Nick Foulkes
Sew and Tell
Bespoke: Savile Row Ripped and Smoothed
By Richard Anderson
Simon & Schuster 307pp £14.99 order from our bookshop
I was not expecting much from Richard Anderson’s Bespoke. The accompanying press release from the publisher carried an endorsement from that cynosure of male style, that arbiter elegantiarum, Simon Cowell. Moreover, the word ‘bespoke’ is now so overused that it risks becoming utterly exhausted; everything these days is bespoke – it is the Pierre Cardin of adjectives applied indiscriminately in the hope that a little bit of its magic will stick.
And while on the subject of adjectival overload, ours is the age of celebrity. We have celebrity chefs, celebrity hairdressers and, increasingly, celebrity tailors, who are at least as famous as those they dress. Ozwald Boateng has had his own television show. Timothy Everest writes a sartorial advice
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'It is the ... sketches of the local and the overlooked that lend this book its density and drive, and emphasise Britain’s mostly low-key riches – if only you can be bothered to buy an anorak and seek.'
Jonathan Meades on the beauty of brutalism.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/castles-of-concrete
'Cruickshank’s history reveals an extraordinary eclecticism of architectural styles and buildings, from Dutch Revivalism to Arts and Crafts experimentation, from Georgian terraces to Victorian mansion blocks.'
William Boyd on the architecture of Chelsea.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/where-george-eliot-meets-mick-jagger
'The eight years he has spent in solitary confinement have had a devastating impact on his mental health ... human rights organisations believe his detention is punishment for his critical views.'
@lucyjpop on the Egyptian activist and poet Ahmed Douma.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/ahmed-douma