The British fashion legend, who has died aged 80, dressed some of the biggest icons of the 21st century.
As a young man growing up in Dagenham in the 1950s, Edward Sexton’s father — a public health inspector — instructed him to find a trade and stick to it. “He
That he did, although the adolescent side-stepped the hard grist of the more blue-collar professions of his environs to opt instead for tailoring, after answering an advert in industry journal Tailor & Cutter.
Sexton, who passed away earlier last week aged 80, and whose death was announced on July 26, went on to become one of the most revered names on Savile Row, that near-mythic stretch of real estate that acts as a byword for British sartorial excellence. The diminutive tailor — with his piercing blue eyes and spry demeanour — was as pin-sharp as the cut of his suits, both in terms of appearance and his always on-the-pulse insight into the tailoring industry.
I’ve been fitted for suits before, but nothing compares to the experience of having Edward create one for you. He was part-surgeon (he spotted my misaligned shoulder immediately), part-tailor, with a dose of Prospero wizardry; his laser-eye finessing the fall of a lapel, the minutiae of a cuff length, nimble fingers pinning and pinching the fabric to fine-tune nuances invisible to others.
The stories he told of life in the Swinging 60s and beyond were just a bonus. Within his Knightsbridge eyrie, Edward was the conductor, his team of master tailors and apprentices were his orchestra and the suit his concerto (although his down-to-earth, East End sensibility — the accent as pronounced as anything from Albert Square — would baulk at such aggrandising I’m sure).
His was an approach that called some of the biggest icons of the 21st century to his door; Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney (who would send his fashion design student daughter Stella to learn her trade under Sexton) and the rest of the Beatles, Joan Collins, Naomi Campbell, Jarvis Cocker and myriad others.
The celebrity stardust came early for Sexton, thanks to his partnership with the bombastic Tommy Nutter in 1969. Sexton got a taste of the high life early on, working as a commis waiter at the Waldorf Hotel, and after his tailoring apprenticeship began work for an equestrian tailor on Regent Street.
Sexton learnt the tenets of tailoring, but it was in joining forces with fellow tailor Nutter that allowed the pair to pick apart the staid seams of the Row and create tailoring for the new Youthquake era that was shaking up London.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.With the effervescent Nutter as the front man and Edward in charge of cutting, the pair launched the first new store in Savile Row in 100 years — Nutter’s of Savile Row — causing the street’s old boys to choke on their morning kippers when they threw open the shop doors (instead of operating a gentleman’s club policy of discretion and referrals) and — perish the thought — decorated the windows in fun, contemporary mise-en-scènes instead of the usual drab velvet curtains framing a dusty tweed jacket.
Thanks to Nutter’s social butterflying, plus some early investment from the likes of Cilla Black and Peter Brown, PA to the Beatles manager Brian Epstein, celebrities came calling; three out of the four suits worn by the Beatles on the Abbey Road album cover were Tommy Nutter’s, and when Mick Jagger became engaged to Bianca Perez-Mora Macias, he asked the pair to craft a suit for the St Tropez wedding of the century. His new bride was also a fan of their suiting for women — upright and proper, yet sensual enough to take account a woman’s curves — and other female fans included Joan Collins (who loved their powerful shoulders) and Cilla Black. Later, when Edward set up his own label in 1990, Naomi Campbell became a regular client.
There was a signature Sexton silhouette; 1970s-inflected, with bold peak lapels, exaggerated shoulders, narrow waists and flared trousers. That’s not to say that the Sexton cut is all misty-eyed nostalgia — his knack for razor-sharp shapes and enjoyment of vivid colours enlisted a whole new generation of fans in the past decade, including Harry Styles — posturing as the proto-Mick Jagger in bubblegum-pink and canary-yellow suits — Mark Ronson and Adam Lambert.
For all the star-dusted lustre — Jarvis Cocker, a long-time fan since the narrow-tailored days of Pulp, made a point of raising a glass at Sexton’s newly renovated Savile Row store last November — Edward was focused on the cut and thrust of the tailoring trade itself.
He was a zealous advocate of harnessing a new generation of tailors with the skills to carry on the craft. He continued to innovate at an age when most men would be eyeing up retirement; in 2020 during the grip of the pandemic he was tempted back to the ‘Row by the Pollen Estate to bring some serious oomph to the rather lacklustre environment, opening a store with ready-to-wear run by creative director Dominic Sebag-Montefiore. He championed Savile Row’s community spirit over individual success; “what’s good for Savile Row is good for all of us in tailoring,” he once told me.
The apprentice who became the Elder Statesmen of Savile Row (even in the decades he was based in Knightsbridge) never lost that fervour.
“He leaves behind him an extraordinary legacy in the fashion world,” said his family today. “And a reputation as one of the most talented, ambitious and influential tailors to have ever lived and someone who charmed everyone he met.”
He didn’t just master that trade that his father set him off to, he transformed and redefined it for a new generation. Sexton was as distinctive and singular as those suits he created, and stitched a new chapter in the history of British tailoring.
