The writer Lance Richardson has put together an intriguing biography about Tommy Nutter, a tailor who in the 1960’s reshaped the silhouette of men’s fashion, in Savile Row the most renowned street in London for bespoke tailoring.
Most of the reminiscences in the book are from Nutter’s brother David, who made his name as celebrity photographer in New York, and include wonderful photographs and anecdotes from the many people he interviewed.
In 1969, with financial backing by Cilla Black and her husband Bobby Willis, and the M.D. of the Beatles’ Apple Corps Peter Brown, Nutter opened a boutique on the establishment led street of Savile Row, London with the calling it ‘Nutters of Savile Row’. It was an immediate success among the young, rich, and cognoscenti, his customers ranged from Mick & Bianca Jagger both wearing suits to their 1971 wedding in St Tropez, to the Beatles – you will know his designs featured by three of them on the album cover of Abbey Road.
Meanwhile, David’s talent with at photography that took him across the Atlantic to New York City, where he became the photographer of choice for Freddie Mercury and Elton John who became a good friend and of course became a client of ‘Nutters’.
House of Nutter tells this seemingly glamorous story of two gay men who influenced some of the iconic styles and pop images of the twentieth century – at the time though I doubt this was knowledge to the fans of the pop stars. It is a portrait of brothers making their way through life from the birth of disco to the horrors of the AIDS crisis, which sadly took Tommy’s life in 1992.
Despite that fact that both Nutter’s had dramatic roller coaster lifestyles which are told in a rapid fire way, it still somehow makes for a light read. In fact, if it didn’t have such a tragic end for Tommy and David wasn’t so reclusive, we would recommend the book as a good holiday read.
On the other hand what Richardson has successfully managed is to paint a picture of what fashionable gay life in London was like at that time, and although as a clothing designer Tommy Nutter’s name may not be that widely known, he still does deserve to be remembered for the very colorful way he shook up Savile Row one of those important bastions of the English establishment that was never ever the same after he conquered it.
House of Nutter : The Rebel Tailor of Savile Row www.penguinrandomhouse.com
Lance Richardson has written for The Guardian, New York, The Atlantic, Slate, The New Yorker (online), The Sydney Morning Herald, and several international iterations of GQ Originally from Australia, he now lives in New York.
Review : Peter Harrington Peter Harrington, Contributing Editor, is the retired Senior Designer for a leading fashion house which will remain nameless. He’s an avid connoisseur for the finer things in life particularly in all branches of the Arts. Once a habitué of Tangier, he now resides at the wrong end of Kings Road in London with his husband Alessandro and their precious pug Samba.
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