Stuart Lamprell History
When Stuart Lamprell was growing up in rural England, there were certain style icons that caught his eye. ‘It was men like Steve McQueen, Cary Grant, Sean Connery as James Bond. These were guys in beautifully-tailored suits, but whose personal style shone through. I realised then that clothes don’t exactly make the man, but the best-looking and best-fitting clothes can accentuate a person’s natural elegance and sophistication.’
Stuart Lamprell is now a 38-year-old tailor whose suits work the same magic for himself and his clients as Steve’s and Cary’s did for them. Many men, from Beau Brummell onwards, have discovered the unique pleasures of hand-made bespoke Savile Row tailoring; but Lamprell’s background means he can offer a new spin on this venerable tradition. His initial training at Gieves & Hawkes, one of the oldest establishments on the Row, saw him gaining a thorough apprenticeship in all the intricacies of the tailor’s art, from cutting and trimming to sewing and pressing; skills as rare in today’s machine-made world as they are highly-prized. He then spent almost a decade at Timothy Everest, one of the new breed of Savile Row tailors, where he helped initiate a design-savvy and style-conscious generation into the joys of bespoke. Lamprell is thus equally adept at creating immaculately formal pinstripes for the captain of industry or three-piece windowpane checks and summer linens for the modern dandy.
Lamprell can also offer a bona fide bespoke service at a time when many Savile Row names are diversifying into factory-spun ‘made-to-measure’ lines. ‘I’m a true cottage industry,’ he says. It’s Lamprell himself who advises and consults on the initial choice of cloth and style, and who then cuts, assembles, and fits the finished product himself, offering a level of one-on-one service and flexibility and a painstaking attention to detail that larger enterprises just can’t match. ‘I’m personally invested in the whole process and in building up strong and enduring relationships with people, because it’s just me,’ he says. ‘That level of individual contact is really important to me, because the personality of the person you’re making for is just as important as their body shape. I want someone to walk out the door in one of my suits looking and feeling as good as they possibly can.’
And the rest? Well, that’s up to you. Beau Brummell once advised: ‘Always remember that you dress to fascinate others, not yourself.’ If Beau or Cary were around today, they’d doubtless be slipping into a hand-crafted, immaculately-cut, genuinely one-off Stuart Lamprell suit, and inspiring a whole new generation of men who prize finesse and individuality over the identikit norm. As Lamprell says: ‘I’m not interested in how you should look. I’m interested in how you could look.’
© Stuart Lamprell 2009 Site design by Propel Creative
