David Bowie’s tailor: a Hong Kong icon fit for a prince, presidents and the Thin White Duke
Meet the Tsim Sha Tsui tailor who stocked David Bowie’s wardrobe for 32 years
When David Bowie walked into the Tsim Sha Tsui shop of Sam’s Tailors, current owner Manu Melwani had no idea who this thin young man with a shock of blonde hair was, but his other customers did.
“We thought he was something,” Melwani said.
“Later on he was putting some suits on order, and people were looking.” he said, “I said ‘who’s this person?’ They say ‘he’s David Bowie, he’s a well known singer’.
The singer, at the early peak of his career and about to play his most lucrative performance by 1983 at the Hong Kong coliseum, chose silk suits in purple, pink, white and black for his performance.
“Young, nice tapered suits with short jacket, and slim trousers,” Melwani, who as a 27-year-old tailor working with his father was measuring up the megastar, said. “He wore it, because we had to make it in 24 hours for it to be on the stage.”
READ MORE: The many transformations of David Bowie
Manu said he was invited to the show.
It was the start of a long relationship; Bowie visited the small shop in the Burlington Arcade, TST again in 2004 — “he needed some good shirts ... white shirts, and black,” he said.
At other times Melwani would fly to New York to measure up Bowie for new shirts and suits during the tailor’s annual roadshows, they even spoke about a clothing line, he said.
“He was always exactly the same [measurements],” he said. “He knew what he wanted for materials and he use to tell me ‘look, bring these samples’ and I took them. I was in his place [office] for no more than 15 to 18 minutes.”
“He knew what he wanted, and what he wanted to replace.”
FREE DOWNLOAD: David Bowie’s fashion changes (PDF)
Upon hearing of the death of his client of 32 years in the news on Monday, Melwani said he was shocked.
“He never talked about his sickness, or anything to anybody,” he said, adding he hadn’t seen the musician for about two-and-a-half years.
Bowie’s death came after an 18-month battle with cancer. He was 69.
Sam’s Tailors: a legacy
That tradition is carried on through Manu who says he spends his time in the shop to make sure quality continues. “Anybody comes to me to make clothes for them, I do it for them. They’re spending the money in my shop, I treat everybody well.”
The people who visit Sam’s
Nelson Mandela
Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters
George W. Bush
George H.W. Bush
Bill Clinton
Ronald Reagan
Former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke
Elton John
John McEnroe
Pierce Brosnan
Margaret Thatcher
Angela Merkel
The Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson
Prince Charles
Colin Powell
Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld
And there were, obviously, plenty more.
