, you know, and I was wearing a, like a soul patch here, like a little beard thing on my, on the bottom of my chin, of my hair was really big, and Dan of course was wearing probably one of your research, it’s BP suits, and he looked amazing, you know.

21:25 I mean, you know, he’s probably 70 at that point, but he looked like him, I always say, like a million bucks, and we had a conversation. Yeah. And one of the things he said there is, is he’s got a lot of Peña-isms, he’s got a lot of one-liners. Yeah, yeah. And he said, Brian, dress British.

21:38 Think you dish. Yeah. And so, look, that started a relationship with us, but I mean the reason I came to you is because of Dan. Yeah, thank you, thank you for that overs. Yeah, I’m, when I was up there at his castle this last week, you know, him and Sally knew about you, about your knee stuff, I gotta get these on the muse on to me.

22:00 He’s right, but, but tell me about Dan Peña. Can you remember the first time you met him and what he was like? And you know, I know he ordered large quantities. Yeah, tell us about the early days of Dan. It was quite funny, um, I had a friend, Jeremy, I’m four, Jeezy’s not with us, and he, he, he, Dan had said to him, what’s the number one tailor in London?

22:27 And so he made sure this, not name doesn’t matter, and he said, well, and is there anybody else? And he said, yeah, he’s a very dear friend of mine, John King. So he’s like, well look, you know, what is this, you know, what Dan’s like. So he’s so nice in Savile Row, where’s John? Is in Stafford Street.

22:44 Oh well, let’s phone up. You know, so he finds out, when he says, um, I’d like to come in and order some suits, they didn’t know, but we cope fine. I can’t get in there till about, cool, to the six, that’s how I put that. Cotton is six o’clock, ten past. So never, so sorry, sir, we close at five.

23:03 Oh, so isn’t there anybody that can, you know, hang on for me? I want to order some suits, and when you say some, you know, I mean, no, we close at 5:00. So he’s typical English. Yes. Yeah, terrible.

23:16 I mean, come on, I’ll stay there till twelve o’clock at night for what it, well, I did pretty well, you have a little American. Yeah, and he’s, and he said, or was this other guy then. He said, John Kenny said, we’ll find him up. So Jeremy says, I’ve got a client for you, hopefully he wants some suits but he can’t get in, so let’s say 6:30. I don’t know what it was, I said, well, it’s not a problem, what’s the problem?

23:36 All right, so he comes in, you know, Dan’s pretty well on time, feature I just made him too, and if he says he’s coming a quarter past 1:00, he’s walked past one as near as damn it. So he turned up and he’s thought, oh my God, he’s big, goin, not for the fitnah, not but he’s commanding, is they, you know, not most beautiful beard trim and everything, and he goes, I understand you, you know, you’re, you’re pretty good according to Jeremy. I said, well, you know, I don’t know, so I’ll have a good go on you, you know, make one, and if it’s no good, will Bennett, you know, it’s not a thought, Alice’s machine kind of thing.

24:09 And he said, he kind of laughed and he says, no. And he’s picking these suits and I might was he looking and he’s gone, well I love them, and it was like twenty when I see more, maybe more, I might be exaggerated but I think it might be, but would say twenty anyway. I’m not really, so he said, was that is that’s how kai is Nelson, oh yes, I’ve got been ordering yellow ones and toes, which is beep, which was good for me, and and he said, I’ve got to tell you something.

24:37 So what’s that? Said, are these made by hand? I said, yes, apart from the seams down the side of the jacket and the darts, that’s the things that we get the shape with, I said they’re done by machine, but this is all padded by hand, the buttonholes are by hand. He said, oh, okay then. He said, because my tailor in by the castle, up that area, made me some suits and he told me they were all by hand and they didn’t like it to me, so Adam analyzed it, I’m high and I’m analyzed, I’m thinking, well, if that mine were by hand, but I thought, oh.

25:14 He said, what buttons do you use? I said that whether bounce at their home, you know. So he goes, okay, and they’re not plastic. I said, I don’t use plastic buttons, so he said, oh, he said, because this guy said that they were called buttons and it was made by hand, and they weren’t, they were made by machine, and he was charging me, obviously when you got a castle the guy must have thought he’s a muggle son, I don’t know, anyway, I monoxide. They say, if you don’t mind me saying it, but then sued him, and unfortunately the guy went bro, you ain’t even broke, because he lied to him, and you don’t do that to Dan, I’m sorry, and he was wrong.

25:49 I mean the guy said it was made by hand, it was charged him a lot of money, Fiza said they’re half made by hand and they’re 200 pound, he couldn’t sell a lot, but he was charging Savile Row prices for something that was machine made, sir. So when we started off like that I thought, make sure if I say this is silk, it’s silk, if I say this is so 400, it’s so good, you know, because he’s, I mean, you, you know, you know his life, he’s great, but so blood pressure, a little pressure on you, in as much as it’s right, isn’t it, what you’re gonna tell somebody’s my by hand? You get him might in Hong Kong, might have won those type of tailors, and why didn’t I think they would probably main stuff for it, because there’s a lot of that going on, but um, yeah.

26:33 Yeah, he’s, um, and he recommended me so many people, uh, and so you made him those first 20 suits and then he came in, he said, I want some golf trousers. They were great, that was ahead, that little golfers on, and they were really ahead of their time, because you know they were wearing tartan trousers, as you know, in those days, and he’s got like little golfers on and golf balls, and he found all these patterns, I might have been some of his own cloth, I really can’t remember, but I think the first hit was 20 pair. I mean, you know, have you ever had anyone order 20 suits in a clip from you?

27:07 But I’ve got one guy I can’t make, she’s not gonna be, he’s in the more or less the same lately, but there’s not many of them. There was a few, obviously, around, we got to know in the trade, science, I was not happy with this, so he might be a nice, a very big spender, this kind of thing, but you know that’s, I mean I would, I’d him, I don’t know how many, so I lost count, I’m my friend for a long time, you know, I’m gonna be over a hundred, I’m sure, owe more than that, more than that, kebab Aldrin, okay, you know, well I mean Dan has a great reputation, I’m always looking good and very, and it took me time, but I slowly saw the example good of that, but you know, at this day and age we see in America a lot of people dress ultra casual, especially on the West Coast.

27:52 It’s almost like the richer you are, the worse you dress, and the baseball hats and the shorts and nobody shaves, and it’s gotten to a point where it’s almost like a race, a race to the bottom. Yes, yes, where, you know, it’s like, you know, I’ve got, you know, I’ve got a few pennies and madam care, you know, I mean, it’s kind of like I don’t need to impress, that’s all I’m not gonna are like I don’t like that so much. You’re right, I think that’s gone from one extreme to the other, but you know, the man is nice and you know I’ve loved this side of what I’m, very lucky, because I see you know I could have been working in a, which I started working in a workshop, so in which I liked, but it, you know, something, you know, I love this side where I do the cut and a fitting, because I never know who’s coming through, well, and apart from the appointment, but we get guys, what people come off the street and they ask me questions and they may not order, but it keeps my you know, that keeps the brain active, and but I think you’re right, I think you know you’ve got a lot of money, so what, you know, but you do know you can.

28:55 I like casual, I’m not knocking casual, I, I mean I love her, you know, an old linen jacket and a beaten-up denim shirt and a pair of chinos, and but, but not to go, you know, not to go to a function. You know, I see people on there, winner on them talk shows and stuff, and they, you haven’t got, you know, coming up with a nice jacket, open neck shirt and a decent pair of boots or, and they come on, some, I mean I mentioned no, no, but you know, like I think the biggest problem is, is, is men don’t really have a formal education on what to wear. No, you’re right, and I remember I got my first suit was, I think in Boston, Massachusetts, I was 19 years old, I’d go for an interview, yeah, I think it Ford Motor Company or something, and I went into Filene’s or something and the guy got my first suit, and I had no idea what I was doing, out on, and that was my start of my relationship of the suit.

