Palazzo Pitti – The Apartment of the Duchess of Aosta. The London Cut. Savile Row Bespoke Tailoring exhibition.
The Founders – Henry Poole and CO. Angus Cundey’s family has been running
Henry Poole and CO since 1876. Henry Poole is the oldest tailor on the Row and Mr. Cundey is nicknamed the “Godfather of Savile Row”. Here, he is being interviewed by
BBC Television for a special three part documentary on Savile Row for 2008.
Henry Poole was the first Savile Row tailor to enter the Japanese market. More recently, it has formed a partnership with the Chikuma Company of China and opened shops in Beijing and Hangzou.Famous/infamous customers: H.I.M. the emperor Napoleon III, H.M. King Umberto I of Italy, Prime Minister Benjamin Disreali, J.P. Morgan, William Randolph Hearst, H.H. the Maharajah of Cooch Behar, H. M. King George V, H.M. King George VI, H.M. Queen Elisabeth II. 
Palazzo Pitti – The Apartment of the Duchess of Aosta. The London Cut. Savile Row Bespoke Tailoring exhibition. Angus Cundey stands besides a replica of the smoking jacket invented for King Edward VII, when he was Prince of Wales. Here is the true story, he told me, about how the tuxedo got it’s name in America. In 1860, Henry Poole made a short evening or smoking jacket for the Prince of Wales to wear at informal dinner parties. In 1886, a Mr. James Potter of Tuxedo Park, New York visited London and subsequently was invited by the Prince to spend a weekend at Sandringham. He was also advised that he could have a smoking jacket made by the Prince's tailors, Henry Poole and Co. When the Potters returned to New York, Mr. Potter proudly wore his new smoking jacket at the Tuxedo Park Club and fellow members soon started having copies made for themselves which they adopted as their informal uniform for club "stag" dinners. As a result, the dinner jacket became known as a Tuxedo or Tux in America.
