Originally Posted by
meleagertoo
Gieves and Moseley and Pounceford were the offical tailors at Dartmouth early '80s, plus one other I can't recall but their kit was truly shabby compared to the excellent quality of the other two. The attraction was that it was considerably cheaper and left you with an appreciable amount of change from the £500 allowance of No5s and mess kit. Cheaper, but still not cheap, Thieves and Moseley's gear was lovely stuff but extortionately overpriced, a decent tailored suit could be had on the high street for not much over a hundred pounds, so 250 for their suits was way OTT. In addition there was the temptation to but a Gieves cap, vastly superior to the plastic-covered Pusser's issue. I also splurged the unthinkable amount of £50 on a beautiful pair of Gieves mess boots that I no longer have, replacing those today costs well over £500.
I think those tailors did very well indeed out of the uniform grant so generously provided by Pusser. Too well in fact.
I suspect that the "one other" besides Gives and Moseley and Pounsford was almost certainly C H Bernard of Harwich, which folded in 2007. If you were keen on an appointment to the Yacht, it was preferable to have been a customer of Gieves or M&P. I have an account at Gieves and got some money back by having a healthy discount as a shareholder until I was bought out.
Not advertising of course, but present day branches are reduced to Savile Row, Bath, Chester Liverpool, Birmingham and Winchester.
Jack