29:45 Yeah, I went to Wall Street later, I still never knew what I was doing, I always thought they were uncomfortable when I was in the city. I started wearing suits and by the end of that I didn’t want to wear suits. No, no, because I didn’t feel a part of you, so uh, what the hell, if I got this thing on, you, exactly. But now, I mean, I’d now I dress more like a banker than I ever did. Dan makes fun of me, but now I take it seriously.

30:05 I wear a suit every day, and for me it shows me and the rest of the world that I am ready, I’m prepared, I’m taking myself seriously every day. It shows my team that I’m ready every day, and there’s no cutting corners for me, so I don’t, I always worse, you’re the head, you’re the figurehead, you start turning up here with, you know, lucky issues like as a, you know, lace-up shoes and you can’t be bothered to do the laces up, that I don’t get, and that really annoys me, because if I did that I’d fall over when I’m Michel de da Jie Li, I don’t understand, and and you know it stems off, you know, they’re not gonna be able to produce that look without going, not to me, going to sell where I don’t have to be me where they do this with great ties around.

30:48 But, but I’ve seen your team and I mean this, this quite slick guys, they’re not, you know, they might be casual, but I have, you’ve got, you’ve got nobody out there that’s like, you know, why is that image, you know, you’re a team, because those are the x-number, are really, they’re all got their own idea. I like that, you know, you want to end up coming in with the same shirt at the same, that’s not, that’s not cool. But you, it’s got a, it’s got an obviously bounce off of you because you look, and when you came to me you had a nice suit on.

31:20 You go to some of those casual waistcoats I told you, the ones I wasn’t prepared to, also because you wouldn’t wear them, you bought them, okay, you spent money on them, and then we all just stuff that looked great on you is your thing. You like, you like a waistcoat and it suits you. I mean, some people can wear them, some can’t. What makes the Savile Row suit, what, what can you show them about what you did here, and you know, just some of the handiwork?

31:44 Yeah, what basically is, is that there’s some fabulous tailors in Italy, Spanish tailors are great, but what most people come to England for, think of, is that it’s that it’s this, they, in when you buy a neat app, you probably bought jackets that made in Italy, they’re very flat, there’s not the shape. We actually scaffold, if you like, you know, we make a scaffolding of your body, for want of a better word, which puts the shape. There’s no good, this lovely man’s got a hell of a chest on it, but it’s not gonna be put in the chest under here, it needs it here, and it’s it’s, it’s looking at the figure, the stance, that’s what that’s what makes us ever.

32:24 Oh, so I mean the cloth that other countries using, we can, but we buy the same cloth, or they can get the same cloth, but their construction is not the same as ours, and you’ll see, you know, most of the stars in the old days, they would have good Italian tailors that go to Brioni and places, but they always ended up, if they wanted something that had a lot of shape and flair, it would always be Savile Row. I look at you around and I really mean this, you, you look great. Up, I’m gonna say something, I’m an old guy, so I love it.

32:58 What I don’t like is, I like, I do that, I have the shirt out with the jeans and I’m wearing jeans, I’m too old, but I wear cotton, she knows. I don’t like this layering, that’s the only thing I don’t like, where you have, you know, it’s all hanging out. This is okay, um, lovely to see you guys wearing, you know, to wear these old things. I wear them because they’re comfortable, Moochie, they’ll tell me, and I still sell them. You’re kind of flashy, I’m kind of, yeah.

33:23 This is not so, that is, you know, um. And so when I put this on, as opposed to an Italian suit, it’s got it just feels like for me it’s got, it’s got structure, structure. You’ve got anyone explain that, and like what are these things here that there is that takes, you just put a sleeve in and who cares, that mine’s more softer because I’ve not got the figure to be honest, you know, I love it, but that’s called a rope sleeve head that takes at least five times more to do than that.

33:52 You have to curl this, the actual substance, you know, the thing we put, the kind of wadding insert in there, and it has to be rolled up and then put on, when this shoulders just putting in with a sleeve, so it’s, it’s kind of something I wanted to do because I’m quite square shoulders, as you can see, so I used to have that a lot, and I kind of felt because I’ve got a bit of a tongue, I was kind of like a pair where as it comes in, so I can emphasize the shoulder. It, you go by the figure, you can’t, you can’t cut a guy who’s like, you’ve got a, I don’t know, of 45 belly to some of your stem, you have to alter the pattern. You’ve got to advise them on cloth, they could, you know, I’ve got a great big guy, you wouldn’t say, well why don’t you have a great big check cloth, you know, you say have a stripe to elongate you, or plain blue and then jazz it up.

34:46 It’s, it’s that’s what you’re paying for, it’s not only, you know, the tailoring, is that the advice, hopefully, if you know your job, you, you know, I love that, I had a double-breasted in that stripe, I loved it when I was slimmer, and I didn’t say to, you know, you can’t have that, doesn’t suit, because he can carry that. I think it’s nice to see, without being rude, as fashion, that’s cool, but I love, I love that look, I wish I could wear that, the boot look, I love it. The only thing I would say, which I said to one of my apprentices many moons ago, but that’s what it was like then, he came in and I said, he looked quite a smart suit and all that, I said, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it, it’s funny stuff, it comes in a tin.

35:27 He said, what’s that? I said he’s called polish. You ever kind of polished your shoe? And he went and he was, then he came in and they were, you know, reasonably good. I know that’s a look you can’t start doing that look, bit corny, but you know, a little bit of spot polish on.

35:41 And this, how many stitches went into this, and like what’s happening on the inside here, and like how does it, this take to make in that? So actually, Mike, there’s probably, reckon there’s, I mean we were guessing fifty thousand stitches in that coat, how we arrived at the hair I don’t know, but the art of that is, it’s, as you know, we had a fitting and then we ripped it to pieces again, which sounds a bit stupid, then we tacked it up again with the alteration and then we ripped it down again, the main hours. That’s why Savile Row, I suppose, charges what they charge.

36:18 It’s not, oh look, you know, put it on, good, it’s it’s, as you know, I had about three fittings on the waistcoat because you’ve got that chest and I didn’t want that pull in, and inside there, there’s that, everything in that coat is, is, is natural, there’s no synthetic in there, though there’s horsehair in there, there’s the met, which is cotton, the canvas is linen, this is all linen around there, there’s not the button house of silk, those buttons, a bun, their horn, they’re not plastic, and we haven’t made, I don’t if you can see that on there, there’s two holes in it, I’d, I went from four hole to two hole. Okay, so that there’s only us and I think another firm that put two hole pull-off buttons on there, that everybody’s got four, and I found that bit ordinary, so even down to that detail.

37:07 And then what is the ticket pocket all about? That’s what we call that, a tick, sorry, well maybe we don’t, you would call that a ticket pocket, most people don’t, okay, but it actually was, it was, it goes back to the Victorian age, it was, it’s a percussion-cap pocket. They used to have a gun with a ball and black powder and they, and the pocket was set forward instead of that being in line, which we do, Nate, he came forward, but it looks funny nowadays, and they used to have, you know, they’d load the gun with a powder and the rammer and put the percussion cap in, that’s what it was, it wasn’t a ticket pocket because you know in Victorian age, I mean people did travel by trains, but it was very limited, so it’s just, it’s just we call it a ticket pocket, to carry over back to the military uniform.

