Tailor Tony Lutwyche accuses Richard James of false 'Made In England' labelling

Tony Lutwyche

It's shears at dawn as Soho tailor Tony Lutwyche accuses Bespoke Designer of the Year Richard James of falsely-labelling some suits as 'Made In England'.

A former army major, Lutwyche has been operating his tailoring business from Soho's Berwick Street for over six years and attracted celebrity clients including Simon Callow, Gordon Ramsay, Dylan Jones, Jamie Cullum and Ricky Hatton. According to a statement issued by Redleaf Communications, the tailor maintains that Richard James is selling suits which are labelled 'Made In England' for over £1000 when in the suit has only been finished in England but actually made abroad.

Lutwyche is campaigning for stricter regulations "prohibiting any product not made entirely in this country from displaying the 'Made in England' label." He has instigated an online petition which he plans to present to Number 10. On November 23rd, following investigations by The Daily Telegraph, John Lewis withdrew a suit from sale which was labelled 'Made In England' when it was revealed that most of the suit was manufactured overseas. According to Tony Lutwyche, consumers are being duped by fake 'Made In England' claims and the practice is costing British industry £3 million a year and 100 jobs. Both the John Lewis and Richard James suits have been manufactured via Wensum Tailoring in Norfolk.

According to The Independent, Richard James has been labelling suits 'Made In England' when they were in fact "produced by cheap labour in Africa". The article claims that: "When the suits arrived in the UK, workers in Norwich "finished" the garments by sewing on sleeves and buttons and pressing them." It states that the company has now withdrawn these from sale.

We have contacted Richard James and will publish his company's response as soon as we receive it.

Words: Marian Buckley

See the petition here: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/realenglishsuits/

Read The Independent article here: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/news/made-in-england-sold-on-savile-row-ndash-but-stitched-in-mauritius-1040243.html

http://www.lutwyche.co.uk/

http://www.richardjames.co.uk/