Item 2017.296 - Blades Double Breasted Velvet Jacket

Blades was founded in 1962 by Rupert Lycett Green (b. 1938), cutter Eric Joy and accountant Charlie Hornby. It was allegedly named after the fictional gentleman’s club in Ian Fleming’s 1955 novel Moonraker, but the name also deliberately referred to tailor’s shears and a dashing young man. Located at 25 Dover Street, in London’s Mayfair, Blades specialized in bespoke suits, offering a more contemporary approach to traditional tailoring than the nearby Savile Row, earning it a following among celebrities such as Mick Jagger, David Hemmings, Ray Galton, Alan Simpson and the Marquess of Harlington. Both Joy and Hornby left the business in 1965 with Joy going to work for Mr Fish. In 1967 Blades moved to 8 Burlington Gardens and held one of the first men’s ready-to-wear fashion shows in Savile Row in March 1969, going on to sell off-the-peg menswear the following year. At this time, a bespoke Blades suit cost around £80, with ready-to-wear suits at 50 guineas, sports jackets at 28 guineas and trousers at 10 guineas. In 1969 Blades opened on Madison Avenue, New York; however, the shop closed after four years. In 1980 Lycett Green had sold Blades in London as a going concern. In 1992 a Blades boutique opened in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. Adverts for Blades continued to appear in The Times up to 1997. The company stopped trading in 1998.

Sources: Cally Blackman, 100 Years of Menswear (London: Laurence King, 2009); Lance Richardson, House of Nutter (London: Chatto & Windus, 2018); Richard Lester, Boutique London: King’s Road to Carnaby Street (Woodbridge: ACC, 2010); Geoffrey Aquilina Ross, The Day of the Peacock: Style for Men 1963–1973 (London: V&A Publishing, 2011); The Times.