37:53 Yeah, a warning in there, it would be easily get to it, because otherwise you’d be, you know, fiddling the PI of my pocket sign up, but fiddling about in the day, by the time it took long enough to load it anyway. Saga, yeah. And I think what’s really fascinating, we say like the suit, you know, the three-piece suit went back to Charles II, whenever that is, 1615, something, they used to wear, without going off the subject too far, they used to wear a long coat with a, like a very long waistcoat, doublet, in the hose, they were kind of split forces that would fit with that, and Charles the First wore all that B’s, when he died, Charles the Second, he said, I don’t want, you know, a silver waistcoat and a black this and a braid, he said I want it all in one color, and that is actually, it wasn’t like we were, it wasn’t looking like that, it was the way they dress, but it goes back that far, the three-piece.

38:47 So yeah, it’s really weird, because you think it’s, I don’t know what, you know, nineteen hundreds or something, but it comes back, elevator, that’s our history with Charles II. II, yeah. So it’s a three-piece suit was, and one thing as we, your suit does, and I know it was popularized in kind of Victorian era, is it, it gives a man kind of symmetry, so no matter what body shape you have, it kind of makes you very presentable. And that’s where, as you say, that’s where we gained, if you saw something that you saw, you go back and see those, you know, Victorians, you know, they, they were held in, and they love that sort of shape, and that’s what we’re, we sort of scored, if you like, and because they were pretty Saeki, and then then it just became the Savile Row cut, right?

39:30 When they came over, they wouldn’t say, oh I want it sort of tucked in here and pulled in there, they just say, I want, I’d like the Savile Row cut if I may, and that meant not too much chest, although if they built them up a little bit more in the old days, we’ve kind of slim them a bit, because a lot of people didn’t want that balloony look, but this bit, you know, yes, you, okay. and when I put this on I feel like it’s almost like a suit of armor, and it’s got a lot of stretch to it as opposed to an Italian suit that’s very thin and it’s, it’s travel these Italian suits without, I’m not running up there, but you see a lot of slackness across here and that’s, it’s called the Neapolitan look, it comes from Napoli, it’s where they’ve got, they have all plates in the top, but you know, it’s actually put in there, okay, and it’s it’s their style and it’s fine, it’s just, as you said, it’s, it’s kind of a bit floppy, which is fine, I think, for casual, you know, if you ever, you probably bought some, you know, some good stuff out there, we, you know, the shorter jacket, the softer, you wear it with jeans and it looks great, and a pair of, you know, boats, I love that.

40:34 That’s also better for warmer temperatures because it’s thinner, usually less structured. This is absurd or thurr in Tempe itself, what we go exam you on us in the summer, this is gonna give no, and that’s why what happens is, well you know, fortunately the people we deal with are quite wealthy, and and they have, as you put it, the gutter, you’ve got a winter wardrobe and a summer wardrobe, that doesn’t mean to say you’ve got out 56, you know, couple of, couple of heavier ones, a couple of lightweights, a lightweight jacket, but you’re right, with the Italian it is a much lighter construction, but then it doesn’t, you know, it doesn’t stand up, ours is more solid. You’re hundred percent right, it’s always been like that, it’s kind of a firmer mic which is got its pluses because it’ll always look like that, part from maybe where if you wear it badly, whereas you know, I’ve seen some of these, I’ve got a guy who comes to me and goes to Italy because he saw, he went there first, now he’s come to me and he likes why I do, but he’s always bringing it in and saying, can you put new stuff in here, and it’s, it’s kind of it’s, it’s you have fix.

41:37 Yeah, all right, so I want you to talk about the best coat here, in the trousers. Yeah, what are you thinking when, when John Kent makes the suits, like what, you know, what first of all, why three-piece? Again it goes back to the watch, I was a section of the second area is very English things. Oh yeah, three, yes, so much has been, which came from that history. Yeah, so when, when someone like me comes in and says, look, I want a suit, what are the things you’re thinking of, like you said, based on body type, you’re advising on certain patterns, she’s gonna put a check on a big guy, he looks like a big picnic where they says he wants a why Scott is what it’s like, you can’t get a waist cut around a guy, but they just look, they thought they saw spreads them.

42:13 So for this you were really particular about the pockets, and then you wanted the collar on this, what is, well basically is, when you buy ready-made waistcoats, I mean there’s nothing wrong with them, you’ve got some good ones, I wish we looked at, but I, I mean I always think a waistcoat must have four pockets, which we did, whether you use them or not, whether you want to use them, it’s, and the collar goes back obviously to Victorian, really, but I think it, you know, just the point, it’s nice, but that to me and getting the stripes, it kind of finishes you, all right, and I’m very fanatic, cause you know the backdrop, even if that’s pulled in and it’s gathered, it really doesn’t matter that, so that’s a part of the actor have no back strap on it, to me’s it’s kind of got a cardigan feel about it or, you know, okay.

43:00 And with these stripes you have to really make sure everything aligns back through your chest as well, it could pull back, and like I noticed like this here was exactly the same as this, but not only that, that’s where we take, we take a suppression out there to hold that in and build that up, it’s all done with dart, there’s one in there as well, I don’t if you know, it’s just this one each side there to get over that chest of yours, you can’t build a flat piece of cloth but by not creating shape, okay, it just won’t, but you know, you can’t bend a stripe, me, well you could, but it would, it would stick out, so it’s, it’s done with well, precision up to a point, you know, there’s no, if I put the dart up here it wouldn’t work, I put it where you are, so it’s kind of, yeah, is, we had how many fittings first?

43:43 I normally have one on you, I’d at least two, because you’ve got a good set up here and a lot of people have coming up more like that and you don’t get that problem of that, so you know, as good as I am I couldn’t do it, I could have done it in one but I wanted to having. Okay, now trousers, what, what makes, what’s this, what you do, I know we had no back pockets here, well I don’t like back pockets, that’s problem, oh I have one because probably in there now there’s bits of paper and little notes when I get home, but you get a better fit, anywhere there’s an incision in the cloth, if you don’t use them, if you just say, I’m never going to use it, that’s fine, but you get guys put wallets in there and then they come back so I’ll split it, it’s not suppose that’s written for a billfold during, or I don’t know, somebody very slim, but I’m a, what have I got on here, I think I’ve got, so yeah, I’m a no pleat man, I I’ve got some with pleats in but it’s just preference, so you get guys who like pleats, I just like that slimmer look, I’m, I don’t mean tight but I don’t like that sort of conglomeration, so that’s preference.

44:45 I just thought you’re, you know, you’re not big round there, fortunately, so you didn’t need it any help by giving you more, any room around there, you wouldn’t want any slackness. I wouldn’t, a soul, right. And you want the waistcoat always button on the bottom. Yeah. And so you sit down, right, and then just do that, okay.

45:01 And you also want me wearing braces, yeah, underneath here, at the whole thing come, let me just say I’m not that out that, you know, you got a whim, it’s just that when you, I put these on because unfortunately I didn’t know that when I made this and it keeps pushing under my belly, so I put these things on, but I just said probably because you’d, you see guys that I’m not gonna wear advice, I’d love gonna wear, but I want to wear a belt and then they come in and they’ve got shirt coming, you know, flopping through that, I hate. They’re so, why not wear them? I mean it’s comfortable, nobody’s gonna see, and if you know, obviously if you take you your waistcoat off and you feel awkward, just unclip them and give them someone, the stuff, I’ll put it in a drawer, sir, it’s not a big deal, it’s just it’s more comfortable with a vest, I think.

