231027 Collection Digital Cover 1 - Flipbook - Page 89
TURNBULL & ASSER
“The bespoke shirt process takes approximately six weeks,
and the remarkable result sees unique details such as
a floating (rather than fused) collar lining, mother of
pearl buttons, and exclusive, sustainable fabrics designed
in-house and woven especially for the brand.”
When hosier Reginald Turnbull and salesman Earnest Asser opened
their eponymous shop in St James’s in 1885, providing gentlemen with
sports and leisurewear (and, not long after, everyday staples and dress
attire), it turned out to be but a humble beginning. During the war years,
Turnbull & Asser took to creating garments for soldiers, from leather
flying jackets to ground sheets. The most memorable was Sir Winston
Churchill’s Siren Suit: a zip-up one-piece that could be thrown over
pyjamas should the air-raid sirens go off in the middle of the night.
Then came the sixties, when Turnbull’s colourful and bold designs,
including its invention of the (much wider) kipper tie, reflected the
era’s new freedom. Though it was the seventies and eighties when
Turnbull found its niche as the shop to frequent for shirts and ties
(its first Royal Warrant was granted in 1980). Over the years, Frank
Sinatra, The Beatles, and Elizabeth Taylor were all customers, as
was President Reagan and designers such as Alexander McQueen.
Its more recent highlights? The 2011 opening of its store in New York
City, making scrubs for the NHS during lockdown – King Charles and
the Queen Consort even came in afterwards to thank staff personally –
and crafting Daniel Craig’s shirts for his role as 007 in Casino Royale
(a tradition that started in 1962 with Dr. No).
To this day, the shop continues to manufacture its shirts, ties, and
nightwear in its own workrooms in Gloucester, and its bespoke shirt
process has not altered either, going from the measurer to pattern
maker and cutter, and then inside the sewing room, where specialists
in collar, cuff, body, button and button holing take over before the
finished piece heads to quality control, and finally to the pressers and
folders. The entire process takes approximately six weeks, and the
remarkable result sees unique details such as a floating (rather than
fused) collar lining, mother of pearl buttons, and exclusive, sustainable
fabrics designed in-house and woven especially for the brand.
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