Tom Gilbey (designer)

He died from cancer on 24 May 2017, at the age of 79.

Gilbey's second marriage was to literary agent Sally Riley in Kensington and Chelsea in 2005. The couple lived in London and had a second home on the Isle of Wight.

Reminiscing to Joshua Sims in Rock Fashion in 1999, Gilbey recalls a number of anecdotes from his long career: ‘It wasn’t until Bill Haley came to Britain that Teddy Boys became the archetypal ruffian. Before that it had been about posing, but the music gave people a reason to dress up other than to parade around looking in shop windows at yourself.’ Regarding The Beatles ‘I think it’s fair to say that they did steal that collarless look from Pierre Cardin. But their look did evolve from that. I was involved in making other funny collars for them at the time, and made the Capes for ‘Help’’ ‘The Mod look was very functional in a way. The bum-freezer jacket with its double vents facilitated sitting on a scooter. It was derived from the British hunting jacket, of course’ ‘I was asked to design a look for The Kinks and decided that a Regency look would go with their haircuts, so I made those high collared jackets and put them with frilly-fronted shirts. I’m still owed £1,500 for doing that’

In 1995 one of his bridegroom's outfits was chosen, along with a Catherine Rayner wedding gown, to represent the Dress of the Year for 1995 in the Fashion Museum, Bath. He is particularly known for designing waistcoats.

There were further positive reviews from Gilbey's 1970 show. In July, the Evening Standard reported: Softly, Slouchy-that's the message. Tom Gilbey, one of London's most successful and consistently interesting menswear designers, says that men's clothes should be languid, moody and slouchy...presented in his couture collection-a white jump suit that looks as though your vest has grown trousers...comfortable wear for a long hot summer-and slouchy enough.

In the early 1970s, the snooker player Alex Higgins wore a Gilbey outfit whilst playing a match in a packed hall in Bombay. In high temperatures without air conditioning, Higgins found it unsuitable, and "sweated off another eight ounces in weight" with every ball he hit.

A 1969 suit in the Museum of London comes from Gilbey's shop in Sackville Street, where it required four fittings. It was made to be worn on a Queen Elizabeth II sailing from New York to Southampton on 8 October 1969, for dinner at the captain's table – "The wearer later regretted his choice, which looked totally out of place at a formal occasion where dinner jackets were the norm."

Described as an iconoclast in the book, The Savile Row Story by Richard Walker, Gilbey describes the world into which he entered in 1968; 'It was a gentleman's world, a gentleman's club'. Based in Sackville Street at an address that was once the headquarters of the Masini Brothers, who controlled the seedier West End clubs in the 1920s, Tom explains the link between the number of fittings required for a suit and the underworld: ‘..and in the back, or round the corner, would be something else – in lots of cases that's where the dozens of fittings came from’. Expanding on this link between tailoring and the underworld, Tom continues: ‘those Chicago gangsters like Al Capone in the tailor’s shop, with all the action out at the back’

In the Tom Gilbey First Couture Programme notes of May 1968, Gilbey expands on his philosophy in 'The Tom Gilbey Concept': ' One-case-manship is an instant guide to how we have to dress. Clothes must be light and interchangeable but correctly co-ordinated so that a man's basic clothes have a many purpose life; they must take him, often without the need to change, from hard work to hard play.’

A 1968 suit of his is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, which writes of it, "Worn with a silk rollneck shirt , this suit exemplifies the informal dress codes of the later 1960s. The revolutionary idea of replacing the shirt and tie reached even to Savile Row establishments. Gilbey uses a traditional tweed for a futuristic design, incorporating zipped front and pocket fastenings.".

Putting down an early marker as to his design philosophy in the 1967 book by Rodney Bennett-England, entitled Dress Optional; the revolution in menswear, Gilbey says "More people than ever are working, and harder too. They want clothes they can put on and forget about, but clothes that nevertheless look right and help them do the job. Such clothes must have ease of movement, easy-care properties, accent on design simplicity."

The Fashion Book, an informative and definitive compendium of international designers, summarised Gilbey's career thus: ‘With his trademark simplicity and almost militaristic neatness, Gilbey was an important force in menswear in the 1960s…Gilbey is one of fashions visionaries’.

Tom Gilbey (19 May 1938 – 24 May 2017) was a British fashion designer associated with Savile Row tailoring of the 1960s. His designs have featured in the Fashion Museum, Bath, and are in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Museum of London.