Savile Row Concours, Craftsmanship and the People Carrying It Forward
Savile Row has never really been about clothes alone.
It is about continuity. About people who dedicate decades of their lives to learning how to make something properly, then quietly passing that knowledge forward one generation at a time.
For one May weekend each year, that spirit spills out beyond the fitting rooms and workshops onto the street itself as the Savile Row Concours transforms Mayfair’s most famous stretch of tailoring into one of the most characterful automotive gatherings in London.
Not flashy or performative. Just beautifully made things, and the people behind them.
Hosted alongside Magneto Magazine and The Pollen Estate, the Concours brings together collectors, restorers, tailors, designers and craftspeople from around the world. Cars line the street outside some of the most respected tailoring houses on earth while conversations drift between lapels, coachwork, restoration projects and the strange obsession shared by people who care deeply about detail. And that is really what the event reveals so well: Not luxury for appearance alone, but the culture of people who spend their lives refining a craft.
Walking the Row during the Concours feels less like attending a traditional car show and more like stepping into a living network of British craftsmanship.
The People Behind the Legacy
Edward Sexton and the Human Side of Savile Row
Edward Sexton was there, speaking generously with guests and enthusiasts in the warm, approachable way so many remember him for. One of the true giants of British tailoring, Sexton helped reshape Savile Row itself through bold cutting, architectural silhouettes and an energy that influenced generations far beyond the street. Seeing him there among the crowd carried real weight, particularly knowing he would pass away not long afterwards.
Henry Poole. Simon Cundey and the Responsibility of Stewardship
Nearby were the houses still carrying their legacies forward daily through new hands and new generations. Henry Poole & Co, often regarded as the original Savile Row tailor, continues under the stewardship of Simon Cundey and his family, preserving a standard of bespoke craftsmanship that has dressed royalty, statesmen and cultural figures for well over a century.
The Houses Still Defining the Row
Dege & Skinner and the Living Tradition of Bespoke Tailoring
That same spirit could be felt inside houses like Dege & Skinner, where generations of military tailoring, bespoke craftsmanship and Savile Row tradition continue quietly behind the shopfront each day.
Unlike brands that trade purely on heritage imagery, these houses are still deeply active working ateliers. Cutters, tailors and makers continue producing garments by hand for clients from across the world, many returning generation after generation for the same patterns and relationships built over decades.
That is part of what gives Savile Row its credibility. It is not a preserved façade for tourists. It is a functioning ecosystem of expertise, personality and lived craftsmanship where the people behind the names still shape the experience personally.
During the Concours, that world opens itself slightly wider. Conversations move naturally between tailoring, restoration and engineering because the mentality behind them is often remarkably similar. Patience. Precision. Pride in doing things properly even when faster options exist.
That sense of continuity underpinned the entire event.
Mark Henderson, Gieves & Hawkes and the Future of Savile Row
Mark Henderson, chairman of the Savile Row Bespoke Association and former CEO of Gieves & Hawkes, led a series of talks throughout the day exploring the future of British craftsmanship and bespoke tailoring. Henderson understands better than most what it means to carry heritage responsibly. Gieves & Hawkes itself traces its roots back to two historic military tailoring houses founded in the eighteenth century, dressing British naval officers, army regiments and eventually generations of royalty, statesmen and cultural figures from Winston Churchill to Michael Jackson.
The house still stands proudly at No. 1 Savile Row, the symbolic gateway to the street itself.
And that is really what Savile Row represents at its best.
Not preservation through nostalgia, but heritage kept alive through people who continue showing up every day and doing the work properly.
British Racing Motors, Ozwald Boateng and the Modern Craft of Revival
One of the standout showcases came through the collaboration between British Racing Motors and Ozwald Boateng. Displayed proudly on the famous Savile Row red carpet sat the legendary BRM Type 15 V16, Britain’s first Formula One car and still one of the most technically ambitious racing machines ever created.
The pairing felt natural.
The BRM Type 15 V16
BRM represents a monumental chapter in British motorsport history, winning both Drivers’ and Constructors’ World Championships in 1962 and becoming synonymous with a kind of engineering ambition that feels almost impossible today. Now, generations later, the founder’s grandson is continuing the painstaking work of reviving these extraordinary machines using British craftsmanship and engineering once again.
