[originaltext]Woman: London’s Savile Row is famous for its independent tailorin

Woman: London’s Savile Row is famous for its independent tailoring shops that have been selling tailored men’s clothing along the street since 1623. Today we have the honour to invite Richard Anderson. the owner of one tailoring shop, whose business is profitable,  with revenue around ￡1 million. Welcome. Richard.
Man: Thank you.
Woman: Richard, in today’s world, does tailoring still have appeal as a career choice?
Man: Actually there has been quite a strong swing back with young kids going into the trade. We’re now seen as fashionable. The BBC did a documentary, and it portrayed Savile Row in a really good light. A lot of the kids are sort of seeing the trade and apprenticing as a good way to go. Tuition fees to go to university are high, so this holds good appeal.
Woman: What made you decide to start your own shop?
Man: At 17, I became an apprentice at the famous shop Henry Huntsman & Sons. I learned from tailors who had been at Huntsman for 30 to 40 years, including one who worked for the Queen. I was always fascinated by the fact that each tailor had a specific role. After 25 years at Huntsman and convineed there was still a market for quality tailo red suits, I opened my shop at No.13 Savile Row in 2001, with the idea of carrying on the old techniques with a modern view. You know. Henry Huntsman & Sons had been taken over. New management came on board, and it really was a signal to me. I was still at a young age. I felt that I had gone as far as I could at the time and I thought I could take all that I had learned and put it in a fresh new setting.
Woman: When you first opened, you put an ad in The Wall Street Journal announcing that you would be traveling to the U. S. to receive clients in 11 cities. and you came back with ￡75,000 in orders. This was a winning strategy—what was your thinking?
Man: There is a kind of gentleman’s agreement that if you leave a shop you don’t go ring up all your clients and bring them on. But my partner had been traveling since he was 16 and had a good following. One guy ordered 10 suits to be supportive. That first trip we came back with a strong book of work before we even opened the shop.
Woman: Today most people buy their clothes off the racks in stores and barely speak to the salesperson. You obviously have deep relationships with your clients—you travel to the U. S., Europe, and Asia for fittings. Is this something that keeps this kind of trade alive?
Man: No one suit is the same. You are taking 19 measures on a person. You chat and get to know the customer, and you put all those ingredients into a pattern and make something quite beautiful for them. I have always traveled to clients. I have to have a person to measure—I can’t fit someone online. We are happy to go to the customer—that’s what has always been done on Savile Row. We do have an online business, but we only sell things like ties, handkerchiefs, and socks.
Woman: How is your business during the recent global economic crisis?
Man: We’ve been hit. In the last 18 months, business has slowed about 15%. It’s not been disastrous. During the last recession in the 90’s when I was at Huntsman, we were very quiet for 18 months—and there was also the Gulf War. I remember my boss saying he’d hardly seen a customer for a year. Then it got a bit better, and people came in and ordered three suits at a time. We went from recession to boom in a very short period of time, and I think that will happen again. We had a very good business last week.
Woman: I wish your business better and better. Well. I’m afraid we’ll have to finish there. Thank you so much for talking to us today.