45:45 I just think, you know, struggle so much, okay, having to keep doing this and doing your belt up with you because it’s, you know, everything sort of slips, isn’t it? You don’t go up, it kind of comes down. So last question from Mia, why is a suit, and you know what I love though when you put it on, get it on, no but he’s got a chest and he tends to go that way, just do that. Why is this suit important in this day and age? Sorry, John, we’ll get that fixed.

46:16 Why is it suit important? I mean we see everything going super casual, especially in America. Yeah, the billionaires dressed like homeless people sometimes. Is a suit support important, is it still relevant? It’s still relevant, but I think we’re, we, we were very lucky when I started, you know, somebody come and said I want to be dressed, you know, you’ve got to have a blazer and a sports coat and a dinner suit and a tail coat and, you know, four suits and a flannel one, I mean that’s not necessary now.

46:45 I think if you, if you’re in that position, as you say, billionaires, you know, a couple of a good tuxedo, a dinner suit and a really snappy suit, you know, nice, but I love, you know, to be honest with you, a nice jacket, a pair of decent jeans, and I’m not, I mean if you knew when I was young, so sit in the bath we leave eyes on with bleaching them to try and make them gold, finally, so I’ve been there, but I thought honestly because they were too blue I wanted all passes all over them, but I don’t, I don’t like the holes in the knee, I don’t think that’s cool, I don’t think that’s a bit corny, the, I love James in a, no, I just don’t, I don’t get it, but that was great, I’m not so keen on this, you know, the trousers kind of up the leg and no socks, that doesn’t do it for me, but you know it’s fashion, I suppose, but yeah, this is great, I mean I love the boot, I love them, I really do, I envy, I’d look, feel a bit foolish, I want my de Paris self, but you, you look, you look fine, honestly, it’s, um, it’s just, it’s gone a bit too far out there, I think, you know, somebody says dress down, that doesn’t mean the, come in, you know, and your pajamas kind of style, you not, I mean dress down, you can, that’s great, you look cool, I mean you look, but I love the, forgive me, keep saying it, but I love that, that, I mean trainers are great in their place, but you know, you can wash him, you know, some of them really in a bad way, and that you can sort of scrub them, or some economy, and it’s is tailoring.

48:12 I mean I guess you would say this, John, but tailoring is important, right? Yeah, I have less expensive suit that’s tailored to you than an expensive suit, it’s all over your body. Yeah, I think I just feel that you don’t need, you know, it’s all right for us to sort of say, you know, I have this suit that, so you know, people have got mortgages and done that, what you own, two kids, a private school, I just feel somewhere in the wardrobe have something, you know, if you, your lady says let’s go out, just not, don’t have to have a tie, that’s old hat maybe, but you know, not, it doesn’t have to be my, I mean there’s some great ready-mades out there for sense money, because you know, you all got, you’ve got, you know, you’re young, I just feel that it’s gone a bit far.

48:56 You know, I’m on the train and, you know, some, I mean some of this, it’s just gone a bit too far. Yeah. And then can’t final comments on tie, pocket square, what are the, what’s the theory behind this, especially on a Savile Row suit or a suit that you made, things to do, things not to do? Well, oh I love a pocket square, you could square, as you can see, I love it, I think this apart the egg, if you look at Prince Charles he’s always got one, the Duke has it folded across, you know, that’s his style, um, some people are not keen on it, but I just think what you’ve done, you’ve got the temptation with a suit like, let’s put plain blue, so plain blue tie, honest, no, you know, because if they’re scared because our like, you know, money, we’ve got a heavy straw, I don’t think, I think there’s rules that you can do your own thing, but you know, I get guys coming in with sort of like paisley shirts on a suit like, I mean, you know, I’ve stripe maybe or oak, there are some rules, right, but you, you could arguably say that I’ve got one fantastic dress only etho, no matter what he’s into cream silk shirts, okay, and he wears a plain navy blue tie, which looks great on a gray suit, but he’s got a fabulous figure as well, and it’s always got a white handkerchief, like that more, and he, I said is, I just said you know, Benjy, but one you have a nice sort of you know, darker cream on its own, I have always worn white, so there is no, it’s sometimes, you know, it’s how you feel comfortable, isn’t it?

50:28 But I think that’s great, I love that, I thought that, I’m not big on playing tie and playing handkerchief, I think that’s as bad as having four pens and a roller sticking out your pocket like some professor, you know, don’t like them, they’re chained, you should be different questions from anybody. Yeah, you’re right, it’s, it’s you’re, you’re 100% right, it’s called a 5 show, 6:05 to up and you show the six one, but I because it’s got a very big chest and I have got other customer, you know, that although I’ve, I’ve anchored that on purpose, I mean I hate that look, you know, way it sticks out, and I just think Brian looks great with it done up, but I always say to him, you know, you can do that if you wish, but always do that when you sit down, because when you sit down with that time you get, you know, it’s just permanent creasing, it looks awful, but you’re quite right, it was rule of thumb is, it used to be five and leave the other one undone, but it’s, I’ve seen sort of black and white films, I’m beginning that purely look at it for the carving, and I’ve seen guys, are really, you know, like a lawdy type, you know, the Lord’s, and I’ve seen them with them done up and some aren’t, that I think you’re right, it, you’re a hundred percent, that’s a good point, it, that was how it used to be, but you know, if you want to do it up, do it up, you want to leave it, it’s not, you know, it’s not a dialysis machine.

51:53 And what about buttoning the, the front of a suit, whether, if this is a two-button, yeah, just everyone always want the one. Yeah, this isn’t that something that a royal did one time that made it a tradition with the way I was supposed to be, people would do both, but then a royal started doing one in the neighborhood that you might have me, I know what I do know is the, the one that abdicated with Wallis Simpson, I was forget, and I was a Duke above a bum and the King, and every he went into his father and he had, you know, the morning coat and the waistcoat and he cut, he turns up with strike, these striped trousers, which they were in there, and apparently because they used to wear tweed trousers, which didn’t make sense to me, but that’s what they did, when no creases in, they were just right, you know, Pippa tweet trousers with a morning suit, with a morning coat and waistcoat, and he’s turned up with these striped trousers and apparently the King at the time, he was just the Prince of nodookie or Connie, he wasn’t happy, and then then it kind of caught on, so when we make morning you know, when you see people go into a skirt and they wear morning, you’d always find that they’ve got either like little check trouser or they’ve got a striped trousers, but they really they would, they wore tweed trousers, which to me it must have been the thing at the time, okay, but four buttons, tap that, that you’ve got me, talk one on Terry button, middle, middle, not, not that I can put in my picture, I got the top one, I got the top two in my post, that’s because, with

53:22 All due respect, it’s a flatter type garment, right, if how, if we was, if we would make it, if we were making a three-button I’d ever quite a roll on that lapel, if you look at the one you got on, it’s flat and it will stay put, right, with ours, if we make a three-button we construct this different so that it can bake be done up or not, and we’re beginning to not stop in three-button, right on the button, we like it, what we call the soft, this is intentionally wrong. Oh yeah, that’s a lot of intentions, I have it underneath, if I’m night as you asked me, there’s probably, I don’t know, ten thousand stitches in there just to make it so might that role, that’s paddy by hand, that it takes, and the collars, well we don’t let, don’t let you know hotel without, yeah, no that’s got that, you can let me have that, and also for the boutonniere, which I probably need, I could use a boutonniere here.

