Cutting a dash post-lockdown

MJ Rabbit is intrigued by bespoke tailoring as a way to stand out from the post-lockdown madding crowd.

To find out more, MJ Rabbit hopped over to Kent, Haste & Lachter, tailors by appointment to the ever-elegant Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who died in April aged 99 after seven decades of stoic service to the UK. Their starry clients include Burt Lancaster, Rod Steiger, Tony Curtis, Cary Grant, Bing Crosby, Lord Mountbatten and Arnaud Bamberger.

Entering their Savile Row workshop, I was greeted with a cheery “One moment, please,” as John Kent (pictured below left) finished a conversation with someone he hadn’t seen for a year. Terry Haste, formerly of Huntsman and boasting Alexander McQueen among his clientele, was busy cutting a lightweight suit for a client in Palm Beach.

Some 2,000 books of precious fabrics lined the walls, like library tomes. A women’s evening jacket with turned-up silk cuffs and lapels hung on a tailor’s dummy. Apparently, this impeccably waisted garment contains two metres of silk. I started dreaming about wearing it.

I loved hearing the talented tailors reminisce discreetly about their many years in the business and purchased an off-the-peg accessory: a white organic cotton (GOTS) handkerchief, similar to the ones Prince Philip sported in his jacket pocket.

Suyamba Kumaresan, the company’s young under-cutter, explained the meticulous workmanship that went into this hand-stitched handkerchief. Pure (cotton) poetry.

For details, see kenthaste.co.uk.