Henry Poole & Co, the Savile Row tailor founded in 1806, is marking its 220th anniversary in 2026 with a fabric recreated from its own archive. Napoleon III Superfine Blue is a lightweight herringbone flannel that blends a soft pastel blue with a deeper RAF blue. It has been available for bespoke orders since March 2026, and the house published a history of its first 220 years on 14 April.
The fabric goes back to the house's first royal warrant, granted in 1858 by Napoleon III of France. Research in Henry Poole's archive found references to a superfine blue used in commissions for the emperor. The Italian mill Vitale Barberis Canonico, founded in Biella in 1663, held matching records: its mid-19th-century orders correspond to entries in Henry Poole's ledgers from the same years, which suggests the fabric traveled from Biella to London before being made up for the emperor. The two firms worked together to recreate it, the Savile Row Bespoke Association reported on 28 April.
The anniversary range also includes pocket squares based on historic paintings and cufflinks that copy the bronze Napoleonic eagle displayed in the shop.
From linen draper to Savile Row
According to the house's history, James Poole, born in 1781 in Baschurch, Shropshire, arrived in London in January 1806 and set up at 7 Everett Street as a linen draper before turning to military uniforms. The business moved to Regent Street and then to Old Burlington Street. After James died in 1846, his son Henry moved the firm onto Savile Row, then home mainly to doctors, and it later occupied Nos. 36, 37 and 38, nearly a third of the street. The house is now at 15 Savile Row.
Henry Poole's archive records an 1865 order from the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, for a short silk smoking jacket with matching trousers, which the house describes as the earliest example of the modern dinner suit. When Henry died in 1876, his cousin Samuel Cundey took over, beginning the family line that runs the firm today. By 1914 the house employed 14 cutters and more than 300 tailors and made over 38,000 garments in a year.
The house says it has held more than forty royal warrants around the world, and the British royal household warrant continuously since Queen Victoria's reign. In December 2024 it was among the businesses granted a warrant by King Charles III.
Taking the anniversary abroad
The house also took the anniversary to the United States. Its summer 2026 trunk show on the East Coast, which ended in June, included an evening at The Somerset Club in Boston with a dinner honoring Winston Churchill, one of its best-known clients, and a menu based on dishes he enjoyed.
What it means for buyers
For clients, the anniversary fabric is a lightweight herringbone flannel in a blend of pastel and RAF blue, offered for bespoke orders. Flannel is a soft wool fabric with a slightly brushed surface, and lightweight versions are easier to wear in milder weather than traditional winter flannels. Our guides to suit fabrics and black tie cover flannel and the dinner suit, whose earliest example Henry Poole's archive records, and Savile Row house styles compares Henry Poole's cut with its neighbors.
The anniversary follows the death in August 2024 of Angus Cundey, the sixth generation of his family to lead Henry Poole. His son Simon Cundey is managing director.
