How to Visit Savile Row: A First-Timer's Guide

Visiting Savile Row for the first time can feel like walking into a private club. It is not one. The street is public, most houses are glad to see new clients, and the staff expect first-timers to have questions. What helps is knowing how the houses work: bespoke is booked, ready-to-wear is browsed, and the best-known names are not all on the Row itself.

Can you just walk into a Savile Row tailor?

You can walk into any Savile Row shop with an open door, but you will get the most from a visit to a bespoke house by booking. Cutters spend much of the day in fittings, and an unannounced visitor may only get a few minutes and a brochure. Shops that sell ready-to-wear or made-to-measure are different: they are set up for browsers.

Gieves & Hawkes at No. 1 is the easiest first stop. Its flagship, refurbished in 2026, sells bespoke, made-to-measure and ready-to-wear under one roof and keeps longer opening hours than most bespoke rooms, though it still recommends booking an appointment for made-to-measure and bespoke. Check its current hours before you go. Anderson & Sheppard runs a separate haberdashery on Clifford Street for ready-made clothes and accessories.

Do you need an appointment on Savile Row?

Yes, for bespoke you need an appointment. Email or call the house a week or more before you plan to visit, longer in busy months, and say what you are looking for. A short, specific message gets the best response and lets the house put you with the right cutter.

What happens at your first appointment?

Your first appointment is a conversation, then a choice of fabric and style, then measurements. You are not obliged to order on the day. Allow at least an hour; a first visit is rarely rushed.

1. 1.The conversation. The cutter asks how you will wear the suit: how often, where, in which seasons, and what you dislike about your current suits.
2. 2.Fabric. You look through swatch books. Members of the Savile Row Bespoke Association must offer at least 2,000 fabrics, so ask the cutter to narrow the choice by weight and purpose. See our guide to a year-round suit fabric.
3. 3.Style. Buttons, lapels, pockets, vents and trouser details. The house will steer you toward its own proportions.
4. 4.Measurements and posture. The cutter measures you and notes how you stand: a dropped shoulder, a forward neck, a prominent seat. These notes shape the pattern as much as the numbers.
5. 5.Quote and deposit. You get a price for the suit as specified. If you order, you pay a deposit and book the first fitting.

For what to wear and bring to the fittings that follow, read your first fitting.

Savile Row etiquette: what to wear, say and avoid

Good etiquette on the Row is simple: be on time, be clear, and treat the workroom as a workplace. No one expects you to know the jargon. Cutters would rather you say plainly what you want than nod along.

A short walking route around Savile Row

You can see Savile Row and its neighbors in about an hour on foot, longer if you go inside. Savile Row runs north to south between Conduit Street and Vigo Street, parallel to Regent Street, with Old Burlington Street one block to the west.

1. 1.Start at Conduit Street, at the Row's northern end, a short walk from Oxford Circus.
2. 2.Walk the length of the Row to Vigo Street. Along the way, look for Dege & Skinner at No. 10, Huntsman at No. 11, Richard Anderson at No. 13, Henry Poole at No. 15, Norton & Sons at No. 16 and Edward Sexton at No. 35.
3. 3.Look out for No. 3, where the Beatles played their final live performance on the roof on 30 January 1969, and No. 1, which housed the Royal Geographical Society from 1870 to 1912 and is now Gieves & Hawkes.
4. 4.Cut across to Old Burlington Street via Clifford Street or Boyle Street to see Anderson & Sheppard at No. 32 and Thom Sweeney at No. 24c. Anderson & Sheppard's haberdashery is on Clifford Street.
5. 5.Head south along Sackville Street from the Vigo Street end to Piccadilly.
6. 6.Cross Piccadilly to Jermyn Street, which runs parallel one block south. Piccadilly Arcade leads through to it, and the statue of Beau Brummell stands by the arcade's Jermyn Street entrance.

Nearby streets: Old Burlington, Sackville and Jermyn Street

Old Burlington Street

Old Burlington Street is the Row's quieter twin, one block west. It has deep roots in the trade: Henry Poole's family shop was at 4 Old Burlington Street when Henry opened his Savile Row entrance in 1846. Today it is home to Anderson & Sheppard, which moved there in 2005 after nearly a century on the Row, and to Thom Sweeney.

Sackville Street and Cork Street

Sackville Street runs south from Vigo Street to Piccadilly and is the natural walk from the Row toward St James's. Cork Street, a little further west beyond Old Burlington Street, is where tailors first gathered in the area around 1790, before they moved onto Savile Row itself by 1803.

Jermyn Street

Jermyn Street, across Piccadilly in St James's, is London's shirt street. Its shirtmakers sell both ready-made and bespoke shirts, and many have been there for more than a century. A bespoke shirt is also a good, cheaper first taste of made-for-you clothing. See our guide to Jermyn Street shirtmakers.

Visiting from abroad: can fittings happen at home?

Often, yes. Several Savile Row houses send cutters abroad several times a year and will hold fittings at these trunk shows, so you may only need to visit London once. Henry Poole says its team travels to the US East Coast about three times a year and that fittings can take place in Savile Row or at the next trunk show. Dege & Skinner lists the United States and the Middle East among the places it visits regularly, and Norton & Sons holds regular trunk shows in New York.

For how the visiting system works in one big market, read our guide to bespoke tailoring in New York.

When is the best time to visit Savile Row?

Visit on a weekday if you want to see a bespoke house. Many bespoke rooms keep weekday hours, some open on Saturdays, and few open on Sundays, so a weekend walk is better for looking than for ordering. Plan the start of a commission three to four months before you need the suit, and longer before a wedding or the busy autumn season.

What is the cheapest way to buy from Savile Row?

The cheapest bespoke suits from the houses in our London ranking started at about $6,600 in 2025, at Gieves & Hawkes. Firms on and around the Row sell custom suits from a personal pattern with more machine sewing from about $2,100 to $2,600, and made-to-measure from Savile Row names costs less than bespoke. A ready-made shirt, a tie or a made-to-measure jacket is a sensible first purchase. Our bespoke suit prices by city puts these figures in context.

What a good cutter checks on your first visit

You can judge a house by the questions it asks. A good cutter wants to know about your life before your lapels, looks at you standing naturally rather than only at the tape measure, and is honest about what the house does well and what it does not. Be wary of anyone who agrees to every request or promises a finished suit in a few weeks.

Once you have walked the street, choose your house. Start with the 10 best tailors in London, and read what Savile Row is for the history behind it.

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