Steed WebSite Re-Launch - Steed's View Blog Moves Too steed.co.uk

We are pleased to unveil our new updated site www.steed.co.uk

As mentioned in a previous post, Steed were actually the very first tailors on Savile Row to have their own website way back in the 90's, when unlike America, the internet in the UK was still in it's infancy.

We started to throw around some ideas back in November 2011 between myself, Matthew, Andrea and David McNeil of Revo Creative and came up with a substantial list of things we would love to incorporate in the new 

site.

One of which was a unique feature which we are sure might again be a first for Savile Row!

Its is a bespoke customer login.

This feature is available to all of our bespoke customers and their username will be their email address and a password of their choosing when they register for the feature.

This will allow access to their own personal space on our site and will be able to track current orders that are in process through a interactive time-line. Matthew will be updating the system as the customers suit is going through each process. Much like we documented various stages through our blog episodes called "A Work In Progress"

There will be a standardised format of text that will explain each stage but the photo's will be unique to that order. For example you will see photo's of your own paper pattern, and the cloth that has been chosen being cut.

Each customer will be able to post comments and questions in a box at the bottom of their personal page which we will reply to asap.

Also the blog will now be moved permanently to the new site so this will be the last post here on Steed's View!

West Cumbria Game Fair 2012

Come and see Steed at Armathwaite Hall, Bassenthwaite this Saturday, 14th July & Sunday, 15th July for the West Cumbria Game Fair.

This will be a festival of all that is great about the Cumbrian countryside, the people and their pastimes – clay pigeon & airgun shooting, fly & rod fishing, field archery, working dogs demonstrations and competitions, fabulous locally sourced foods, woodland skills, bushcraft and much more.

You, your family and friends, will have the opportunity to test your skills and abilities, in many of the counties most popular country pursuits. If you have a competitive spirit, you really should give it a go. You could bag yourselves some exciting prizes!!!  If you are new to game sports, why not come and try them out. There’ll be experts and professionals to safely show you how.

"Beware The Smile of An English Tailor" (Orson Wells)

We came across this funny segment via a friend and customer of ours so we thought it would be a good thing to share with everyone.

Hopefully our customers would agree we aren't quite as bad as these guys....enjoy

If you are reading this post on a mobile device you need to skip the video to 4minutes 4 seconds. Otherwise it should start in the correct place once you click on the photo below.

Paris Trip, July 2012

Edwin will once again be visiting Paris, France in July 2012.

However unfortunately he won't be accompanied by Matthew as it is just the day after Matthew's Tough Mudder event of which he will be recovering from.

Edwin will be flying out on the evening of Monday, 16th July but will be available for the full day on Tuesday, 17th July before flying home on the Wednesday.

He will be staying at a different hotel called Hotel Cambon, which is situated in the usual area of which Edwin stays.


He will be available for appointments on Tuesday, 17th July at staying at the Hotel Cambon

Hotel Cambon
3 Rue Cambon
Paris
75001

Tel: 01 44 58 93 93

If you would like to make an appointment to see Edwin, please contact either Edwin or Matthew at info@steed.co.uk or you can call us on 01228 599 555

Steed.co.uk Re-Launch!

After months in the works we are very close to the re-launch of our main website steed.co.uk

Steed where actually the very first tailors on Savile Row to have their own website way back in the 90's, when unlike America, the internet in the UK was still in it's infancy.

The idea of creating a website for the company was introduced to us by my father-in-law who was always into computers and new technology since his retirement from The Armed Forces and where he was instrumental in using the latest technology and software. He explained about this concept of the internet and how at the moment it is relatively small but within a year or so it will suddenly boom and grow into a major tool for business' and for how everyday people will use the internet and its capabilities beyond what at the time was unimaginable! Turns out he was more than right!

The first version of our website was pretty basic but it was just a foot in the door into the cyber world and gave us a marketing base for our new company. A few years down the line it was time for a re-vamp which is the same site you see at the moment at steed.co.uk

It is a nice and clear site and we still get compliments on it to this day, however as times are changing we felt it is time once again to re-vamp the site and take it a stage further and to offer much more in terms of usability, valuable information and visual ideas as to what Steed can offer our great customers.

We started to throw around some ideas back in November 2011 between myself, Matthew, Andrea and David McNeil of Revo Creative and came up with a substantial list of things we would love to incorporate in the new site.

One of which was a unique feature which we are sure might again be a first for Savile Row!

Its is a bespoke customer login.

This feature is available to all of our bespoke customers and their username will be their email address and a password of their choosing when they register for the feature.

