Savile Row Has Women in Stitches : London: Englishmen traditionally introduced their sons to the family tailor. Now the appeal is well-suited to their daughters as well.

A glimpse of stocking? How shocking. A trace of lace? Out of place on Savile Row, until now.

Hit hard by the U.S. recession and declining fortunes of the British aristocracy, the gentlemen tailors of Savile Row are looking for new clients.

One firm has taken the radical step of opening its first department for women, sending little shivers of apprehension down the genteel spines of more tradition-bound competitors.

“It hasn’t been a good market in the last four to five years,” explained Hugh Holland, senior managing director of Bernard Weatherill Ltd. “We needed to do something pretty radical and we did see this enormous gap in the market.”

His 82-year-old firm has been quietly outfitting women like Jackie Onassis and the rich American socialite Patricia Kluge for years. Its new Lady Weatherill department offers bespoke, or custom-made, clothes for all who can pay.

“Here are people who spend an awful lot of money and time on clothes, take a great deal of care with their appearance, and, like the old gentlemen aristocracy, are prepared to spend a great deal of time selecting a suit and trying it on,” Holland said.

Savile Row, a short, narrow street behind Regent Street in central London, has been synonymous with conservative men’s clothing since the mid-1800s.

Englishmen traditionally introduced their sons to the family Savile Row tailor as a rite of manhood. Americans and other foreigners made the street their first stop in London, so their suits would be ready by the time their vacation or business trip was done.

The recession has been hard on Savile Row and other luxury businesses. An unfavorable exchange rate--the pound hovered around $2 most of last summer--did not help.

Orders are down 30% on Savile Row from the good times of 1988-89, said Angus H. Cundey of Henry Poole & Co., which in 1823 became the first tailor on the street.

“This recession is far worse, as far as this company is concerned, than the Great Depression of the 1930s,” Cundey said.

Americans make up about half the client list at Henry Poole’s, slightly less at some other shops.

“Not only has our business declined in the past few years in the States, but fewer Americans have come over to London, either as businessmen or tourists,” Cundey said. “They’ve cut back on their traveling, which has affected us.”

Even if the U.S. economy rebounds and CEOs return to Savile Row, the famous tailoring district has longer-term problems.

“We really are too expensive, except for the very rich families, to bring their sons into Savile Row,” Holland said.

“It’s an increasingly marginalized market. It hasn’t been growing for the last 70 years, and I see no reason why it should take off again.”

Nor are the very rich clients immune. They “feel the recession as much as anyone else,” Holland said. “Their net worth is decreased by figures the mind boggles at.”

Weatherill’s best customers normally would order 50,000 pounds ($72,000) worth of clothing a year, he said, but “they’ve been very quiet over the last 18 months.”

Hence the wooing of women.

Mark Powell, the new kid on the block, also is setting sights on women. But other houses either lack tailors and cutters familiar with women’s bumps and hollows or are not quite ready, psychologically, to take the plunge.

“I have to admit that we’re not going out of our way to make ladies’ clothes,” said Cundey of Henry Poole, whose forebears made riding breeches for Queen Victoria.

For one thing, there is the woman’s prerogative to change her mind.

“I’ve got to be careful what I say,” Cundey said. “They’re more difficult because they change their mind halfway through the fitting. You’ll suddenly find you have to make the jacket three inches longer than you’d originally agreed.”

Lady Weatherill plans to charge roughly the same price for a bespoke woman’s suit as for a man’s, even though it involves more work. A jacket and skirt cost 1,100 pounds ($1,600), including tax. A man’s two-piece suit on Savile Row is in the range of 1,200 pounds ($1,700).

Holland said he expects to make about 100 bespoke suits for women a year, mostly for those over 35.

The term bespoke, by the way, comes from bespeaking your requirements to the tailor.