54:14 Yeah, Peña rocks good boutonnieres. Yeah, so for that you said that you put a little thing. Yeah, there’s a flower loop on the power because you get somebody, if you go to an occasion and they want to put a flower in there and he goes, you know, guess hold, I do on my gets hold a little pill, I mean you know, and puts a great big sort of pin in it, so what we did, it’s an old thing, you just put the thing through there and you slip the, you slip the stem of the flower through there, it’s just in that, it’s, and you’d be surprised that some, it seems corny, but the first thing that, if a chap’s never had a suit before and you finished it, go, oh yes, okay, and they’ll make sure I’ve left that out because I forgot, if you want to know the truth, and he went, this is not Savile Row, and I said I beg your pardon, sir, he said you’ve forgotten that loop, I said just sit down and I did it in about, but he was right, it just got this, it’s that important to people who, who love suits, to me I’m like, you know, you missed the loop hat, but I mean it was wrong, but its first, you know, check the buttonholes, it’s just making sure they’re real nice shorter, so these are real, well as a suit off the rack, it usually they’re sewn on to the exact look.

55:23 And one other thing you told me is treat your tailor like your doctor. Yeah, listen to what they have to say, tell them their job. Yeah, would I, would you go to a doctor and say, now I’d like to operate on this name, so will you adopt on the tailor, but we get, you be surprised, you get people who’ve got what, oh you know, wise, with all due respect, that come in and say, I’ve done a bit of dress, Mike here, can I tell you a story? Am I total out to tell us?

55:48 No, sir, I used to make, um, welcome eyes, wouldn’t, sir Alastair Cook, you never called him, so it was Alastair Coletta’s in America, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, and his wife was, she was a sculptress but she was very good, and he was great, you follow me everywhere, so I’m making this coat and he wanted a velvet collar on it in those days, and she was saying, well I don’t think you’ll have that, and he’s so looking at man, she said, well now if they do it now, so she was ahead of a Thomas, sir, she said called Roy, and he went, we don’t tell John what, you know, so I said I don’t know what to say, sir, she’s going to do this and do that, so he looked at me, he’s going like that, so I got hold of my tape and I walked over to her and I put it round and they can just that they like that, she said, point taken, took it off, and we’re now, I thought we should knows you might as well over the tape, I mean, huh, and then he went, I know you shouldn’t have done that, but well done, and that was it.

56:42 Really, because I wouldn’t tell him he was a journalist, big time, and then got 90, which the Americans didn’t use his title, but he was, and he was, it was just so funny, she sound do this, do that, your rep called Roy, and he didn’t want it, but he didn’t really want upset, love it, I put it, you know, yes. I just put the tape around. And last question, is, nice to the young lads here or anybody watching, if they want to go get their first suit, what should they look for and what, you know, what should they try to get right?

57:11 I mean, are you sign from Saburo or just in general? Just in general. Yeah, I mean to be honest with you, just get it close fit in, you wouldn’t want, I don’t, I can’t stand without put weight on, get, make sure you, you know, it’s not catching you or when you do that, you get sort of this, I see a lot of that, where, you know, just look in that area, make sure that you know you can have it low but not like that, or and pulled it off, all right, not in general, you know what you’re happy with, but if you’re going to buy one, so just buy a plain, so looks offense, a medium gray, and then you can wear open neck, I think.

57:47 Oh, Nick, gray suits for me with it, with an open neck, sure, is great, I’m not, I don’t like blue so much like this with an opener, you can, but just buy something if you’re going to have the one, so then just buy something you, you know, you’re not going to get fed up with it, you can, you know, you gone out some when you’ve got to wear a, so plain gray, you know, you’ve got something, this is great because, you know, the governor’s got more soaks, but you know, you’ve got something, a big check on it, so I always got that, so on again playing gray for different shirt cards, different colors, shows on, and it looks well, you can, you know, put a big, old loud shirt on with a plain gray, or then a white one, you can ply it around a bit, that’s all I would say, but just make sure, you know, the length’s correct.

58:30 I like a break, but the look I would say from young guys that gone, you’d have just sort of that, don’t sort of get that look because a bit corny of going out anyway, Mike, my sort of saying, I’ve got lots of them, but today’s fashion is tomorrow’s Oxfam, you know, you see a lot, right, you know, you’ve bought the suit and it’s up here and then it goes longer and you won’t wear it, so you know, length’s not too short, coat nice and close, but not like, I see, you know, you’re seeing where you can’t even move your arm, and and I would think a nice medium gray suit, you can’t go wrong, and if you, if you push, you wear the jacket with a pair of jeans, don’t do it too often, but that it was quite good with them. Make sure I get it tailored at the store.

59:13 Yeah, you know, this places around there where you can spend and it’s still a lot of money and I’ll just be honest, but sort of three or four hundred pound, which is a lot of Darwin, oh but it’s not Connor what we chose, but they were there, there’s a, there’s one or two good, good stores around that we actually recommend, if a that comes off the street said I want to certain than, we, we tell them our price and I said, well you know with all due respect, you know that’s what we all really, I didn’t realize it, go to Sansa, and there’s one, but that means that one at the end of it, which I send a lot of young guys to, they do some great suits, they’re about, you know, four hundred quid for fifty, and with the tailoring, with the tailoring, you know, they’ll turn the bottoms up, shorten the sleeves, maybe Nikki dinner, they won’t alter the shoulders in collar because that would be, you know, it would be too expensive.

1:00:01 You were really particular about my sleeves, you wanted to show, sure, I’ve got on unfortunately wrong, my life is a bit on the short side, but I’d like to say, you know, a little bit of cuff, some people done, but I think just a little trim is quite nice, and you’re venting, you wanted to double vents. Yeah, I’m not a great sense of vent, funny, and Astley, when we have got a quite a big American clientele, when I started you couldn’t tell an American gentleman, would listen to all this, bit always wanted one in the middle, they wouldn’t have side vents, if we get American guys they have just a joke, so one in the middle, no I’m not a side vents is, if they, it just changed big time, okay, you couldn’t actually, you know, I had nearly had to, so you know, no, have side vent, oh no, I want one that’s slit in the middle, you know, it’s kind of change big time, which is great, I’m not a lover ascend event.

1:00:50 John, I appreciate all the thoughts and advice here. Now tell me, you’ve had some really interesting clients over the years, and because you’ve been around for a little while. Oh yeah, a bit, yeah. I was just wonder if you could tell us what it was like to deal with some of these clients, and them, you know, what is it like tailoring for someone like Sean Connery? You know, uh, both very, very nice guy, again, you know, I say that, but you know, down-to-earth, I mean you know he’s, he wasn’t, he was a star man, let’s be honest, it’s a nice star, he’s, and I, he’s out there in the, you know, yeah, and you know, can I throw your story, I mean Emily’s boys, he is good-looking in person as he wasn’t.

1:01:27 Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean he’s young, I mean you know I lost my hair unfortunately and you know I hate it, but he looks good, you know, he wanted to pay, we all know that, and he’s, he’s just, you know, six foot four, three and a half, six foot, think guy really is a good guy, he’s at least six foot three. Okay, so big guy, but I mean that’s most people’s favorite Bond, he’s one of my favorite Bond. Yes, it’s a, are gray, and again Bond dress as well, and of course that’s always associated with British tailoring.