This will allow access to their own personal space on our site and will be able to track current orders that are in process through a interactive time-line. Matthew will be updating the system as the customers suit is going through each process. Much like we documented various stages through our blog episodes called "A Work In Progress"

There will be a standardised format of text that will explain each stage but the photo's will be unique to that order. For example you will see photo's of your own paper pattern, and the cloth that has been chosen being cut.

Each customer will be able to post comments and questions in a box at the bottom of their personal page which we will reply to asap.

Other features of the new site will be galleries of our work and video's which we will start posting over time.

Also one of the other main differences with the new site is that we will be incorporating our Blog Steed's View which is here on blogger. This mean's when the site is fully functional any new posts on the blog will be posted at steed.co.uk and not here at steeds-view.blogspot.com

Whilst we are creating this new site we thought it would give us a great opportunity to give the company a fresh look in terms of our new colour scheme which will be seen on the new site and you can see on the photo. We are in the process of having new labels created and suit covers of which some of you may have received with the latest garments that have been finished.

The site should be going live once we get back from our upcoming trip to The States (Link to dates below) as we just need to input content which Matthew will be doing while we are away.

http://steeds-view.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/steed-tailors-mayjune-2012-usa.html

Once the site goes live please bear with us while we iron out any creases and teething problems the site may have in terms of the bespoke customer login feature.

Best wishes and we look forward to seeing many of you on this upcoming trip next week.

Edwin & Matthew

Steed Bespoke Tailors

info@steed.co.uk

I Must Be Mad! All For A Good Cause Though!

On July 15th on the grounds of Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. I will be taking part in an adrenalin fuelled event known simply as Tough Mudder!

Tough Mudder events are hardcore 10-12 mile obstacle courses designed by the SAS Special Forces and are built to test your all around strength, stamina, mental grit and team camaraderie.


Tough Mudder was founded by Will Dean, a former counter-terrorism agent for the British Government. While getting his MBA at Harvard, Dean was inspired to start Tough Mudder out of frustration with unimaginative and repetitive marathons, triathlons, mud runs and other adventure runs and started the events in the US.

Due to this being the first time Tough Mudder has been brought to the UK it involves 28 hugely challenging obstacles, rather than the standard 25 seen in the US events which include, 15ft walls, freezing lake swims, under water tunnels, crawling through stinging nettles under barbed-wire and the final obstacle...known as Electric Shock Therapy, which involves running through electric wires that hang down from a structure which send 10,000 volts coursing through your body.

It sounds pretty brutal, and I'm sure it is but it is definitely for a very good cause! 


I am doing this event with a team of my closest friends to raise as much money as we can as a team for the British Heart Foundation. We are looking to raise around £300 each before the event takes place in July 2012 and any donations would be very much appreciated!

We have begun training now and are due to step up the intensity but with just 81 days to go till the big day we have a lot of hard work ahead of us. 

Now a little about the charity...

The British Heart Foundation is the nation's heart charity and was founded in 1961 by a group of medical professionals who where concerned about the increasing death rate from cardiovascular disease. Every day they save lives, through pioneering research, providing vital information to help people reduce their own heart health risks, campaigning for change and supporting and caring for heart patients. 

This really is a great cause and hopefully the money we raise will be greatly beneficial to a huge number of people. 

Through Virgin Money Giving, you can sponsor me and donations will be quickly processed and passed to charities. Virgin Money Giving is a not for profit organisation and will claim gift aid on a charity's behalf where the donor is eligible for this. I really appreciate all your support and thank you for any donations.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/MatthewDeBoiseToughMudder

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Best wishes,

Matthew DeBoise

London Lounge - Cloth Club Promotion - EXTENDED

Following the success of our recent London Lounge, Cloth Club Promotion, Steed are pleased to announce an extension, which will give anyone purchasing any LL Cloth and has it made by us here at Steed, a special price that equates to around 20% off Steed's regular prices. 


This extension will now run to the end of 2012 but if customers have subscribed to cloths that will not be ready by that time then they can still take advantage of the offer by paying the deposit for any ordes before the end of 2012.


EDIT: The New Alden Fox Flannel Collection is also included in this promotion! 


Below are some examples of our previous work with LL Cloths.


(Please note the two middle photo's are clothes made for customers but modelled by myself)

London Lounge Special Price - VAT Exempt 

3-Piece Suit £2200

2-Piece Suit £1830

Sports Jacket/Blazer £1295

Overcoat £1830

London Lounge Special Price - UK & European Union

3-Piece Suit £2645

2-Piece Suit £2200

Sports Jacket/Blazer £1555

Overcoat £2200

Best wishes,


Matthew


Steed Bespoke Tailors


www.steed.co.uk

Steed Tailors - May/June 2012 - USA Itinerary

Steed are pleased to announce that Edwin & Matthew DeBoise will be returning to the United States at the end of May/start of June, 2012.

