Dressed to Thrill

You have to hand it to the British to have perfected the art of partnership. Walking around the old Picadilly Arcade, I saw shops of thriving joint ventures, some having been formed a century or two ago: Harvie & Hudson, Neal & Palmer, Benson & Clegg, etc. They sold gloves, shirts, buttons, leather goods, purely all male stuff.

While making a mental appraisal of more British companies that had flourished under a tandem umbrella (Crabtree & Evelyn – soap and home scents; Fortnam and Mason – tea & biscuits, Marks & Spencer – retail store), my husband excitedly nudged me to double my steps and follow him out of the arcade into a street that ran perpendicular to it.

"Jermyn Street? What’s in here?" I asked. My husband toned down his voice and replied, "Turnbull & Asser." What is it? Knowing my impatience for long answers, he blurted, "The shirtmaker of Prince Charles and ah, how should I put it? James Bond!" Wow. Instant recognition.

While jet-weary travelers would settle for the convenience of department stores to buy their favorite brand, my husband was out for more than just a mere shopping experience; he wanted the feel of what it’s like to be in one of the shrines to male elegance.

The main parlor was made of polished, dark wood and walls hung with photographs of famous customers, old and new. I was so amused to see a quilted, braided and floor length silk and velvet dressing gown hanging discreetly behind a cheval glass in a corner. Why, I’ve never seen a display window devoting such a reverent regard for a gentleman’s lounging robe before. It drew a sharp contrast to the Pinoy version of the camiseta (undershirt) and tennis shorts when one thinks of lounging.

Turnbull & Asser has been regarded as an institution in fine quality shirts indulging the male clientele to lavish proportion. Literally a thousand different cloths are made into shirts.

A smartly-dressed sales lady immediately approached me and offered to show their collection. (I was told that some customers easily order seven dozen identical shirts and make a quick exit). She brought out samples in bright checks, voile, brushed cotton, or in Turnbullings (fabrics which are in pattern and weave exclusive to Turnbull & Asser).

Not content with what I saw, I asked, "Ah, do you have any more?" Like a secret compartment that suddenly opened by magic, out came more fabrics in – hold your breath – poplin, batistes, taffeta, cashmere, zephyrs, oxfords, crepe de chine and colored silk for non-sporting wear (I had to bring out my notepad to note down some never-heard-of fabric).

There really was something if not one thing that would jump out of the shelf in their well-stocked showroom confirming one client’s remark that, "Any man who claims to be well dressed is lying unless his wardrobe contains, at the very least, one item from Turnbull & Asser."

Seeing the confusion in my face, a male staff approached and offered to narrow down my choice. "Is it for an older gentleman, perchance, a younger man?" "Both," I replied. "Maybe I should wait for my husband." A more senior-looking staff smiled and replied, "Madame, I believe your husband is still on the first floor. Perhaps we may interest you to view our Ladies Line?"

How is that for pampering the customer eh? Three of their staff attended to me promptly even if I was just looking.

Turnbull & Asser was established in 1885 by Reginald Turnbull, a salesman, and Ernest Asser, a hosier. A T&A shirt is easily recognizable by the fine details of its cut, the quality of fabrics and the distinctive range of patterns and colors. Unlike other shirtmakers, T&A has complete control over the whole production process making up the shirts in the firm’s own workshop.

Lifting TQA or Total Quality Assurance from my husband’s hotel lingo, T&A equally adapts this policy by keeping tab of each and every order with samples of fabric used. The individually measured patterns for each customer are carefully stored with ledgers that carry special notes. It is what a distinguished tradesman would proudly call his "VIP profile."

In the ’60s, T&A introduced the ruffled shirts, velvet ties, white satin dress shirts, buttoned down the back with a turtleneck collar and worn without a tie. It was so avant garde that when Lord Snowdon (the former husband of Princess Margaret) and David Frost (media host and TV personality) wore the turtleneck collar, they were both refused entry to a black tie party in New York. That notoriety got top publicity and within 10 days of the incident, 2,000 orders for turtleneck shirts were taken and 10,000 were sold in a year.

When Prince Charles was bestowed the Sovereign Honour of Granter of Royal Warrant in 1980 (at the time of his marriage to Lady Diana), T&A was the first one he granted for their Master Cutter, Paul Cuss.

