Anderson & Sheppard: A Style is Born
Call it a men’s club, call it a cult, or simply call it an acquired taste, but whatever you call it, apparently this Savile Row tailor inspires slavish loyalty and devotion. Anderson & Sheppard is an institution whose primary raison d’etre is to polish the image of any man or woman who abides by its rules and succumbs to its rarified silhouette and age-old British tradition.
A book such is this very rare as it has a “men-centric” focus which is indeed a rarity among the genre of fashion books that are available in the marketplace at any given time. The extremely tasteful volume offers a unique glimpse into the business of Anderson & Sheppard as well as a visit to the psyche of its core clientele.
Mr. Carter provides the reader with everything there is to know about Anderson & Sheppard as he takes the reader through the company’s origins, its founders, its staff, its modus operandi, and its ultra-fabulous clientele—everyone from the Hollywood elite of past and present to royals to designers such as Tom Ford.
Anderson & Sheppard sets itself apart from being just another glorious “picture book” by educating the reader concerning the manufacturing process and selection involved in every detail of the ordering and delivery of a finely tailored, custom garment from Anderson & Sheppard.
As far as the pictorial selections, the photographs document so many of their past “members” as well as many of their current loyalists—all, of course, wearing their Anderson & Sheppard purchases with great pride. Rarely does a firm inspire the adulation of its clientele, but here we are treated to all the reasons why this is more the norm than the exception. Even the fabrics are given “eye time” in this tome, meaning that the photos explain phrases such as “country tweeds” or “morning suits” that are so common in the vocabulary of those who frequent this establishment but unfamiliar to most of us.
In keeping with this ever-changing world, the treasured and respected firm even travels to the United States for those who are unable to cross the pond for their sartorial choices. You can be sure that Mr. Graydon Carter and Ms. Fran Leibowitz—the latter one of the very few females to be counted among the loyal flock—will be visiting the Anderson & Sheppard team at its relatively new shop in New York City this coming year.