Tommy Nutter; Tailor to Stars Who Gave Beatles ‘Mod Look’

Tommy Nutter, the flamboyant tailor of London’s Savile Row, who gave the Beatles their “Mod Look” in the 1960s and costumed Jack Nicholson as the Joker in the 1980s, is dead of AIDS.

A spokesman for his company said Tuesday that Nutter was 49 when he died Monday in London’s Cromwell Hospital.

He had been in the hospital since at least July, when his company first publicly confirmed that he had AIDS.

Nutter, whose customers also included the Rolling Stones, Twiggy, Elton John, Michael Jackson and more, rose to fame in the 1960s when he pioneered flared trousers and wide lapels, helping turn them into trademark fashions of the 1960s on both sides of the Atlantic.

Three of the Beatles were wearing Nutter creations when they posed on a London street crossing for the cover of their “Abbey Road” record. George Harrison wore denims.

More recently his clients have included Diana Ross and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Nutter often would use several contrasting fabrics in one jacket: Checks were swiveled for pocket contrast and shoulders became ever more padded.

In the early 1960s, Nutter became an apprentice with a company on Savile Row, the source of expensive, staid suits and other clothes for upper-crust customers.

Nutter absorbed the lore and rules of the English gentleman’s wardrobe, and in 1968, at the urging of Beatles manager Brian Epstein, started his own tailoring company.

His tailoring was lively and contemporary but with roots in the traditional craftsmanship and quality of Savile Row. His business was an immediate success.

The company said in a statement: “Over the past years that he knew of his illness, he actively participated in supporting others living with HIV and AIDS as well as helping AIDS charities and research organizations.”