Sartor House Apparel, Manchester, England????

Has anyone ever seen this label, or know anything about it? Pardon the poor picture, but I took it with my cell phone at the thrift shop! This is on a wonderful men's overcoat, which appears to be from the 60s or older; it has pistol pockets on both sides! I adore men's coats, but have a lot of them and dithered about picking this one up.... The coat appears to be of nice quality.

The label has writing along the top, but for the life of me I can't recall what it said.... The bottom of it says, "Sartor House, Manchester, England."

Any enlightenment would be so appreciated!

 

Thanks for the info; when I googled it I didn't come up with that museum reference! I thought that "sartor" meant something like tailor or clothier, or similar. I'm wondering, then, if this may not have been a custom shop. I'll definitely go back for the coat (hopefully it's still there).

 

I found this same 1957 ad--and very slight variations on it--through 1982.

 

Oh, my, Lynne--I think that's the coat! It is wool gabardine, but in a raincoat... That actually is what caught my eye to begin with--as it is not a poplin or broadcloth like most raincoats.

I've gotta have that coat... If it's still there tomorrow morning, I'll grab it. Those older men's coats don't sell well at the local thrifts.... This one has the older-type lining in it (the kind you know is old when you feel it), so I'd guess it's closer to the 1957 version than the 1982 one.

 

Hi, I know it is a long time ago but I just found this re Sartor.
I live in the Manchester area and my late father was a director of Sartor until he retired in 1978.
They were based on Derby St, in the Cheetham hill area of Manchester, which was a predominantly Jewish area. They were set up by Bernard Cohen in the late 1800's I believe, when he died the company was passed to his son Ronnie Conway post WW2.
They made sports jackets, raincoats and had a bespoke tailoring showroom in the factory for suits etc.
If remember correctly they closed down in the80's, they were mainly mail order but all their garments were from the best quality Yorkshire cloth with a really professional tailoring skill.
Where abouts in the US did you find this? as I have family connections with the US.
If I can be of any further help let me know.
Great post!!

 

Great post Ian and Anne - WHERE is there a thrift shop that is open ??????? I am so jealous.

Oops - just realized - an old post with a new response.

 

Hi all, I found this site while searching for "Sartor".

Just this morning, I was looking at a jacket that belonged to my late father. It's a lovely jacket, well made and in great condition.

I've attached a few images which add a bit more information to the great post by Ian above. Note the different location of the company and the label with "Conway" possibly the style of jacket ? I've no idea of the age of the jacket but we did live in Yorkshire many years ago and my father was one for hanging onto his favorite clothes !

Thanks, Simon

 

Hi Simon,
That rang some bells, I now remember In the 80's the company was bought out and relocated to Bingley, they kept the name but non of the original staff were retained. The jacket you had the photo was the M55 jacket which was slightly longer than the most popular jacket they made, the M45, It had raglan sleeves so it could be used to play golf in , I would guess that the Conway is a nod to Ronnie who I think died just before the company was sold.

 

I recall the label from my childhood. My mum was a highly skilled seamstress in Manchester and Salford in the 1940’s, 1950’s, and 1960’s. Because she had 4 kids and dad worked, she sewed at home. She liked working for Sartor because they paid - not much, but they did not make their workers wait until they had sold the clothes before they were given less money than they had been promised for the work. Mother also trained other women, mostly Irish Catholics, who lived in Lower Broughton and, later, Partington in Cheshire, to use sewing machines. All her kids, except the youngest were recruited to do the boring bits of sewing bundles of (mainly raincoat) parts delivered to the house 14 at a time. That had been, and was still then called a dozen, even though there were normally 14 coats in a package. I can still recall sewing the back seam of seven gabardine raincoats on Saturday morning. Must have been about 10, judging by the relative sizes of machine, me and coats in the memory.
I went to Nottingham University when I was 17. While there I met a Jewish girl called Jackie Deyong and, together with my girlfriend, got to her engagement party at her mother’s flat in Kensington. There I met her father, Simon, who introduced himself as the owner of Sartor. He lived in Malta and ran a Buddhist retreat on the Island. He did not know anything about the people who made the Sartor garments, and wanted to believe that they were all Jewish, and that ´Sartor’ meant ´kosher’... It wasn’t Simon who picked the Latin for tailor as the name of the company.
When he wasn’t in Malta, Simon had property around Brighton. Jackie later settled in Old Woking, and I would suppose that, as the company was sold in the 1980´s, probably, either place might be useful for raincoat related history.

 

Hello, I have recently come into possession of a SARTOR coat. It is a stunning piece of tailoring. The fabric feels so good, and the lining is very soft. I have never felt anything like it. The coat I have has a label on the inside stating it is ‘Denbisil’ fabric, which I am assuming must be some proprietary waterproofing.
Obviously 70 years later, it is no longer waterproof however I did handwash it and it dried and pressed beautifully. I live in the UK, I am a vintage clothing seller and love to research the history of my items, especially trench coats as they are so technical.
Another note of interest was that the label had ‘US Distributers, The Sambi, Minneapolis’.
I’m assuming the coat was made in Manchester, England. Then distributed to the US. Then made its way back to the UK. I live in the South of England but I am from a town near Manchester, so this of course is of interest to me.
Some pics attached
Fiona ~ MissusWVintage

 

I've recently acquired a cycling jacket made by Sartor. The company used to advertise in the Cyclist's Touring Club (CTC) magazine back in the 1950's. The jacket is their top of the range 'Alpine' in very good quality lovat coloured gaberdine cloth, costing £4.9.0 in 1954, as in the advert from the CTC Gazette below. If you were a CTC member you could give Sartor your details and they would send you a jacket, without pre-payment. If you were happy with it you paid by cheque within 3 days, or you could return it....things were different then!
It has 4 pockets, 2 with zips, and a drawstring waist. I will replace the non-original drawstring with a more appropriate cotton one.The standard of construction and finish is high, and the jacket pressed very easily after washing.
The label is the same as the coat in the above post. I don't think garments found in this country with this label were sent to the USA, rather it just indicated that they had a USA distributor.

 

I have a Sartor jacket that I bought from a charity shop in Portsmouth sometime between 1994-5.

I recently paid to have it relined. It's still going strong. Minimal wear on the outer, I regularly wear it - I basically lived in it as a student.

Here are a few photos. There might be some dark patch in the photos. That's water - I'd just been out in the rain.

I'd be interested to know how old it is. I'd always assumed 70s.

 

It looks 60's or 70's to me. They relocated to Bingley in early 80's so its pre that date. It's great that you are keeping it going even to the point of having it re-lined! Keep the Sartor flag flying!