Katherine Hepburn’s Tailor made Blue Denim Jeans

Katherine Hepburn famously epitomised the head strong career woman starring along side Spencer Tracey in “Adams Rib” one of the best romantic comedies ever made. She portrayed similar roles in other movies teaming up with Cary Grant on numerous occasions. She was famous for her love affairs with men like Howard Hughes and later Spencer Tracy, which lasted until his death.

But there is one thing she’s not famous for, which slightly overshadows her roles and romps on and off the screen. In 1971 Katherine took the extraordinary step of ordering tailor made blue denim jeans from her late lover's Savile Row tailor. Hepburn's commission foreshadowed bespoke denim collections launched in 2006 by Timothy Everest and Evisu. Now, other famous celebrities like Jude Law are taking the step and ordering bespoke denim jeans at £180 a pop. Thirty years after the fact, denim has been elevated to a new level of acceptance. It’s not hard to imagine the possibility of denim suits appearing on the scene, I’d have one.

Bolo: the Tie that won the west

Have you ever seen Texans or Arizonians wearing what looks like a thin leather thong around their necks leading from a buckle at the shirt collar? If so you’ve probably thought it dates back to the Wild West. That’s what I thought until a little research revealed quite a surprise. It’s called a Bolo or Bola and proclaimed the official neckwear for Arizona. This must be one of the most original American styles, the Converse All Star being another; ironically its advent was the outcome of an accident. Had it not been for the loss of a hat in the wind and a quick thinking Arizonian, the style would never have come to fruition? It’s a bit like the story about the advent of the first school tie, another accidental style, which also involved hats and hat bands.

In the late 1940s, a silversmith named Victor Cedarstaff went riding with friends in the Bradshaw Mountains outside Wickenburg, Arizona. When the wind blew his hat off, Cedarstaff removed the hatband, which had a silver buckle he did not want to lose, and put it around his neck.

When his friends complemented him on the new apparel, Cedarstaff returned home, and wove a leather string. He added silver balls to the ends and ran it through a turquoise buckle.

Cedarstaff later patented the new neckwear, which was called the bolo because it resembled the lengths of rope used by Argentine gauchos to catch game or cattle.

Now mass-produced, and bolos are usually made of leather cord, with a silver or turquoise buckle. They are common throughout the west and are often worn for business. In 1971 Arizona legislature named the bolo the official state neckwear.

These fascinating innovations are what make the evolution of style and the progress of fashion through the ages so unique. No experience necessary; a man creates neckwear after his hat blows off in the wind.

Savile Row Anecdotes

Savile Row has survived as the number one tailoring precinct in the world precisely because it has changed with the times. In fact, no other precinct is instantly recognisable by name anywhere else. Many styles that we take for granted today are embryonic of Savile Row.

Here are a few examples of how Savile Row has remained at the forefront of sartorial innovation and how its new generations’, one after the other have set new standards through instituting change and at times causing a little controversy along the way.

1860
Bertie, the rakish Prince of Wales, ordered a short smoking jacket to wear at informal dinner parties at Sandringham from his friend, the tailor, Henry Poole. It was the first dinner jacket on record and was cut in midnight blue cloth. In 1886, a Mr James Potter of Tuxedo Park, New York, was a houseguest at Sandringham. He consequently ordered a similar dinner jacket to Bertie's from Henry Poole & Co. It was this dinner jacket that Mr Potter wore at the Tuxedo Park Club inspiring numerous copies that fellow members wore as informal uniform for stag dinners. Thus the Tuxedo was born at Henry Poole & Co. It took only eight years for an accidental style to cross the Atlantic Ocean and soon became an American institution. Its humble, royal beginnings were soon forgotten when labelled the Tuxedo. Perhaps a more suitable name would be ‘the Bertie’, or ‘Prince of Wales’, or even ‘The Henry Poole’. not so unimaginable when you consider the ‘Harris Tweed’.

1991
Former Tommy Nutter apprentice Timothy Everest - who answered Nutter's newspaper advertisement for a 'Boy Wanted' - opened his first bespoke tailoring shop in an East End Georgian townhouse declaring 'opening a shop on Savile Row would be like moving in with my parents'. 2006 Timothy Everest eats his words as he moves in with his parents, not quite on Savile Row, but just around the corner in Burton Place, a long way from East End London. Perhaps living with the folks is not so bad after all.

1992
Richard James, the first of the 'New Generation' tailors, opened a shop on Savile Row. James introduced Saturday opening (a revolution on Savile Row) and a fashionable edge not seen since The House of Nutter's glory days. Tommy Nutter died that same year. As a fitting epitaph, one of Nutter's final commissions is the outlandish purple suit Jack Nicholson wore playing The Joker in Tim Burton's Batman. These days Richard James is more conservative in his approach, none the less he is still considered very much an innovator and part of the new bespoke movement on Savile Row.

‘Savile Row an English institution worth preserving and prolonging’

SAVILE ROW PAST AND PRESENT EPISODE TWO

In 1971 Maverick screen actress Katherine Hepburn, whose long-term lover Spencer Tracey was a customer of Huntsman, takes the extraordinary step of ordering bespoke denim jeans from her late lover's Savile Row tailor. Hepburn's commission foreshadows bespoke denim collections launched in 2006 by Timothy Everest and Evisu.

Timothy Everest has launched a new service, where he is applying the same standards and techniques to his jeans as he does to his suits. The whole process takes four to six weeks, with three fittings by his tailors to refine every detail.

Evisu was one of the first Japanese denim labels to become famous outside of Japan in the early Nineties. The brand’s founder, Hidehiko Yamane, bought vintage Levi’s looms to produce his artisan denim using traditional methods. You can even buy bespoke jeans.

Katherine Hepburn created a style that elevated denim to a new level of acceptance. Thirty eight years later the style continues its climb up the ladder.