1:01:57 Yes, oh it’s made by, um, I made his, when I didn’t make the Bond films, I can’t take the credit because some of that was great, I mean, but when he, the dinner and that three-piece suit in that with a very fine check in it, gray, I don’t if you call Honduras, I don’t know, it could be the one. Yeah, okay, but I’m ad stuff when he sort of was, you know, it was out of that thing, I got him as a customer for a friend and I made it his suits from there on in, but not the Bond, I can’t take the credit, that was great, but um, I’ve got, I mean, kind of tell your story. Yeah, so anyway, so my son who’s seven, I mean he’s hero, you know, he’s got the, he’s got the Walther PPK plastic gun, or maybe the breath or icon, and he’s got his granddad’s trilby, but as small little trilby hat, he’s got the, the holster, okay, lastic, and ’cause he’s been watching other mine, he can tell you now every Bond film, be it from Sean right the way through, when it was my eyes, unbelievable, because he just is just love that, but Connery was the one.

1:03:00 I was seven years old and, and Sean, 30-some years ago, yeah, we falter, yeah, seven, and my daughter was fourteen, okay, and so consequently I get a phone call from his wife, Montserrat, and said, could you, you’ve got some, I might be in him, I’m not sure, I’ve been, I can’t remember, you’ve got some couple of suits Sean can’t get over and he needs them, and it was funny, I was going to my path to a Powers Villa, he said you won, you go, I never write about one, the first holidays I had, take your children, I said I’ll bring them with me if that’s okay, so she said that’d be great because Sean can come and pick him up, you know, but I didn’t tell my wife or my son or my daughter because I’m a bit of the practical joker and it was not, it was just fun, you know, I didn’t mean it, so I said I’ve got a customer coming, you might want to mace him, he’s really nice, you know, so I was all fine, so she gets out of a beach, gearing round the villa and puts a dress on and didn’t put any makeup, that’s why she’s, she’s talking to me now, that’s forty, I really, what fairy this is in my Bayer, yeah, and he’s gonna pick these suits up and then I didn’t tell my son or my daughter, so I said he’d be here in about twenty odd minutes, so we left him, he went out and is driving and out there was some other villas and up comes this beautiful Mercedes, vintage, I don’t mean like, I mean like nineteen fifty odd, not, not nineteen, and he’s drop, is got a ragtop, they call that’d be like a convertible, and he’s come along and I thought, whoa, and he’s come in and he’s pulled around right

1:04:31 In front of us and my wife looked at me because I hadn’t told her it was, I’ve just had a customer, I did it for like, she wasn’t happy, she said, what are you doing, should I haven’t done me here, I’ll put my makeup on, and my son’s gone from a 7-year- old with a, you know, you know, a little seven-year-old voice, so somebody who’s 56 who smokes 100 cigarettes says, well he didn’t know what to say because it’s his idol, and he offered him, he offered my son his hand, he sure, he said, you having a good holiday? And he’s, he kind of, and my daughter just stood there and didn’t say anything and I think they’re forgiving me, I think. Whoa, when you, when you talking about a seven-year-old who walks around the house with a, with a plastic breath, true.we little true we had on that we converted from those Grande, and he’s standing there and he’s got, you know, there’s James Bond basically, and it was great, and I’ve, you know, I don’t know, I think they’re forgiving me.

1:05:29 Yeah, and where there was, I mean, I mean he was a movie star, you have an era where you know those were the, those were the big stars. Yes, they did. They have a different, I mean was it when he walked into a room, is it like, I see em boo, is it? Yes, I think era as I signing them, and I used to make for Gene Barry, do you remember name of the guy in Burke’s Law? Okay, no, I don’t know, I found this.

1:05:50 Okay, fabulous dresser, okay, another star, if you look that up, I mean we’re talking, yeah, I mean, yeah, and I had some guys to vote, I mean, you know, yeah, I’m like, he was, he was a fabulous dresser and you couldn’t either get that right and you couldn’t, I mean I try to get everything right obviously, but you know, it’d be down, so is this, it was this something there, you know, this kind of thing, and he’d probably write most that, I’m sorry, so I’ll get it one, but he was, he was, he was a marvelous dresser. Yeah, and you’ve had some other clients, like Fred Astaire and yeah, that was not, I hadn’t made that through my shop, that was through Anderson & Curtis, who I work for, okay, funnily enough that’s still going, but it’s a different horse, and Curtis, it’s, it sells ready my shirts and I understand they’re very good, but it was the old horsy, so I made quite a lot through that, and John Hurt was through my own company, which he was a lovely man, okay, what a fabulous actor.

1:06:46 I mean I acted from a front, from from our point of view definite, he was a thorough gentleman as well. Yeah, lovely tonight for easygoing, funny. Yeah, nice. And is it, I mean is it different making clothes for like an A-list actor like that, you to think about it differently? I’ll give them different, I was probably, I mean people made, hopefully they remember him because of White Christmas, you know, they play the Christmas, the song White Christmas.

1:07:12 I made for Bing Crosby, and he was, he was five foot six, five foot seven, he’d come in and his pork pie hat on with his fishing hooks in there and he’d be singing while I’m fitting, and unfortunately I was probably one of the last people, as a tradesman, to see him, because he came in and I had some sports coats and he picked them up and he was going to my buyer to play golf was Sean, because he’d never been to Spain and he had the Bing Crosby Classic, I mean that was famous in America, and he died on the golf course with Sean Connery. It was Sean Connery and I’ve seen him what too much, in fact I think I’ve never asked for an autograph, I might have done for Sean from a son, I can’t remember, and I’m embarrassed too, you know, I mean they’ve had enough of it, people, you know.

1:08:05 Yeah, but I just thought I got her asked for this guy’s autograph, and I’d made quite a lot of stuff, not because of him yet, but because I’m a golfer, a bad one, but he was a reason, he was a very good golfer and he had his own tournament, Bing Crosby Classic I think it was called, and I just said to him, Mr. Crosby, I hope you don’t mind, I know you get, he said what’s wrong, it was wrong, Jonathan, would you mind signing my golf-club covers, that’s the things that go in the woods, you know, the wooden ones, not the metal ones, and there was on the old, without boring you, on the old head covers, they were leather and right now, and there was space, there was a sort of oval things which you wrote that like a driver, a number one, number two, and they were blank, and I said, he said, certainly, so I gave them to him, after gotten red and white, and red with white patches, and Iran, when they join, you make great clothes, Bing, keep up the good work, Bing, and then the other to put Bing Crosby, Bing Crosby, and really that was great, because I’ve never asked anybody, and then two weeks later bought, you know, it was quite, he was kind of eerie really, I never asked for an autograph, and uh, now I’ve got this guy’s, and he’s said I’ll think, I think it was suddenly 70s, 74, so I’m not really sure the eyes, but I was quite sad, and the funny thing was when he’s coming out with shot offices, it, there was a building, they were doing a building on the scaffolding on a shop office, it, and the Irish guys up there, great, and he’s come out the shop and all

1:09:34 Of a sudden it’s like people coming off the rigging of a ship and somebody said it’s Bing Crosby, I don’t know, he’s gonna, and they came and he’s not tall and I’m not tall and I’m standing by man or something, they’ve come off the rigging, off the scaffolding and they’ve all got around him, there must have been 15, maybe more, I just, I was just worried that they might knock him over because he was already, and they said, excuse me, so you know, Bing, can you sign this? And he was, he signed, he didn’t sign many because they had a car waiting, but it was so, you know, see all these guys come off the, off the scaffolding, it was, it was great, but that has a site or three we excited, that was it. Well, you’ve had a few other movie stars in your place, guys like Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster.

