The avant-garde Savile Row tailor was famous in the late Sixties as a man
who singlehandedly reconciled the traditions of Savile
Row with the male dandies of swinging London. He lived in the era when there
was no cure for AIDS-related illnesses and died aged 49.
He came a long way from a small village in Wales
where he was born in the middle of the Second World War. Perhaps he’d never
have blazed a trail in London had his dad not moved to the capital with his two
sons and opened a cafe catering to grubby builders, truck-drivers and
gas-fitters. Oddly he and his brother attended college to be plumbers (Tommy
soon left to become a tailor.)
He was in his twenties when he got an
apprenticeship at Donaldson, Williams & Ward - a traditional Savile Row tailors. Over seven years he absorbed the rules
of the English gentleman's classical wardrobe. Aged 25 he left to found his own
shop and "Nutters" - opened on Valentine's
Day in 1969 - was an immediate success. Like Sir Hardy Amies
who dressed the royals he crafted lively, distinctive contemporary suits. He made
suits for The Beatles, Mick Jagger, Eltom John, Cilla Black and
Twiggy. He seemed to make suits where the minutia fitted occasions. If someone
was going on safari he’d carpenter a lightweight suit from suitable cloth with
all the pockets in exactly the right place. Some people just wanted a "Nutter".
They can still be found on Ebay (£50 to £250) and in
museums featuring specific eras of fashion.
He didn’t just love suits but some of the men in
them and contracted AIDS in his early forties. His heart must have dropped
further when he read of Freddy Mercury's death in November 1991. Nine months
later AIDS rendered his immunity powerless and he died at the Cromwell Hospital
in central London. Had he lived a few more years he'd probably still be alive. It
was a long journey from Barmouth Merioneth
in North Wales - to become one of London’s fizzing pinwheels.
I hope they have double glazing in this hospital
as noisy traffic sped by almost relentlessly. I’d walked down South Kensington
to find the house where Alfred Hitchcock had lived and passed the main doors of
the hospital. BUPA bought this place and even today it’s marketed at wealthy
Middle Eastern people (accounting for 40% of its patients.) Other famous folk
died here - footballer George Best, actress Margaret Lockwood and singer Matt
Munro. I have yet to find out where Tommy - who made glitz and glamour
accessible to common folk - is buried. I did a salute and left.
35, Savile Rowe...