Savile Row, London W1 · since 1921
Suits made to outlast the man who orders them. Several have.
Four people, one oak cutting table, a cellar full of brown paper patterns, and no interest whatsoever in being fashionable.
Appointments by telephone
020 7946 0321Ruth answers it herself, unless she is cutting. There is no email address. That is on purpose.
You will be talking to Ruth.
Ruth Pellow is the founder's granddaughter and the third Pellow to hold the shears. She has cut at the same table for 36 years. She is left-handed, so every pattern in the cellar since 1988 is chalked from the “wrong” side, and the apprentices learn to read them backwards.
She is dry, precise and funny without smiling. She does not do email. When you ring, she answers, unless she is in the middle of a cut, in which case ring again. She would rather you did than didn't.
I don't make clothes. I make a record of a person, in cloth, at one moment in their life. Then I spend three fittings arguing with it.
Two words you won't hear downstairs
- Luxury
- “It's a word for things you don't need. A good suit you need for thirty years.”
- Timeless
- “Nothing is timeless. Some things just age well.”
The questions you are too polite to ask.
Most people who ring for the first time have been meaning to for a while. Here is what they usually want to know and don't quite say.
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How much, out loud?
A two-piece suit starts at £6,400. The full list is a little further down this page, with nothing hidden in it. Cloth can change the price, and Ruth will tell you what it does before you choose, not after.
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I don't know anything about suits. Does that matter?
Not in the slightest. In Ruth's words: “You don't need to know what you want. You need to know what you do all day. I'll work out the rest.”
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Will I be talked into things?
Only one thing goes into your suit without you being asked. Every Pellow & Vane jacket has a hidden inside pocket sized for a paperback. It has been there since 1921 and nobody has ever been consulted. Everything else is your decision, with the price said plainly beside it.
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What if I get the etiquette wrong?
There is very little to get wrong. Ring. Come in. Bring the shoes you'll wear with the suit. Hugo, the Border terrier asleep under the cutting table, will not notice either way.
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Can I just come and look first?
Yes. The door is at street level, the workshop is downstairs, and you are welcome to see it. The table, the patterns, the people. Meet them here first if you would rather.
Said plainly
What it costs, and what that pays for.
- Two-piece suitfrom£6,400
- Three-piece suitfrom£7,600
- Jacketfrom£4,600
- Trousersfrom£1,500
Half when you order, half when you collect. Cloth can change the price. You hear the number before you choose the cloth, never after.
Around sixty hours of hand work.
Every mark below is one of them.
- 4
people. Ruth cuts. Dot, who has sewn our jackets for 44 years, makes the coat. Kofi cuts trousers on his own now.
- 3
fittings, at least. Three chances to argue with the cloth until it agrees with you.
- 12
to 14 weeks from the first measure to the day you collect.
- 1
paper pattern of you, kept in the cellar for ever.
- 0
pounds for alterations to a Pellow & Vane suit, whatever its age, for the life of the suit.
We would rather tell you what it costs than tell you it is worth it. You can decide that in about thirty years.
Painted on the cellar door
Measure twice. Cut once. Measure again on Tuesday.
People change shape over a weekend.
A few things the remarks column remembers.
Every order since 1921 is written by hand in a ledger, with a line for remarks. Here are some of the stories the house tells. You'll notice the name column.
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1936
Customer:
not for this pageThe turn-ups
A man who wanted turn-ups, and a cutter who thought otherwise. The ledger records how that went.
Remarks, as written
Customer insists on turn-ups. Told him. He insists.
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1994
Customer:
not for this pageThe funeral suit
He ordered a dark grey suit “to be buried in” and paid in full. Then he wore it to every wedding in his family instead. In 2023 he came back, aged 91, was re-measured from his old pattern, and ordered another.
His reason, in 2023“For the actual funeral. The first one's worn out.”
-
···
Customer:
not for this pageThe trumpet
A jazz trumpeter asked for more room across the back, so he could breathe on the high notes. Ruth cut the back while he played. It is the only suit in the ledgers with this in the remarks:
Remarks, as written
Measured during a solo.
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···
Customer:
not for this pageThe two-week suit
A customer once offered double the price for a suit in two weeks. Ruth said no.
Ruth's answer“You can have it fast or you can have it right. We only know how to do one of those.”
And the names?
The house has made suits for people you would recognise. It has never said who, and it never will. That applies to you as well, which is rather the point.
If you want to know who else wears us, you're asking the wrong tailor.
Your pattern is still in the cellar.
Every customer since 1921 has a brown paper pattern hanging on a hook downstairs, labelled in pencil. There are about 11,000 of them. Nobody's has been thrown away.
If you come back after twenty years, you are cut from your old pattern, “plus whatever the twenty years added”. Nobody will make a remark about it. Not out loud, anyway.
If your suit needs work, alterations to any Pellow & Vane suit are free for the life of the suit, however old it is. That includes one that came to you from someone else.
Ring Ruth. Or come and see the workshop.
The door is at street level. The workshop is downstairs, and you are welcome to see it: the table, the cellar, Dot's window, and Hugo, who will stay where he is.
- Address
- Savile Row, London W1
- Nearest Tube
- Piccadilly Circus or Oxford Circus
Hours
| Monday to Friday | 9:00 to 17:30 |
|---|---|
| Saturday | By appointment |
| Sunday | Closed |
The waiting list for a first appointment is currently about three weeks.