Men of wealth, fame, power, style, and pedigree—these have been Huntsman’s clients for over 175 years. The legendary Savile Row tailor began in 1849 by making leather riding breeches for gentlemanly equestrian pursuits and by 1886 had secured its first Royal Warrant from the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. Nearly 130 years later, their fabled premises at 11 Savile Row in London’s Mayfair starred in the first Kingsman movie, sparking a franchise to rival James Bond.
The names inscribed on Huntsman’s order forms run the gamut from Gregory Peck, Clark Gable, the Duke of Windsor, and Gianni Agnelli to Brad Pitt. In her foreword to an elegant new book on the iconic tailoring house, Huntsman: Redefining Savile Row (Vendome Press) by sartorial savant Tom Chamberlin, style maven Glenda Bailey notes that, “When Winston Churchill, himself a client of Huntsman, said: ‘My tastes are simple: I am easily satisfied with the best,’ he could have been talking about his love of bespoke tailoring.”
Like “a beautiful canvas on which you can express yourself freely,” Bailey writes, “bespoke tailoring lends a sense of quiet confidence and spontaneous individuality. Because while it might be perceived as restrictive and uptight, bespoke tailoring is the exact opposite. Imparting ease and comfort, a suit tailored to your silhouette affords complete freedom of movement and mind.”
As the firm’s longtime head tailor, or “cutter,” Patrick Murphy once said, “Huntsman has this grand aura about it. Their reputation is huge as the biggest and most expensive tailor on the Row.” Nonetheless, the tailoring house came close to bankruptcy in 2004 before a coalition of new investors led by British businessman David Coleridge saved Huntsman and reversed its fortunes.
Row, photographed (Simon Upton)
“When the existing shareholders invited me to take a look at Huntsman, I took the customer list home,” Coleridge once recalled. “The 4,000 names of people who had bought from Huntsman over the last five years were the great and good of the country: aristocrats, politicians, celebrities, musicians, captains of industry. I thought, ‘Crikey, most luxury goods companies would die for this kind of customer base.’”
In 2013, financier and entrepreneur Pierre Lagrange acquired Huntsman, and the house has since undergone numerous modernizations and innovations, taking Savile Row to previously undreamt-of realms. “When do art, lifestyle, and fashion meet?” Chamberlin writes. “When they are combined with a bespoke Huntsman jacket.
The house’s abilities to experiment were enabled by Lagrange’s dynamic vision, and clothes for town during the day and in the evening were made to showcase some of the world’s leading artists,” often inspired by works in Lagrange’s private art collection. “In recent years, Huntsman has perfected the art of printing on silk and lining a jacket to deliver the ultimate private commission. For collectors, this service has opened a new route to personal expression.”
Lagrange also initiated collaborations with the likes of Bentley, Aston Martin, Rolex, and Harley-Davidson, often for his personal use, as well as famed industrial designer Marc Newson, among others. The Bentley Bentayga and Continental GTC Huntsman Editions are particularly natty with interior details finished in signature Huntsman tweed. More recently, the brand announced its partnership with Gordon Murray Automotive (GMA) to create a bespoke interior for the brand’s $3 million T.50 hypercar—one of only 100 examples that will be built for collectors worldwide.
“What I’ve done is disruption with respect,” Lagrange says. “There is a generational shift about how you go about wearing a suit. We have moved from you wearing it to go to the office to electing to wear it because of the person you want to be in a portrait—powerful, sexy, seducing. When I first bought the company, I was fascinated by the bespoke creation process. I see men who are leaders of business empires, who do not have time on their hands, spending a lot of time at Huntsman to look through cloth swatches. There are so few moments where you can exercise your creativity when you have a life like that, so this becomes a treat for them.”
Or as author Nick Foulkes, himself an icon of bespoke British style, puts it, “Only once you are inside one of its garments can you begin to understand, if not necessarily define, the magic of Huntsman, a magic that has ensorcelled some of the chicest men of the last 200 years. As well as more dukes, earls, and viscounts than you could shake a copy of Burke’s Peerage at, it has also been the locus classicus of the most stylish men of the century.”
Chamberlin notes that, “The magic of bespoke truly reveals itself when it travels beyond the pavements of London or New York and the rural confines of field sports, and is displayed perfectly at any social gathering, be it Ascot, Goodwood, or even Burning Man. Bespoke items can also be modified for the perfect holiday destination, whether that is the Côte d’Azur, Kenya, or Klosters. Amid the polo shirts, spun-polyester skiwear and tie-dyed T-shirts, beautiful bespoke tailoring is always distinctive and inventive.”
Many more people around the world now know Huntsman than they might realize—as Kingsman, the storied Savile Row firm that is a front for an elite spy agency in director Matthew Vaughn’s smash-hit film series, starring Colin Firth and Taron Egerton. “Vaughn was first inspired with the idea of Kingsman being set within a tailor’s during a fitting at Huntsman,” the brand recounts. “Distracted by the walls and history surrounding him during an appointment with his cutter, he imagined moving beyond the fitting room, with the tailor shop at 11 Savile Row acting as a smoke screen for his team of gentlemen spies, the Kingsmen .”
A brass plaque engraved “Kingsman” now resides next to Huntsman’s Savile Row nameplate in homage to what has become an acknowledged pop culture phenomenon.
This article originally appeared in the September/October 2025 issue of Maxim magazine.
