EXCLUSIVE LIMITED EDITION CLOTH
Holland and Sherry, the world famous fabric weaver and cloth merchant founded in Scotland in 1836, is offering an extremely limited edition range of bespoke suits cut from the world’s most luxurious and expensive cloth. The firm, which has premises on Savile Row, has woven the world’s first 100 percent worsted spun Vicuna fabric, the most expensive in the world at over £2,500 per yard. The material comes from the wool of the elusive wild Vicuna, a relative of the llama that lives high in the Andes mountains of Peru and Bolivia. The Vicuna can only be shorn every three years and yields an extremely small amount of fine wool. It took Holland & Sherry five years to gather enough of the exclusive yarn, and another year and a half to develop the unique cloth, which is much finer than cashmere. There is only enough of the precious fabric to make 18 suits, each of which will cost approximately £31,000. Customers will have only three colours to choose from – black, midnight and natural – but that’s a small price to pay for astounding quality. The King of Morocco was among one of the first to place an order for one made of the exquisite cloth.
QUINTESSENTIAL ITALIAN STYLE
The Italian tailoring brand Brioni stands for perfectionism, quality and faultless tailoring. Choose from over 5,000 different fabrics, and get your very own made-to-measure suit; you’ll be part of the elite 25,000 customers worldwide. Brioni suits are the benchmark of Italian tailoring and they are certainly not for the faint hearted – they’re wide in the shoulders, narrow in the waist and impeccable in style. It’s no surprise they’re favoured by Bond. Pierce Brosnan began wearing the Italian suits in the movie Golden Eye, and Daniel Craig followed suit wearing a charcoal grey ensemble in Casino Royal. More recently, Tom Hanks has been seen wearing a custom made Brioni in Angels and Demons. When the financial crisis hit, the high-end Italian clothier introduced its most expensive line of men’s suits in its history. Made to measure from rare fibers such as vicuna and Qiviuk, the suits have price tags as high as £27,000. “The timing was not fortunate for us,” says Andrea Perrone, Brioni’s co-chief executive. But Perrone decided to go ahead regardless; Brioni sent a reassuring signal to customers that Brioni was refusing to compromise on ‘high-quality initiatives’.
THE ULTIMATE BESPOKE EXPERIENCE
Tailor William Westmancott has created ‘Ultimate Bespoke’ – One of the most expensive, luxurious and indulgent bespoke tailoring services in the world, and with a £45,000 price tag, this really is for the man who has everything and for whom money is no object. So, what do you get for £45,000? First there is the matter of the cloth, designed and woven exclusively for you to make your suit only. The unique cloth is woven from the worlds finest, hand blended, luxury fibres and hand finished, for flawless excellence in one of England’s finest traditional mills. Fittings will be carried out at the client’s convenience anywhere in the world – Westmancott will fly out personally of course. Even the lining of the suit is a one-off, specially commissioned, pure high grade silk. For an individual touch, personalised prints can be added to the lining; maybe a favourite photo, image, or if you are stumped for ideas, let the designers use their creative licence to produce a unique visual. The aim of Westmancott is to meet the client’s every ideal for the perfect bespoke clothing experience – “It’s not about just making you a suit that fits out of a fancy fabric; it’s about designing and creating every element and detail exclusively for you, if money were no object, what could I craft?’ and here it is, Ultimate Bespoke.”
EXTRAVAGANCE ON A GRAND SCALE
For the über-rich who are still shopping at Cartier and traveling in their private-jets, bling king Alexander Amosu unveils the world’s most expensive suit, at an astonishing £70,000. The one-off creation took in excess of 80 hours to complete, and is made from vicuna wool taken from a rare wild South American animal related to the camel. Qiviuk, the world’s most expensive wool, gathered from the Arctic musk fox is also used and blended with pashmina from the high mountain plateaus of the Himalayas to create Vanquish II, one of the world’s most luxurious cloths. The suit features over 5,000 individual stitches equating to £14 per stitch. The razzle-dazzle factor comes in the form of nine 18-carat gold and pave set diamond buttons with gold stitching. Amosu adds “Buying an Alexander Amosu suit is the ultimate in luxury. We create the finest bespoke suits using fabrics which emphasise character, style and individuality.” We might not be catering to everyone, but the people who buy Alexander Amosu want to wear the very best suits in the world.” Clients include business tycoons such as Duncan Bannatyne and James Caan, as well as Formula one driver Adrian Sutil.