Doug Hayward

May 1 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

HIS flat Cockney vowels contrasted sharply with those of his long nosed colleagues on Savile Row, and, at his Mayfair shop, pseudo- aristocratic trappings were consigned to the bin.

"There are no stags’ heads coming through the walls, no pictures of the Queen Mum," pronounced tailor Doug Hayward. "It’s relaxed, nice and easy. And besides, I get a lot of birds in."

At his shop at 95, Mount Street, Mayfair, Hayward, who died on Saturday, aged 73, instilled personality and verve into the serious gentleman’s suit, combining traditional British tailoring with modish Italian flair, and broke the traditional stuffy mould of the profession.

Douglas Frederick Corn- elius Hayward was born in 1934 at Kensington and brought up at Hayes, Middle- sex, son of a boiler cleaner.

After leaving grammar school at 15, and failing to find a job in Savile Row "because I don’t have the right accent" he became apprenticed to a tailor at Shepherd’s Bush.

His first wife, Diana, was the sister of Melissa Stribling, who was married to the film director Basil Dearden, and through this connection he established contacts with many up and coming actors.

The shop he opened in Mayfair was decorated with grey flannel on the walls and Italian marble on the floor. He would receive clients – he would only take on cust- omers who were his friends – seated in a leather wing chair, usually offering them a glass of Champagne. His client list reads like a Who’s Who of swinging A-List London, including Michael Caine, Terence Stamp, Peter Sellers, Tony Bennett and Rex Harrison. James Bond, when played by Roger Moore, wore suits by Doug Hayward, as did Clint Eastwood in many of his films.

Photographer Terry O’Neill once said: "They call Doug ‘the Buddha of Mount Street’. You wouldn’t believe how many people go to him for advice." He’s probably the best-loved man in London." Patrick Lichfield – with whom he ran a dining club, Burke’s, in Mayfair – took him to Mustique because Princess Margaret found him such an amusing companion.

In later years, Hayward was the model for Harry Pendel, the principal character in John Le Carre’s Tailor of Panama. In the book’s acknowledgments Le Carre writes: "Doug Hayward of Mount Street allowed me my first glance of Harry."

Heyward lived in a flat above his shop and spent weekends at a house on Lord Hambleden’s estate, in Oxfordshire, but he remained proud of his Cockney roots, and visited his mother Wini- fred every week, until she died in 1984. He is survived by his former wife, Glenys Roberts, and daughter, Polly.

Doug Hayward, tailor;  born October 5, 1934, died April 26, 2008.