Harry (Sonny) Bilgorri

Bibliography for "Obituary: Harry Bilgorri"

Brian Bilgorri

HARRY BILGORRI was the owner of one of the East End of London's most successful bespoke tailoring establishments, and played a part in the fashion revolution of the 1960s.

His original shop was established after the Second World War in Petticoat Lane, on the corner of Middlesex Street (and immortalised in the 1955 film A Kid for Two Farthings). He moved premises in the late 1950s to the City, opening up at 189-191 Bishopsgate. During these decades Bilgorri became a meeting place for the famous, the infamous and the man about town. Many a Sixties icon got his first bespoke suit from Bilgorri's shop, for owning a "Bilgorri" suit was a way of showing that a young man was on his way up in the world.

Sonny Bilgorri, as he was known in the trade, specialised in making suits exactly the way that his customers wanted. The interior designer Nicky Haslam brought the designs for his first white suit and his first velvet suit to Bilgorri. They were probably the first of their kind ever seen in London. When the photographers David Bailey and Brian Duffy saw Haslam's suits they too decided to become Bilgorri customers.

A young "face" called Mark Feld (later Marc Bolan) was overheard in a Soho coffee bar talking about his Bilgorri suit to his fellow faces Peter Sugar and Mickey Simmonds by the journalist Peter Barnsley. Barnsley then hailed the Bilgorri suit as part of the "New Mod" fashion in an article in Town magazine in September 1962, with photographs taken by Donald McCullen. Soon afterwards the journalist Drusilla Beyfus went to interview Bilgorri for an article about the new changes in men's fashion for the Sunday Times colour supplement.

And so a Bilgorri suit became a fashion item before the days of Versace and Armani. It was worn by all types of people including the jazz musician Johnny Dankworth and the hairdresser Vidal Sassoon. Other customers included the comedian Billy Dainty, who asked Bilgorri to make him a special suit that was designed so that, during his stage act, it could be pulled to pieces. The football manager Alec Stock brought the entire Leyton Orient team to Bilgorri to be fitted for blazers. The restaurateur Michael Chow wanted a suit with the tightest-fitting trousers in London, and the ballroom dancers Wally Laird and Len Patrick won world championship titles wearing Bilgorri suits.

The cartoonist Roger Law (later of Spitting Image fame) not only had Bilgorri make his clothes, but also asked him to make a suit for a Frank Sinatra waxwork that he was designing for Madame Tussauds. In 1967 the Time Life photographer Paul Schutzer bought his sports jacket from Bilgorri a few days before flying to Israel to become one of the first journalistic casualties of the Six-Day War.

The son of a tailor, Harry Bilgorri was born in 1917 in the East End and grew up nearby in Stoke Newington. He left school at 15 and worked with his father before joining the Royal Army Service Corps at the outbreak of the Second World War. He maintained his boyhood passions of boxing and football, and boxed for the British army all over the Middle East.

Returning to London after the war, he set up his tailor's shop in Petticoat Lane. With his faithful cutter, Jack Schrapel, Bilgorri established a reputation for quality and service. No matter who you were, if you were a Bilgorri customer, to Sonny you were someone who deserved the best at all times. No article of clothing was allowed out of the shop until he was satisfied that all the stripes lined up correctly and all the checks matched.

But times changed and fashions changed. By the early 1970s Bilgorri realised that a well-bespoke suit was no longer a necessary "rite of passage" of a young man's career. With less skilled staff entering the business, the standards of tailored suits were dropping fast. When he felt that he could no longer supply a suit to the standard that his customers deserved he decided to leave the business gracefully and retired.

In the mid 1970s, via contacts gained through his son, Brian, who was working in film and television production, Bilgorri joined Central Casting. Together with his wife Renee, he spent many happy years working as an extra on films such as The Lady Vanishes (1979), Chariots of Fire (1981) and The Russia House (1990). Sonny and Renee became a well-respected couple within the industry. Because of his background in running a successful business, Bilgorri had great admiration for the working habits of Michael Winner, in whose films The Wicked Lady (1983) and Death Wish 3 (1985) he appeared.

As he grew older Harry Bilgorri was less able to endure the early starts of film-making, and after a day spent in freezing conditions on the television drama Soldier, Soldier he decided to retire completely.

Harry Bilgorri, tailor and businessman: born London 28 June 1917; married 1944 Renee Bailinson (died 1984; one son, one daughter); died Kenton, Middlesex 11 June 2001.

Copyright 2001 Independent Newspapers UK Limited

Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.