A four-year legal battle over the rights to the brand created by Tommy Nutter, the “rebel” Savile Row tailor who dressed the Beatles, Mick Jagger and Elton John, has been settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.
Crombie, the 209-year-old company that clothed Cary Grant and John F Kennedy, will pay a six-figure sum to designer David Mason to use both the Tommy Nutter and the Nutters of Savile Row brands.
Tommy Nutter took the fusty world of Savile Row into the pop era when he opened his first shop in 1969, creating a mannish suit for Bianca Jagger, putting Twiggy in a red velvet jacket and dressing three of the Beatles on the Abbey Road cover – only George Harrison preferred jeans. Aristocrats and pop stars flocked to Nutters on Savile Row in search of big lapels, nipped in waists and bold checks that would define the 1970s.
The Tommy Nutter brand passed to Crombie following Nutter’s death in 1992 at the age of 49. But, a legal battle erupted in 2010 when Crombie, which is owned by Conservative party vice chairman Alan Lewis, wanted to sell the brand to China’s Fung family, which has been buying up the classic names of British bespoke tailoring. In 2013, the High Court ruled that Crombie’s “minimal” use of the brand amounted to “non-use” and awarded the rights to Nutters of Savile Row owner Mason.
A hearing at the court of appeal set for Tuesday was averted at the 11th hour when the parties announced they had agreed that Crombie would have full ownership of both brands, in a deal that trademark experts believe to be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. Mason will concentrate on his other brands, including Anthony Sinclair, Sean Connery’s tailor during his stint as 007.
- This piece was edited on 4 December 2014 to correct some errors regarding the chain of ownership of the Tommy Nutter brand.
