Industry Retail Products Menswear Headquarters London | Founder Edward Tautz Website etautz.com | |
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Key people Patrick Grant (Creative Director) Profiles | ||
E. Tautz is a mens' clothing brand founded on Oxford Street, London in 1867 as Edward Tautz & Sons. It specialised in sportswear and trousers. The brand was acquired in 2005 by Patrick Grant and focuses on sportswear and casualwear, manufacturing many of its products in the United Kingdom.
History
Edward Tautz founded E. Tautz in 1867 in London's prosperous West End. The store was located at 249 Oxford Street in London, renumbered at the end of the 19th century 485 Oxford Street.
Tautz had been head cutter at the sporting Tailors Hammond & Co before leaving to establish his own firm.
In 1875 the firm changed its name to E. Tautz & Sons as Edward brought his son Frederick George Tautz into the business.
Specialized in "the hunting-field and military men", Edward Tautz was particularly known as a specialist of breeches. · He fought to protect his business from counterfeiters. In 1886 he proved, in court, his invention of an original model of knickerbocker breeches.
Between 1895 and 1897, Winston Churchill bought for £144 of clothes from the company, which was then identified as "breeches and trousers makers, military tailors". In 1898, the Oxford Street store of Tautz, then a "wholesale tailor", was "hopelessly" destroyed by a fire. The company announced two days later "their premises were completely destroyed".
Anthony J Drexel Biddle was a customer of Tautz.
In 1968, the label was acquired by the Savile Row firm of Norton & Sons.
In 2005, Patrick Grant acquired Norton & Sons, with a background in telecommunications and "no fashion or tailoring experience". The "long-forgotten" brand E. Tautz was relaunched by Norton & Sons as a ready-to-wear collection in 2009, with the collaboration of British designers Kim Jones, Giles Deacon, Richard Nicoll and Christopher Kane.
Patrick Grant says his focus is on "simple pieces, made by hand, manufactured in the U.K. I don't come from a fashion background," and it is essentially about clothes he wants to wear. The company claims to mix "Savile Row cutting... with the sporting and military traditions". It also sells shirts, trousers, outerwear and accessories such as hats and scarves.