23/07/03
By Elizabeth Judge
Denied the chance of allowing his passengers to fly in style on Concorde yesterday, Sir Richard Branson has turned to the world of tailoring to pamper his well-heeled executive passengers.
Executives visiting a Virgin business class lounge within an airport will be able to order a bespoke suit with their pre-flight gin and tonic as a result of a tie-up between the airline and Dress2kill, the travelling tailor company. Passengers will be able to choose the cloth and style of suit and be fitted in 20 minutes by a female tailor while they wait to hop on their flight. The suit will then be delivered to them wherever they are in the world. The new service was introduced as British Airways rejected Sir Richard’s attempt to buy five Concordes from his bigger rival for £5 million.
“Concorde is not for sale. Our position is absolutely unchanged on that,” a spokeswoman for British Airways said yesterday. However, Virgin’s new tailoring service will start at Heathrow this week and will be extended to Virgin lounges at airports across the country. The tie-up is further evidence of the growing dominance of travelling tailors over the Savile Row suit-makers traditionally favoured by City workers. Dress2kill, which was founded three years ago by James Hibbert, a former recruitment consultant, is one of a growing number of firms which bring made-to-measure clothes directly to the desks of office workers.
The Dress2kill tailors are young and travel about on specially designed mopeds. Mr. Hibbert said that he clinched the deal after writing to Sir Richard for advice about how to increase his business.