Not mere nostalgia but a genuine continuation of something important.
Alongside it stood Ozwald Boateng, whose relationship with the automotive world has become an ongoing part of the Concours itself. Boateng has long blurred the lines between tailoring, design and motoring culture, from showcasing rare Bentleys and Ferraris outside his Savile Row townhouse to collaborating with automotive marques and producing vivid artwork inspired by Formula One liveries and Japanese Sakura themes.
At Savile Row Concours, that conversation between tailoring and engineering felt alive everywhere.
Cars upholstered with bespoke materials. Tailors collaborating directly with automotive brands. Coachwork discussed with the same attention others reserve for hand stitching or cloth weights because the people behind these worlds understand the same thing. Craftsmanship only survives if each generation leaves its own fingerprint on it.
Characters of the Row
Jeremy Hackett and the Art of Building a British Brand
Jeremy Hackett was there too, moving easily through the crowd with the familiarity of someone who has become woven into British style culture itself. Though not a tailor by trade, Hackett remains one of the great modern British retail success stories, building a globally recognised brand while still remaining personally associated with its spirit decades later.
David Gandy, Restoration Culture and the Collector Mindset
David Gandy arrived with his restored Jaguar, a project he has documented publicly with genuine enthusiasm and care. Not simply ownership, but involvement. The same instinct that draws people towards tailoring often draws them towards old cars too. An appreciation for objects that improve through patience, refinement and attention rather than speed alone.
And yet for all the pedigree, there was warmth too.
Nyetimber, Live Music and Conversations Between Craftsmen
Friends wandered the Row together stopping for English sparkling wine served by Nyetimber from a beautifully converted double decker bus. Elegant ice cream trucks brought echoes of British seaside tradition into the middle of Mayfair, albeit with a distinctly Savile Row level of polish. A saxophonist kept the atmosphere moving between conversations while collectors and restorers took to the stage to share the stories behind their passion projects in person.
That balance is perhaps what makes the Concours feel so special.
It feels inhabited as opposed to staged.
Makers Among Makers
Savile Row is not a museum. It is a living ecosystem of makers, cutters, fitters, restorers and entrepreneurs continuing to produce world class craftsmanship every single day for clients travelling from every corner of the world seeking something personal, considered and lasting.
That is the spirit Mister Miller feels closely aligned with.
Our participation in the event came through a collaborative Newsboy cap created alongside Magneto Magazine and Peter Allen, whose visual identity for the publication has become instantly recognisable within modern automotive culture. The cap itself formed part of the wider atmosphere of the weekend. A small contribution to a gathering built around people who understand the labour, obsession and quiet satisfaction that sits behind making things properly.
We spent the event moving between workshops, conversations and storefronts, meeting the makers themselves rather than simply observing finished products.
An Evening Beneath Flaming June
As evening fell, the Concours closed in suitably elegant fashion with a black tie dinner held inside the Royal Academy of Arts.
The Royal Academy of Arts as a Final Setting
After a day spent among coachwork, tailoring houses and conversations about craftsmanship, the setting felt quietly perfect. Guests gathered beneath Frederic Lord Leighton’s Flaming June, one of Britain’s most recognisable paintings and, at the time, still rarely seen publicly in the UK despite its international fame and extraordinary journey through private collections abroad.
There was something rather fitting about ending the weekend there because the Concours is never simply about cars, nor tailoring alone.
What Savile Row is Really Celebrating
It is about artistry in its broader sense. The everyday artistry of making things properly. The patience required to restore an engine by hand. The discipline behind generations of bespoke tailoring. The instinctive understanding of line, proportion and balance that connects a well cut jacket, a beautifully restored motorcar or even a thoughtfully made hat. Throughout the weekend, that spirit could be felt everywhere.
In workshops still operating behind Savile Row storefronts. In the conversations between restorers and collectors. In the younger generation carrying forward names and traditions that could easily have disappeared.
The dinner brought all of those worlds together one final time beneath one of the great masterpieces of British art. A fitting close to a weekend built around craftsmanship, continuity and the people still dedicating their lives to both. That was the real privilege of the Concours.
Not merely seeing beautiful objects, but seeing the people still carrying these traditions forward in their own distinct way. And on Savile Row, that spirit still feels very much alive.
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