Hawes & Curtis

I first noticed Hawes & Curtis about ten years ago. I was still working in the City and bought a couple of cheap off-the-peg suits.

I assumed it was a newish company that adopted a name redolent of Savile Row. This misapprehension continued until Barbara Skelton put me right. In her colourful autobiography she is recruited during the war by Donald Maclean to be a cipher clerk in the British embassy in Cairo. Outside office hours she meets King Farouk becoming his mistress. The embassy worry she may be divulging secrets to him and have her transferred to Athens. She is most indignant, commenting that the King has no interest in anything political and his interest in Britain is confined to when the next list of ties will arrive from Hawes & Curtis.

H&C was founded in 1913 and was a respected name with a slew of famous customers and many Royal Warrants. If Farouk gave them one, it is not something they boast about.

Their prices seem little changed after more than a century. The company’s fortunes waned towards the end of the last century and it seemed likely to be another brand consigned to history. Rather sportingly a British-Turkish Cypriot, Touker Suleyman, stepped in and bought the debt-laden company in 2002 for £1. It has flourished under his stewardship with branches all over the place and an international online presence.

I have bought two suits so far this summer; a discreet grey number and now a blue companion for the moths to feast on.

“This exquisite blue and red Prince of Wales slim fit suit jacket is made from the finest super 100s wool. The lined, single breasted jacket is designed with a classic notch lapel with two front buttons. The elegant double vents enable freedom of movement. Finer details include a felt lining under the collar of the jacket, genuine corozo nut buttons and working button cuffs. The jacket has a fitted waist for a modern look.” (Hawes & Curtis website)

Double vents would not be my choice (hacking coats have double vents) but the genuine coroza nut buttons are impressive. Grown on Tagua palms in South America, they might be the bees’ knees if they didn’t look like any other buttons.