Paying Bills of Savile Row tailors- M. Nehru, Jinnah, Churchill

Hannah Furness wrote in Telegraph, UK on December 3 2015:

“...Sir Winston Churchill was not so adept, it appears, at paying his bills. The archives of Henry Poole & Co, the Savile Row tailors who dressed the young Sir Winston, have revealed how the politician repeatedly refused to pay for his suits, leaving a £197 bill outstanding.  He became so infuriated by requests for payment, it discloses, that he “took umbrage and quit” their patronage, claiming it was good for “morale” and the tailor’s business for him to be dressed well.  His last order was placed in 1937, for minor repairs to a yachting cap, according to the Henry Poole & Co archives, which stretch back to 1865 and are to be made public today....”

The Savile Row tailors played such a big part in the history of 20th century. Here are a couple of more examples from the history of subcontinent.

Katherine Frank, 'Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi', 2001:

"...Anand Bhawan was not merely an elaborate replica of an English country estate. The Nehru household was actually bifurcated between East and West, India and Britain. Motilal Nehru wore expensive suits ordered from Savile Row tailors (though contrary to rumour his linen was not shipped back to Europe to be laundered). He eschewed religion, drank Scotch whisky, ate Western food (including meat) prepared by a Christian cook, and insisted that only English be spoken at his table. He employed British tutors and governesses to educate his children and, after Harrow, sent his son to Cambridge..."

Nisid Hajari, ‘Midnight's Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition’, 2015:

“...Jinnah had a cold, relentless courtroom style that earned him enemies but also victories; by 1916 he had become a force at the Bombay Bar. At the beginning of the twentieth century, politics on the subcontinent was a matter for gentlemen—successful lawyers, doctors, and wealthy industrialists—who gathered under the auspices of the Indian National Congress, established in 1885, to debate how to move the country gradually toward self-government within the British Empire. Jinnah fit right in with this crowd. If anything, his Savile Row suits were better tailored, his pants more sharply creased, his two-toned shoes even shinier than those of more established figures. Within the Congress, he quickly became known as a man to watch...”

And I am also sure that Mr. Nehru and Mr. Jinnah paid their bills unlike Mr. Churchill.  Nehru and Jinnah would eventually stop wearing the western clothes.

 

Artist: Helen E. Hokinson (1893-1949), The New Yorker, May 17 1947

Artist: Peter Arno (1904-1968), The New Yorker, March 28 1942