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TADICH GRILL

A San Francisco institution, Tadich Grill is the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the Sunshine State and one of the oldest in the nation. Tadich Grill opened in 1849 as a coffee stand owned by and popular with the city’s burgeoning Croatian community. The business changed hands many times in its early years, with each successive owner coming from the Croatian community, maintaining the Croatian identity which had come to define the establishment. With each successive owner, the business expanded, becoming a café and dining room before settling into its final form as a high-end seafood grill with Croatian flourishes. The restaurant is a beacon on California Street, in the heart of the San Francisco Financial District – the Wall Street of the West, with many of its regular clientele hailing from the large investment banks and law firms that populate the immediate vicinity. The beautiful dark wood interiors which nod to the history of the eatery, have also proven to be attractive to tourists and visitors to the city alike.

TOM FORD

Tom Ford is a modern icon, an American fashion designer who is considered to be one of the world’s greatest couturiers and a leading tastemaker. He founded his eponymous label in New York City in 2005 having previously been the creative director at Yves Saint Laurent and Gucci, where he transformed the brand into the global powerhouse it is today. Ford first emerged as a serious design talent whilst at Perry Ellis where he worked alongside his peer, Marc Jacobs. His signature style is overtly modernist, embracing sharp lines and angles, minimalist colour palettes and defined silhouettes, however Ford manages to pay homage to traditional methods and drapes in order to accentuate the figure. This style has won the label a great many admirers, with the brand being a go-to for the best-dressed members of High Society, silver screen stars and titans of industry. Indeed, Ford has regularly been sought out by Hollywood studios to craft bespoke pieces for their wardrobe departments, even dressing Daniel Craig’s James Bond – the manifestation of the British style, the Savile Row suited gentleman. Ford, a customer of Anderson & Sheppard, is an aficionado of the Row and its sartorial legacy. He has carefully studied the tailoring art and the English-style, borrowing heavily from the tradition for his own tailoring service. A full-suite fashion house, the Maison is now split between its beauty and cosmetic offer (owned by Estée Lauder) and the fashion business (under the Zegna group).

CAUSSE

Since 1892, Causse has been one of France’s premier glovemakers and remains the oldest glove brand in the country. Hailing from Millau, an area synonymous with high-end leather goods manufacturing and, particularly, the art of handmade gloves, Causse has been supplying the grand couture houses and fashion labels for over one hundred years. Indeed, the firm is part of the Chanel Maisons d’Art initiative celebrating their distinct heritage and close relationship with the iconic fashion house. Causse gloves can be customised to the client’s particular preferences making them a highly coveted marque.

ANDERSON & SHEPPARD

A bastion of British tailoring, Anderson & Sheppard has been one of Savile Row’s pre-eminent houses since it’s establishment in 1906. The firm has been the preferred tailor to many international celebrities throughout its history (names such as Fred Astaire, Charlie Chaplin, Gary Cooper, Noël Coward, Laurence Olivier, Cole Porter, and Rudolph Valentino), in part due to the more relaxed structure championed by Frederick Scholte and Per Anderson, the firm’s founder who trained under Scholte. This style marked the firm as maverick young Turks, a counter to the traditional, heavily structured military style that had long defined the Savile Row suit. Anderson & Sheppard and their contemporaries essentially revolutionised the English-style, with the English cut today being synonymous with the silhouetted and drape espoused by this cadre of tailors. The style would attract a young Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII and latterly, the Duke of Windsor), earning the firm the prestige and honour of being a tailor by appointment to the Court of St James. Many decades later, another Prince of Wales would commission his suits from the house before he too would become King, HM King Charles III. The firm would also become a benchmark reference for the high couture fashion industry, having influenced customers including Tom Ford. No longer on the Row but located off-Row on Burlington Street, today the firm continues the bespoke tradition whilst also supplying a range of ready-to-wear apparel from their nearby haberdashery.

GIEVES & HAWKES

Gieves & Hawkes is one of the grandest of the Savile Row tailoring houses, an institution dating back to 1771. The house is renowned as a military tailor of distinction and a bespoke tailor of choice to many of the world’s best-dressed men. The firm has a long legacy as a tailor by appointment to various members of the British Royal Family and other royals, with the warrants to boot. The brand was formed in 1974 when two established tailoring houses merged, Hawkes & Co and Gieve & Co (pronounced with hard ‘G’). Hawkes & Co was founded in 1771 and had carved out a reputation as a preferred tailor to the most senior British Army officers and members of the Royal Household. Gieve & Co was founded in 1887 when it took over an older studio for whom James Gieve had apprenticed, with a legacy of dressing the most senior officers of the Royal Navy. The military tradition of both houses would come to define the Gieves & Hawkes silhouette and, indeed, the English style of defined shoulders and narrow tapered bodies. Today, the firm continues to offer a bespoke tailoring service together with a wide range of ready-to-wear apparel making them a go-to outfitters for their distinguished clientele.

LUXURY GUNMAKERS & GUNSMITHS BRANDS

ALOIS MAYR (MAYR) AM LITTLE ATKIN GRANT & LANG AYA BERETTA BETTINSOLI BLASER BOSS & CO BOXALL & EDMISTON BROWNING BUCHAN GUNS CÆSAR GUERINI CASTLE GUNMAKERS CHAPUIS ARMES CHARLES LANCASTER COGSWELL & HARRISON COSMI EJ CHURCHILL ELDERKIN & SON F.BEESLEY (BEESLEY) FABBRI FOX & CO. GALLYON GRAHAM MACKINLAY & CO GRULLA HAUSMANN & CO HOLLANDContinue reading “LUXURY GUNMAKERS & GUNSMITHS BRANDS”

HERBERT JOHNSON

With a reputation for excellent military and uniform hats, Herbert Johnson has been producing fine hats for soldiers and civilians alike for more than 100 years. Founded in 1889, this renowned hatter has given us many of Hollywood’s most iconic headwear, including the legendary fedora worn by Indiana Jones throughout the franchise’s cinematic series. Herbert Johnson was a renowned milliner who masterfully crafted pieces to the exacting function-first standards of the military and also to the grand statement needs of the theatre and, later, the movie industry. The brand became an institution for London’s best-dressed gentlemen and a must-visit for international jet-setters too. Herbert Johnson often engaged Patey Hats to manufacture some of the house’s designs. Today, the marque sits under the umbrella of brands helmed by Swaine.