1:10:17 Yeah, and and again, like, is it, is it different working with long, they were real stars, come on, okay, you must know you, an American guy, I mean Curtis was so handsome it was embarrassing, maybe not now, the look now is the hair up in the air and the beard, he was clean cutting the hair, you know, but he was a charming guy and it made me, you know, I’m a bit, you know, you know when you meet these people, I’m sorry, I, you know me, Tommy turns over, he used to turn over a little bit was a lot, yeah, and maybe not so much now, and like at Lee’s and Burt Lancaster was already about 73, I made the last clothing for him. I think the last film he ever made is called Local Hero, it’s a great little film, it was on them the box on my television just that, you know, I came out, I watch this, it was, it’s a very simple story about a guy who’s, they want to buy an oil field down in Scotland and he’s an, he had a cameo role, he wasn’t big be in it, but that was probably the last film he ever made, it’s called Local Hero, it’s a very simple story, it’s a good story.

1:11:24 Yes, fun, yeah, he was lovely. I’ve met one like real movie star and he was Priyanka Chopra, she’s a girl from India but she’s been in all sorts of American movies, and when she walked into the room I was like, that’s a movie star. Yeah, and it was doing something, isn’t it, it was something she like filled the room with. Exactly, it’s unbelievable, isn’t it, and it’s a weird thing, that’s why they are, they’ve got, you’re so right, otherwise I’d be one, you can, and it’s like it’s like they’re used to giving.

1:11:56 I guess it’s because the cameras and the stages and also they’ve been there and they’re always representing themselves. Yeah, and this was back in the day before, you know, the internet or anything, so they were the biggest thing out there. Absolutely, and they just, I mean not nothing is great because, you know, there’s got to be, you know, there are actors that are, you know, that do, you know, they are, I don’t know, they’re, they’re, they’re a judge because they look like a, you know, like a, but then that you’ve got the, the main characters, you know, the guy comes in and you know he’s the handsome guy, always gets the car, it’s corny, but that’s how it, that’s how it is, isn’t it?

1:12:35 It is, you know, unfortunately, some of them, you know, guys who are not so good-looking who have probably got wonderful personalities, they get a look in, delight, when you, you got some real handsome guy walk in a room, but there you go. Yeah, there was a very famous designer, Alexander McQueen, I guess he started off in Savile Row. I think he did one of the Tennyson Shepherd, okay, he just did, I don’t think it was his thing, I don’t know, he was, I was told he was there only for for a couple of months, but it certainly was a great design on that, just he pretty was right, because he went on to do his own and went to Paris, that guy was worth of his own money in a short time over a hundred million pound, really, of his own money, not, not company money, from a small, I know this because I got in a cab to go to a customer and the chap said he was tired, I said, oh yeah, because I’ve got some suits, he, he couldn’t get the shop in Eaton Square and he said, I was fun, he said, my nephew’s Alexander McQueen before obviously you died, oh can he said cause how success, if I mean the guy must have known because it was a relative, that’s what he told me, I, I haven’t got that from a book or anything, I thought really, but apparently was, I mean he was, I think he was a very, very good design, he probably didn’t, you know, out ride is lovely, but it’s not got that flair, you know, using different fabrics, we don’t make sort of silk with something else, me, we make silk suits, but it’s just, it’s we’re stuff is

1:14:03 More or masculine, obviously that’s what we do, isn’t it, and he obviously had that flair, so I mean I’ve seen any of the shop in Old Bond Street, only some of the stuff in his, all right, the names carried on but they must have designs for some beautiful stuff in there. Yeah, because he passed, you know. Yes, but I think he got that foundation, and you know, on Savile Row, or cutting suits, and they gave him Harlem basics, and then you are 100% right, he must have picked up, you know, certain aspects of hands hydron, and because it’s, you know, not so much with lady stuff, it is a different world, I don’t enter that world, I’m, I’m good at this, I don’t want her into that world, it’s not my world, I think stick with people that have been trained, you know, I mean some tailors is in it, do you know, constructed sort of suits for lady in our costumes of stuff, um, it’s really want to get down that road, up, stick with this, I know what I’m doing with this, so I’ve got some know women’s fashion for you, I’ve made costumes, like slacks and jackets, you know, of the same fabric, like if it’s a power, so I think that’s what they, you know, top executive from wanted, not too manly but mainly cloth, but cut with a little bit of, you know, style for a lady.

1:15:18 I’ve done a few but and they’ve been fine, but I don’t profess to be, you know, to do something really, you know, out there, you know, seems everywhere and peplums and all this kind, I wouldn’t attend, Jonathan, he’s fierce as a customer anyway, go to somebody, you know, that’s their thing in that, you know, yeah, but that’s that’s the way I say it, right. They all said, John, I kind of wanted to finish just with some advice, you know, for people watching from the whole spectrum, because I’m sure a lot of, there’s a lot of men watching that think, I could never wear a suit like I’m wearing now, I don’t like suits, I don’t understand fashion, I don’t even like going to tailors, I don’t even like waiting for my clothes to be ready. I remember the first time I bought a suit and I figured I had to come back a week later, I couldn’t be bothered.

1:16:05 No, no, and then I realized that to be a man, I know this sounds crazy, John, but to be a man you must learn how to dress. Yeah, which means you must invest in the long term in your wardrobe, and like coming to you, I wasn’t gonna get this suit for probably three months. Three months or three months, yeah, maybe about three, maybe four, and I had to come for a bunch of fittings. Yeah, you know, we did that, I think at least three, three or four for this, maybe by the time it was done.

1:16:30 Yeah, man, we had another one as well. Yeah, but it was a long-term investment. Now I didn’t know it was gonna come out so snappy, although I was pretty sure it would, and I mean now I’m open this is ahead, and one of the things John said to me, by the way, is he said, Brian, if you don’t get a compliment on that suit, it’s on the house. I did, I did, and I meant it, because what goes that look in where, as I said to you, I call it the, you know, 500-mile Ronnie, I don’t know, a silly thing to say, but you know where I’m coming from, it’s cloth, it’s not sheet metal, and it moves around and I, you know, I want that back to press up and maybe I want to do a few things, and that’s really where it’s at, it’s not a case of, so you know, we’ve got rid of that one, we got paid, let’s go, that’s not where I get our fat suits come back when I first started, but I had to have them in because I’d work for this company and they’d followed me and I can’t say, well this is my company, I can taught with that one, because it be that you done weren’t like that, and I one guy and they told me off because a button came off, and I’m talking I started in 1960, and this was 1938 on the label, he was a sir and he was, he said this is disgusting, I said what’s that, sir?

1:17:43 I had my tea, I mean eyeing that all and and he said, I said this is awful, I said what’s that, sir? He said my buttons come off, and I thought why, so it was a green bird’s eye, of which I would love to get because you can get blue and gray, you cannot get it, it was beautiful, he’s name was Sir Roderick Brinkman or Theodore bring, then I thought maybe Sir Roderick bringeth and and I’m not, I thought, oh I’m ever so, that was you oughta be, he said this is disgusting, he’s come off one button, front as your other suit, which was quite something at the time, was everything, it was three, he was snappy, and so I took it off him and said take a seat, sir, took all the bits out and got the thread right, you know, silk ready asylum, and I thought this is ridiculous, I looked in the label, nothing saying 38 on it, but it carries a, it carries that guarantee, happy it to him, it was likely just boarded, it was 30 earthly with plus plus, okay, but it was great.

1:18:46 So you’re saying is that is that this is a relationship. Yeah, with the tailor, absolute, like that, you want this thing back because you want to do all this or something as I’m looking at you as things, I think you see, no you look right, but there’s from, oh you wouldn’t know what there, you know, you do your job obviously, wouldn’t have they set up and I’ve, you know, I want that, I want it back anyway. And so I posted a picture on social media of me and Dan Peña at his castle, yeah, taking a picture, and I sent it to John, and John came in and he’s, he’s like, oh yeah, you’re wearing the suit wrong, that’s off your shoulders wrong.

