Straight Laced

Prince Charles is possibly one of Savile Rows best and worst clients all rolled into one. he has been voted both, however not in the same year.

You have to admire a man who employs 133 staff to look after him. He has three personal valets—gentleman’s gentlemen—whose sole responsibility is the care of their royal master’s extensive wardrobe and choosing what he is to wear on any particular day.

It makes that Downton Abbey crew look like veritable paupers by comparison.

A serving soldier polishes the prince’s boots and shoes every day—he has 50 handmade pairs by John Lobb of St James’s—and a housemaid washes his underwear as soon as it is discarded.

Nothing Charles wears is ever allowed near a washing machine. Particular attention is paid to handkerchiefs, which are monogrammed and again all hand-washed, as it was found that when they were sent to a laundry, some would go missing—as souvenirs.

HRH’s suits, of which he has 60 at any given time and his shirts are all handmade (he has more than 200), while his collar stiffeners are solid gold or silver.

Charles’s valets also iron the laces of his shoes whenever they are taken off.