Budd Shirtmakers

Budd has traded as a gentlemen's haberdashery and shirtmaker since 1910. That year Harold Budd opened at 4 Piccadilly Arcade, the first shop in an arcade completed the previous year. He took a ground-floor position to catch gentlemen passing between the clubs of Pall Mall and the establishments of Piccadilly. He built the shop's reputation on bespoke shirts cut and sewn by hand. Harold Budd laid down much of what still defines the house. The Budd collar and the Budd stripe are his, as are the Budd bow and a lasting fondness for Madder silks. By 1919 George Gershwin was naming Budd in a lyric for the Broadway musical La La Lucille. After the bombing of 1941, Budd was the first tenant to move back into the Arcade. The shop and cutting room now stand together at 3 Piccadilly Arcade. Bespoke and made to measure shirts are cut there for clients in London and at trunk shows in the United States. The tiny shop holds ready to wear shirts and nightwear as well as dresswear and a wall of ties. The staff are largely trained from within, and the house says there is little turnover among them.