A Royal Warrant cannot be bought or traded. It is a recognition of the time-honored association between tradesmen and the monarchy and signifies "personal service of a high order." (T&A displays the Prince of Wales‚ Badge of Three Feathers in all its stores but keeps the Hunting Horn as their original trademark.)

Prince Charles’ personal favorites are striped shirts in burgundy or muted checks of blue, burgundy and green. Once when Prince Charles injured himself in polo, T&A created a special one-armed shirt to stop the unsightly flapping of sleeves and produced a custom-tailored sling in the same material.

And James Bond? He is the ultimate spy. Sleek, cool, elegant and well-groomed. He stops the villains, wins the women and breaks the (casino) bank. When Sean Connery wore the first Turnbull & Asser shirt in Dr. No, it epitomized everything luxurious that moviegoers could only vicariously experience. This was no accident because Terence Young, the film director, wanted that image for James Bond and wearing a T&A shirt just about captured it. Of course, it helped that the film director was a T&A client himself.

The next OO7 films further defined the James Bond style – smooth and unruffled. When Sean Connery left the series, T&A continued to dress his successors. It wasn’t long before the licensed-to-kill agent also patented the double cuff, fastened underneath not with cuff links but with two pearl buttons. It became every gentleman’s model for style and grace even under fire.

In real life, the list of T&A clients is just as name-droppable as the fictional Mr. Bond: 1) Winston Churchill and the zip-up siren suits designed by T&A that became as much a part of his wartime image as his cigar; 2) The Sultan of Oman who ordered 240 shirts in 20 minutes, the largest single order ever recorded; 3) Charlie Chaplin ordered 30 pairs of silk pajamas; 4) Pablo Picasso and his peasant-styled shirts, full sleeved with deep yokes and in colorful polka dots; 5) Robert Evans, head of Paramount Pictures, designed his own collars and only T&A met his exacting standards; 6) Sammy Davis Jr. saw the shirts of Robert Evans and immediately ordered 50 shirts at £90 each. Sammy got so hooked on T&A that he ordered 43 more shirts and three designing gowns. Al Pacino, David Niven, Bianca Jagger posing in a T&A silk pajamas, Mel Brooks, Donald Sutherland, Ronald Reagan (because Nancy liked what she saw), Albert Finney, Michael Caine, Sir Richard Attenborough, Sir John Gielgud, Liberace and Mohamed and Ali Fayed, famous owners of Harrod’s who went a step further by buying Turnbull & Asser in 1986.

How is a Turnbull & Asser shirt, suit, tie or socks different from any other?

•Four cutters follow the measurements and directions in the patterns sent from St. James‚ by Paul Cuss, master shirtmaker and director of the company. Each phase of the process is completed by a specialist.

•Buttons are only ever made of mother of deep shell pearls in white or smoked gray (not nacre chips).

•The tailoring traditions of the classic deep-spread shirt collar, the three-button barrel cuff, the white linings and the deep buffalo horn buttons have faithfully been followed.

•Cashmere from Wales is exclusively used in the socks while knitwear comes only from Scotland. The Sea Island cotton that is used for the white shirts comes from Saudi Arabia. The cotton grows with a natural twist to the right but T&A have it woven with a twist to the left to make it softer. These cottons are woven in Italy.

• Wool lining is used for their neckties to give the tie more body. While a loop is sewn to hold the under end of the tie (cheap ties use only the label), T&A has a double loop to secure it tight.

• One of the never-heard-of tools used by the firm is a twaddle stick, used for measuring the strength of starch.

• Lastly, T&A makes garments to the customer’s specific requirements.

In 1973, when the movie The Great Gatsby was shown, the unnamed shirtmaker of Robert Redford was revealed to be Turnbull & Asser. The mystique of the well-tailored shirt was further glorified by the following passages by the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald:

"He (Gatsby) took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen, thick silk and fine flannel which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many coloured disarray. While we admired, he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher – shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple green and lavender and faint orange with monograms of Indian blue. Suddenly with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily, ‘They’re such beautiful shirts,’ she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. ‘It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such – such beautiful shirts before.’"

Quality has a stiff price but it is obvious that many are willing to pay for it. Will our dear, fine and gentle male folks dig down their deep, deep pockets?