We have decided to extend our stay in New York City from the usual 3 nights to 5 nights. 

If you wish to contact us during our trip, you can call us on our American Cell Phone Number below:

617 794 0039

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chicago 

Monday, 28th May

(Arriving late afternoon on Sunday, 27th May & Leaving early morning on Tuesday, 29th May)

The Drake Hotel

140 East Walton Pl

312 787 2200

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                      

Washington DC 

Wednesday, 30th May

(Arriving late afternoon on Tuesday, 29th May and leaving the morning of Thursday, 31st May)

The Hay-Adams Hotel

Sixteenth & H Streets

N.W. Washington

202 638 6600

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New York

Friday, 1st June till Monday 4th June

(Arriving late afternoon on Thursday, 31st May & leaving morning of Tuesday, 5th June)

The Kimberly Hotel 

145 east 50th Street

212 755 0400

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Boston

Wednesday, 6th June

(Arriving late afternoon, Tuesday, 5th June & leaving 11am on Thursday, 7th June)

The Eliot Hotel 

370 Commonwealth Ave

617 267 1607

..

We look forward to meeting customers, old & new alike and as always we will be offering both my Semi-Bespoke (MTM) & Bespoke service. 

We carry a wide selection of cloths but if anyone has any particular requestes for a certain bunch, please don't hesitate to ask. 

Obviously the days between cities we will be traveling. However, there maybe an opportunity to see customers, late afternoon, early evening of those days. 

If you’d like to make an appointment, we would appreciate it if you could contact us prior to the trip, so that we can organise our day to accommodate everyone. 

You can also contact us on our American Cell Phone number below:

617 794 0039

Best regards, 

Edwin & Matthew DeBoise 

Steed Bespoke Tailors 

+44 (0) 20  7287  7227 

www.steed.co.uk/ 

www.steeds-view.blogspot.com/ 

On The Road Again..Paris Trip - March 2012

Dad and I returned yesterday from our highly successful March trip to The States which saw us take in our usual four cities of Chicago, Washington DC, New York City & Boston.

It was great to catch up with  our existing customers and also to of met many new customers to which we look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with and look forward to seeing again in June 2012 which will be our next trip to The States (Dates to be confirmed shortly).

However as they say there is no rest for the wicked as we are now heading off to Paris, France on Monday, 26th March.

We will be able to see customers all day on the Tuesday, 27th March and up till 11am on Wednesday, 28th March.

We will be staying at the Saint-James & Albany Spa Hotel.

Saint-James & Albany Spa Hotel
202, rue de Rivoli, 
01. Louvre
Châtelet, 
75001 
Paris

Tel: +33 1 44 58 43 21

Available to see people on Tuesday, 27th March (All Day) & Wednesday, 28th March (till 11am)

If people need to call Dad or myself, you can contact us on our UK mobile/cell number which is 07976 950 384

Or email us at info@steed.co.uk

                                                                                                 
                                                                         

A Basted Fitting for Paris     

              

Straight Out of the Box But Just Couldn't Wait...

I took delivery this morning of a box and too my surprise, I realised it was my own sports jacket that had been finished by my tailor in London. I started this jacket last summer and took the forward fitting out to show when we where invited to Beijing, China last September for a luxury goods expo. 
.
However as we have been so busy we couldn't get the jacket finished, as obviously the customers always come first!

I'm looking forward to getting this back from the finisher next week and having it ready for our March USA trip and if I get a chance I will take another couple of photo's after the hand button holes are in and it's buttoned and pressed.
..
What I like about this cloth from the Porter & Harding (Harrisons), Glorious Twelve bunch is its flexibility and we have made up nearly the whole bunch for customers over the years. 
.
It is a 11oz Sporting Tweed & Country Collection but is perfect for either sport coats, such as this or to be made up in two or three piece suits, as is the cloth shown here of which I just caught Dad cutting out for a new customer in The States. (25338 Brown donegal) 

..

















This one of mine is the 25341. It is a grey barley corn weave with a blue over-check and although I have had it made up as a sports coat, I may end up following the lead of a customer of ours who had it made up as a sports jacket originally and then decided a 2-piece suit will work as well so we made the trousers up for him and it looks fantastic. 

..
That's the great thing about this bunch, it is a good weight with it being 11oz so it suitable for 3/4 of the year in most climates and most of the patterns work well as sports coats and suits depending on the occasion.
..
I'm going to be using my jacket as a more casual sport jacket to travel in and to go out for meals as it looks equally great with jeans or grey flannels with a nice Oxford blue shirt and black or brown shoes and even for the most daring of people, white trainers/sneakers. 