1:19:20 And I’m like, wait a second, everyone loved the picture. Yeah, but you see the designer in point of view. Yeah, I want to do something that you at the moment either was great, you can’t, you’re sitting down, you can’t, you know, unless you make the waistcoat four sizes bigger, that’s that’s correct, that should have a little bit of tension when I do this up, well for that not to Paul, I’d have to make the coat out here, these you’d love that, I mean you like, you like a fit, but there’s is it’s, it’s a case of, you know, it’s not only for me making it, you have to wear a suit correctly.

1:19:49 I mean there’s, you know, you see people that have morning suits, you know, when they go to a skirt and you say some terrible dress over there with all your, but some of the older guys I’ve had that made by hand, you know, the younger guys get buy ready-made, say they’ve got families and they don’t matter what you earn, and but the old guy and you’ll see him doing this for all the time, hauling it down, putting the rice coat down, they’re not happy with it moving, they’ll kind of that’s that’s kind of it, and that’s probably, you’re probably right, Brian, that you know, you put a, you put a sweatshirt on and a pair of tracksuit bottle, well and I hate them thing, but you know, a pair of cotton chinos or something, you know, you sit around, it doesn’t matter, but you know you’ve got this thing on and you, you know, you’ve, you’ve got a kind of, you know, you have to get it right, it’s, it’s just you either like it or you don’t.

1:20:39 Yeah, I mean I’m starting to really enjoy wearing a suit. In over the Christmas break I had a couple weeks here where I wasn’t wearing them, and after a while the day after day of the jeans and stuff, it got old and I kind of missed dressing up. Yeah, I don’t know, it’s just weird, I missed kind of making the effort to be, make myself presentable, because it makes me feel good, it makes me feel like I showed up correctly, even if no one’s watching. Yeah, yeah, I’ve made for guys, we’ve got the buy one chap, he said, you know, I’m, I am, I can be, I can’t get depressed, he said, I’m one, I found it funny at the time but I can understand it now, he said when I feel that coming on, he said I went upstairs and put that dinner suit, you mean my belly, and I stood in front of the mirror and I started to feel better, and I thought that’s a bit, but it is a, that’s what was good for him, I mean you know, that’s there, if that’s his therapy, suits me, he honestly, that’s the truth, I couldn’t believe at the time, you know, I was younger and I’m like, wait, really?

1:21:34 But it made him feel good, and I think what I envy a lot of people, I’ve really do, I wear a suit, you know, most of the time or a jacket, last night it must be lovely. Well I know it is, you know, a chap that’s wearing, as you said, t-shirt and jeans and stuff, it to me that must because I’m wearing like, I love putting the difference so on, but it’s, you know, but you know, to be wearing that and then put a suit on and go out with it must, it must be, it feel great, you know, familiar. I think us, but like you said two weeks and you wanted to put suit on, it’s from a year, and so I would say for any anybody watching, it’s definitely important to invest in your wardrobe, to learn about fashion, to get a good tailor.

1:22:17 Ya, know there’s a great line in the movie Wall Street where, you know, Gordon Gekko says you got to get a good tailor, you know, it’s, it’s the most important thing. Yeah, and it, ’cause it’s it’s an important thing to do. I don’t think it’s a superficial thing, I don’t think it’s something you can fake. I think it’s a great investment and I think it’s kind of your duty as a man to understand. Um, thank you.

1:22:36 You know, you’re promoting my trade and I thank you for it, because quite frankly, all right, I mean in that Wall Street, you know, Terence Stamp, it was one of our month, well I’ve, it’s great, I never made clothes for him, but for some reason I was with a friend and he was with him and we had a good natter, and there’s the bank on the corner where my little shop is, and he was in there and he came over, but that guy could dress. Yeah, he loved clothes. I mean I’m talking suits, that suit that he’s wearing in Wall Street, that was his, yeah, yeah, his, that wasn’t my, they, he would just yet loss, I mean he’s, you know, he was no mug, he, he was, he loved, he loved clothes, and all right, he’s in his eighties, no, sir, he still looks great.

1:23:17 I look to him, I thought you’d be older. Male, sure, look like that, that’s the thing with us, when the younger generation had a menses, an older man, a lot of times we’ll see someone who invests in their dress. Yeah, and Dan Peña is a great example, you know, you look at that man and, and in some ways you’re impressed and the age, you know, the dress sense, Trump’s the age, yes, it doesn’t come into it, you just say what a good-looking man, and then he looks smart.

1:23:42 Yeah, it looks immaculate, and but Dan’s always been like that, you would never catch him, even if had a pair of jeans on and a sweatshirt, he’s very fortunate, I’m not being rude, but he could put a paper bag on, a look good, I mean there’s those kind aren’t that, you know, and Dan always dresses for the occasion, so I mean I’ve made, I’ve had met him out for dinner with Sally, where sometimes I’ll show up with a three-piece suit and the tie on, yeah, and he’s got like the jeans and the sports jacket on and he’ll be like, what are you wearing? Yeah, dammit, I mean I failed the test, so I always have to kind of read and each to the point and they, yeah, you don’t, as we say, he doesn’t spar about disease there, and I have to know that the scene, because you know you don’t wear this to everything, you dress appropriately.

1:24:28 I mean after he came in with a lovely a crop, saw that it was, it looked like suede, it was velvet, and a kind of a little bit of a, you know, fancy wise cotton and slacks obviously, and as soon as he comes in the room he starts on me, you know, are you still here then, you know, this kind of thing, like straight in, bang, and I yeah, yeah, the good guy, yeah, yeah, Dan’s been a great mentor. John, I always finish by asking a few questions to people. I want to ask you, if you could pick up a phone and call up the 20-year-old John Kent and you have that young man, some advice, I guess you’re in Dagenham at the time, yeah, maybe you’ve already started a trade school, I don’t know.

1:25:07 Yeah, I totally started tithing, sorry, based on everything you know now, what advice would you give that young man? look, I really enjoyed our relationship so far, I need a few more of these crackers, good, something that pops up because I’m in, I’m in the, I’m in the, I’m in showbiz generally. Okay, for me I got to do this, I never dressed like this as a banker and I don’t even know if I would wear this as a banker, but for what I do now it’s appropriate.

1:25:59 Well I think the one you have just had, night, that was popular. I did wear that at the castle as well, okay, and Dan noticed, and Dan senses regards, oh thanks, Ali, had great, almost funny, because obviously you know, book on our size, it helped big-time. Yeah, and so and, and also for a lot of people that are curious, Kent and Haste.com is your website? Yes. So Kent and Haste is the Terry Hayes first class car tonight, and yes, yeah, yeah, I think it’s just that he’s much younger than me in and he’s on a heightened because he looks so much beautiful hair, and so people want to check you out, look you up on the website, and again thank you so much for the beautiful work you’re doing.

1:26:43 On, come on, and pleasure, thank you for, to, I mean you know, it’s a big older man, you know, that’s and we got it right the second one that were the one button front, it was cold like it was nice. I also need a dinner jacket because so it’s all good, all that back, all right, put that back, yeah, all right, you get this back, you can tune it up for me, but thanks, John, I really appreciate you very much. Let’s keep this promotion grow if you mad, I can talk for England, no great.

1:27:08 I’m gonna start sending you more people. All right, thank you so much, thank you.