Savile Row's Kilgour is coming back from the dead

The tailor which made Cary Grant's suit in North by Northwest is under new ownership

Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill in Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, running for cover in the famous cornfields scene while wearing a Kilgour, French & Stanbury suit. Credit: Amazon MGM Studios

Dear reader, welcome back to the Friday edition of Dark Luxury. This week we’ve got an exclusive story about the resurrection of another Great British Brand, Kilgour, which is on its third revival in the last 20 years.

This builds on last week’s reporting, when we told you about the sad state of Aquascutum and English tailor Doug Hayward at Pitti Uomo. They’ve become what fashion consultant Nick Wooster called “zombie brands,” kept (barely) alive with licensing deals. Could Kilgour avoid this fate?

At Florence airport on the way back to London, creative director Steve Davies told me that the Savile Row house Kilgour, which declared bankruptcy in 2020, is set to be relaunched under his creative directorship.

This is the latest chapter in the messy rise, fall, and now, rise again, of one of the great Savile Row names, famous for dressing Cary Grant in North by Northwest in its heydey.