Gentlemen,
nous venons de recevoir à l'instant un mail de Gustav Temple du magazine "The Chap" - que nous nous empressons de vous relayer - à propos de l'insupportable projet d'invasion de Savile Row par la non moins insupportable marque Abercrombie and Fitch (sujet dont nous avons été parmi les premiers à nous émouvoir il y a déjà quelques mois).
Bien entendu, nous invitons tous nos lecteurs à signer cette pétition et à s'élever contre la colonisation de l'un des temples du Bespoke Tailoring par ce Goliath trivial aux moyens aussi illimités que sa vulgarité...
Nous allons très vite traduire ce message en différentes langues, mais nous ne voulions pas perdre une minute pour vous le relayer...
Aux armes Gentlemen !
Chap/ettes,
Abercrombie & Fitch has made an application to Westminster council to open a children’s store at number 3 Savile row, in the 200-year-old heartland of English bespoke tailoring. With its flagship store currently situated at Burlington gardens, the American retailer – which manufactures casual wear (including hoodies) for youths – is determined to plant its off-shoot brand Abercrombie kids around the corner “in plain, spoilt-brat view” of London’s most significant sartorial landmark. Number 3 is currently empty, but once housed the Beatles apple offices and was the location of their final concert on the rooftop.
Savile row is one of the few streets anywhere in the country to remain exclusively devoted to a single trade and we think the tradition of bespoke tailoring deserves to remain where it began 200 years ago. As well as housing some of the best bespoke tailoring in the world, the Savile Row is an important tourist attraction, whose value will be entirely lost if chain stores selling overpriced T-shirts are allowed to open up there. Many foreign visitors come to London to see where Beau Brummell had his waistcoats made – which we are pretty certain was not Abercrombie & Fitch.
The Chap has launched a petition to prevent this ghastly move.
Please sign it by visiting the home page of www.thechap.net or www.petition.co.uk/save-savile-row-from-abercrombie-fitch. We will present the signatures to Westminster council in the hope that they will come to their senses and revoke Abercrombie & Fitch’s application.
To emphasise our distress at this application, we plan to protest outside both Abercrombie & Fitch’s store on Burlington Gardens and outside number 3, Savile Row at 9am on Monday 23rd April – St George’s Day. We will affirm our message with a massive singalong of our adapted version of John Lennon’s song,
Give Three-Piece a Chance, accompanied by Mr. B the Gentleman Rhymer on ukulele.
Please join us if you feel strongly about this issue.
Cordially,
Gustav Temple