Best,
Matthew

Anderson & Sheppard, A Style Is Born

I was lucky enough to be given this lovely book as a present for my recent birthday and I must say it is a fantastic and interesting read with some beautiful and encapsulating photo's in it.

It brought back wonderful memories to see so many of the customers that I had looked after, during my seven years there and you can see why so many still want to be part of such a rich history, by having their clothes made there. 


Also while I may not be in the book from a photographic standpoint in person, I am however there in the form of my handwriting, on the one jacket pattern that they chose to feature, who was a customer of Colin Harvey and later mine once Harvey retired. 


Each cutter used to mark his patterns with their initials, which you can see on the white note, with the measurements on at the bottom of this pattern.

What a wonderful surprise it was to see the painting of Colin Harvey at his board, which I had never seen before but really encapsulates him perfectly and just as I had remembered him. I recently bumped into his brother John, who was a director at Scabal's (from whenever I can remember), whilst on The Row last Friday and I asked him if he knew of this painting as I would love a print of this, if not the original! 

When Harvey retired he gave me his cutting shears, which I don't use but have retained the yellow cloth that he had wrapped around the handle and now adorn the shears that I use, which where my Fathers. 


If you look at the picture below you can see that the artist has included this in his painting.

For those of you who wish to purchase the book, you can contact Anderson & Sheppard through their website for details on how to find it. 

London Lounge - Cloth Club Current Available Inventory

Further to our recent announcement last week about the special promotion that we are running in collaboration with Michael Alden and The London Lounge's Cloth Club. Please find below photo's and information on the current stock that is available from Michael.

Customers that have already purchased lengths from the Cloth Club that have yet to have them made up, are also welcome to our promotion if they place the order before March 31st 2012.

Also there are plans for a couple of re-runs on previous LL cloths that have sold out, information on these are also below.

Current stock:

Light Grey Brisa Chalkstripe (LLBR10)

This cloth is perfect for the spring and we have made it up a couple of times before as both a SB & DB and it looks fantastic!

 




RAF Blue POW (LLBR09) 

Again another spring cloth, we have yet to make up this cloth but look forward to doing so in the near future.

LL Agnelli Flannel (LLFL09)

This is a beautiful blue flannel with a brown overcheck. We are currently making this up for a customer in NYC and Dad has since decided he is going to have to take our customers lead and have it made up himself!

 

LL Blue Shetland Tweed (LLTW20)

This cloth is the sibling to the very sucessful Brown Shetland Tweed with crimson window pane which can be seen below.

It was also featured in our series of articles named...
"A Work In Progress" and has become a firm favourite of ours. Looks great as a sports jacket with grey flannel trousers or with brown shoes and blue jeans for a night out on the town or when out for a nice meal.

Donegal Herringbone Tests

The first is a oatmeal Donegal Herringbone and the other is a black and white Donegal Herringbone. Both of these are available for immediate delivery.

Possible re-run of LL Brown Shetland Tweed with Crimson Window Pane!

I have asked Michael about the possibility of this cloth being re-run as quite a few customers have enquired about it as well as the fact that I am dying to have it made up myself! I will have more information in the near future about if it will go ahead and will let everyone know if it happens but it is looking promising! :-)

Eden in Paris re-run!

This is a classic from the Cloth Club and it is back due to popular demand! I have a length of this myself which was given to me as a gift by a friend and customer in DC, unfortunately I have yet to have it made up but I will get round to it eventually when we have time! As Dad often says.."Its like the cobblers son with no shoes.."

For more details on this re-run please check out the link on the topic below.

http://www.thelondonlounge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10576

LL RAF Blue Linen


This cloth is currently in stock but I havent got too much information on it but for those interested you will find Michael Alden's contact email below.

LL Donkey Flannel


We have made this cloth up for customer in DC in a 3-piece suit, it may not catch the eye like some of the other LL Cloths, but once it was made up it looked fantastic and all of us where very pleased with the outcome.

LL RAF Flannel


This is another that I unfortunately don't have too much info on but again if you are interested you can contact Michael below or I will try to find out for you.









For anyone that is interested in any of these cloths and would like more information please contact Michael Alden at the email address below. As I get more information myself about any other possible re-runs or current stock that Michael has I will post them up on the blog to let everyone see.

I would imagine there will be a lot of people interested in these cloths featured so to avoid disappointment I would advise contacting Michael about subscribing any of the LL cloths before they sell out.

alden@thelondonlounge.net

Best wishes,

Matthew DeBoise

Steed Bespoke Tailors

matthew@steed.co.uk