News Business A man of the cloth. David Saxby in his vintage shop in Fulham
Fulham tailor cut down to size You can’t be the director of any company for 10 years, rules High Court judge, after hearing about vintage clothing business, writes Tim Harrison
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Fulham tailor who has run his tape measure up the inside leg of members of the royal family has been banned from running a company for a decade. David Saxby, whose gentleman’s moleskin trousers blazed the trail for Fulham High Street’s vintage clothing enclave, was disqualified in the High Court from acting as a director after an investigation by the Insolvency Service. It means the 64-year-old father of seven, who has enjoyed a surge of interest in old tweedy gear thanks to the Downton Abbey factor, cannot manage any firm until October 2023. Mr Saxby, the sole director of David Saxby Ltd, was disqualified for failing to maintain proper accounting records. But speaking to Your Magazine last week, he said he “could live with” the ruling and it was of “no immediate concern”. “It happens from time to time,” he said, adding that he was considering an appeal. 18 | YourMagazine Winter 2013
Whatever the courts may have ruled, business is continuing as usual in Fulham High Street. At issue is more than £1.7million worth of debit and credit card takings generated between 2009 and 2011 and paid into a friend’s bank account. Investigations found that Mr Saxby failed to ensure that David Saxby Ltd maintained and delivered adequate accounts to its liquidator after the firm became insolvent in September 2011. Registrar Nicholls, for 10 years a bankruptcy specialist at the High Court, made the banning order against David Saxby. His judgement stated that David Saxby Ltd had failed to account for VAT, or Revenue & Customs payments for its entire trading period. Mark Bruce of the Insolvency Service said: “Directors of companies experiencing financial difficulties have a duty to act in the best interests of its creditors including keeping proper records of the company’s trading activities. “Directors like Mr Saxby who disregard such basic duties must expect to have
Directors of companies experiencing financial difficulties have a duty to act in the best interests of its creditors
their ability to be a director removed for a significant period.” Mr Saxby opened his first vintage tailoring shop in Fulham High Street 20 years ago. “It was really something I did as a stopgap measure and then I found myself doing it for real, as a trade,” he told this magazine. “I did have some experience in tailoring and my experience was of another era which I’ve always felt is good. Tradition has lasting value while trends are just that – temporary.” Old Hat, at number 66, came first. Later he added the shop that bears his name, two doors down. There are sister shops in Tokyo and Osaka, and a workshop in an anonymous industrial estate on the outskirts of Ipswich. All the shops trade in traditional menswear such as silk hats, sporting tweed, waistcoats, braces, garters and bowler hats. Starved of regular sources of real vintage clothing, he began making his own, using the styles and templates of yesteryear. David, who has a flat in Burlington Road, just around the corner from his shops, is also a busy family man. The youngest of his sevenstrong brood is a seven-year-old daughter. Invariably kitted out in the kind of clothes he sells, the ex-photo journalist has seen business rise internationally on the back of shows such as Downton Abbey and Jeeves and Wooster, with fans of costume drama drawn to between-the-wars upper class tailored outfits. In the past he has kitted out the Royals in shooting jackets and leatherelbowed tweeds.