Martin B.
Yelp
Anderson & Sheppard apparently is the biggest tailoring house on Savile Row with allegedly around 1500 suits manufactured each year. They have been around for about 100 years and have catered to some of the most famous Savile Row clients.
Their house style is different to most other Savile Row houses (except for the A & S pupils that opened their own businesses, like Thomas Mahon or Steven Hitchcock). There isn't anything stiff or military in their suits, and in this respect, they produce a completely different type of garment as compared to the likes of Huntsman.
They use a "soft tailoring" approach with very little padding, and their suits have natural shoulders and fairly bulky sleeves. The chests and backs of their garments are also quite drapy, allowing for better movement of your arms and shoulders. Unfortunately, that takes away from the clean, slick look that many clients are looking for in a well-tailored suit. However, if you have broader shoulders, this may be the way to go.
Unlike many other Savile Row tailoring houses, your initial A & S suit usually only requires two fittings and following orders often also go straight to the forward fitting and require one single fitting session. Their head cutter, John Hitchock has a reputation for being a little stiff and not taking to much input from his clients, and therefore, as a customer (especially a new one), you should be very forward about what you want and what you do not want. Otherwise, he will do everything his own way, and you are stuck with what he thinks is best (which is sometimes the best indeed, but sometimes not at all what you were hoping for).
Apparently, in the past, the A & S pattern matching for pockets or sleeves was less than perfect, but it has significantly improved in the last time.
I personally would not want my business suits to be made in the soft and drapy A & S style, but for tweed coats or more casual jackets or overcoats, I quite like their house style .
If you want to have a closer look at the A & S style, you can take the Prince of Wales as a good example. In my opinion, with his sloping shoulders and his fairly broad hips, he would be better off with a more structured type of suit, but he still regularly makes it into the "best dressed" lists.
Well done, Anderson & Sheppard !
