Rich Brits are super assholes when it comes to paying for their clothes. Amongst the old guard aristocracy, they felt it was an affront to be asked to pay for their clothing, Churchill included.
Britain’s World War Two leader had racked up a bill of 197 pounds by 1937 – around 12,000 pounds ($18,000) at today’s prices – with Savile Row tailor Henry Poole and Co before he was finally asked to pay up.
He took offense, refused to settle the bill and never darkened Poole’s door again.
“Churchill said it was for morale, it was good for us [Henry Poole] to dress him and he wasn’t aware we were short of cash. He never did pay, and never came back – he never forgave us,” Sherwood added on Poole’s website.
Other assholes who didn’t feel like paying their tailor, included: Charles Dicken’s asshole son, King Edward VII, Bram Stoker, Prince Otto Von Bismark and of course America’s own JP Morgan, the original rusticate.
When company founder Henry Poole died, his high-profile clients owed him a huge amount and the firm was in a bad financial situation, the archives show.
The last surviving letter from Poole, written in 1875, said: “there will be nothing much to leave behind me. I have worked for a prince and for the public and must die a poor man.”
The next time I head on over to Brooks Brothers for a shirt, or pair of pants, I will simply walk out with the garments, scowling at the cashier and salesman the whole time for even thinking about me paying them for the pleasure.
Fuckery.
Old school iBC vid
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It’s amazing when you think about it. In certain professions, people make tons of money by doing very little. And in others, people work their butts off and don’t get paid, like the unfortunate Henry Poole.
This problem is worse in societies with rigid social classes like England– and like the U.S. is becoming, if we don’t turn things around soon.
“…and he wasn’t aware we were short of cash” lol! If I were a scammer, I would master that line. The shame boomerang.
That’s a curious item, posted in the night. I went to a Jos. A. Bank store in the upscale suburbs to get a suit. I was jerked around by a smirking, snarky, bitter old biddy of a sales man, who eventually lied to me about availability and was happy to see me leave without buying anything, opposed to me buying what he wanted to sell me.
A few days later I went to a Men’s Warehouse location in D.C. A no-nonsense African American salesman immediately understood what I wanted, had the basic suit I needed in the store and got the process efficiently under way with absolutely no B.S. The suit was ready as promised and worked fine for its purpose.
Later I went to a Jos. A Bank location in Chevy Chase. They had the suit in stock that the sales man at the other Jos. A Bank location said was not available “in the entire Northeast USA”. I bought the suit. When I came back to pick it up after tailoring, they could not find it, and gave me a refund. The Chevy Chase location had poor air conditioning and was stuffy, quite tacky for what should be a premier location.
Don’t try that at Barneys.
hmm… I could have left the personal characterizations off that. But here’s the thing… in sales personal impressions are important. The guy in the suburban store got it wrong and the guy in the D.C. store got it right. And my dollars followed…
i used to cavort is tailored Armani, Boss and Bill Blass tuxedos. Threw them all away. Calvin Klein t’s and nike shorts work fine now. and 46 pair of kicks. lol.
*in. btw it is national market trickery day again…
Believe it or not, this still goes on. I know of someone who frequents high end restaurants and leaves without paying, yes the olde “dine and dash”. His argument: “Its good for business that people see me dining in their establishment.” Fuckery at its grandest!
There was a famous restaurateur that used to do this where I grew up. She would run up big bills all over town and never pay them. I knew someone who shared a high-end hair stylist with her. The hair stylist never got paid and she fired her free loading client for it. It the olde celebrity sense of greatness and entitlement. I very human trait.