Redux: Savile Row Meets Mount Everest

Ok…perhaps the title of this post is a bit of a stretch but not by too much. There is some history to correlate the British affinity for exploration and Savile Row. The Royal Geographic Society occupied No. 1 Savile Row before the building was purchased by Hawkes&Co. Today, Gieves and Hawkes still occupies No. 1. In 1866 while searching for the source of the Nile, explorer Dr. David Livingstone is rescued by journalist H.M.Stanley. Stanley is dressed by Henry Poole & Co and Dr. Livingstone by Gieves.

The legendary mountaineer...George Mallory

Most of us who engage in any kind of outdoor activity wouldn’t trade our North Face, Gore-Tex and Patagonia wares for the foppish predispositions of late 19th/early 20th century British explorers. However, you gotta give it to the Brits. It’s one thing to have worn a tie while playing golf in the late 1800’s but these guys even dressed for Everest!

The story of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine is a tragic but absolutely intriguing one. I’ve read three books on Mallory and his Everest attempts and loved every word of them. It’s a deep dive into exploration, risk taking and that Victorian-Edwardian British appetite for adventure. Unfortunately, Mallory never made it off of Everest and his body lay frozen there untilConrad Anker found him in 1999.

George Mallory and Sandy Irvine en route to India

Tweed Jacket and Plus-Fours meet the oxygen rig.

Mallory replete in a Norfolk Jacket
Every imaginable Country Suit treatment made it's way to Everest
Mallory died on Everest in 1924 at age 37. He was considered at the time of his death to be one of the world’s expert mountaineers. A Cambridge rower, he was friends with poet Robert Graves, serving in Graves’ wedding as Best Man. Style and aplomb were not lost on these explorers, even if some of them did not make it back from Everest.
Relaxing in Campaign or "Knock Down Furniture" including the infamous Roorkhee Chair
Conrad Anker finds Mallory's frozen body in 1999 and here above, is the sartorially-sequential-layered evidence of Mallory's attempt to foil the cold.

The proverbial unanswered question among Everest experts is whether or not Mallory and Irvine had made the summit and were on the way down when they fell. Most experts are inclined to believe that they never made it to the top.

Parts of Mallory's kit...Meat Lozenges...oy.