THE LANTERN

– 8
THE LANTERN – EDITION 3 SUMMER 2015
WORSTED, WOOL AND WHY
TRADITIONS MATTER
RODDY GALE TALKS TO THE LANTERN ABOUT CHANGING TRENDS
AND THE SARTORIAL STYLE OF THE MODERN MAN
According to Roddy Gale, founder and
Managing Director of men’s outfitter
Roderick Charles, he wasn’t ever really
meant to work in menswear.
“When I left school my father wanted
me to join him in the family business: a
chain of furniture shops in the North East of
England. Instead, I joined the management
training course at Allders department
store.”
And what home furnishings lost, tailoring
gained. Today the Roderick Charles brand
has a thriving online presence and seven
stores throughout London, including
the newly refurbished Chancery Lane
branch. It’s safe to say that the family
entrepreneurial spirit has been realised,
albeit in two-piece suits rather than threepiece
suites.
After leaving Allders at the age of
18, Roddy joined Swaine Adeney Brigg,
London’s celebrated maker of leather
goods and other luxury items. He
remembers the company’s Piccadilly
store: “It was a winning combination of
environment, with its traditional fixtures
and fittings, together with an ‘old style’
quality retail experience.”
It was this combination, he says, that
was the inspiration for his ethos at Roderick
Charles. “In simple terms? Tradition, a
great product and excellent service.”
Moving from the luxury goods market
into menswear, Roddy worked in the City
branch of Hackett, the luxury clothing and
accessories company for a number of
years. “There was a lot of travel. I worked
in San Francisco, Italy – all over the place.
I visited customers on ‘the shop floor,’
that is, in their offices, measuring and
fitting everyone from traders to corporate
financiers.”
While gaining extensive training in
measuring and fitting, Roddy identified
a gap in the market for affordable classic
suits. He opened the first Roderick Charles
store in 1992 and his second, on Chancery
Lane, just five years later. “We were retailing