Since its earliest days in St James’s, Turnbull & Asser has moved quietly within the traditions of British dress and the world that shaped them. Founded in 1885 by John Arthur Turnbull, a hosier, and later joined by salesman Ernest Asser, the shirtmaker began at a time when London’s West End stood at the centre of public life and ceremony.

By 1903 the house established its home on Jermyn Street, where it remains today, among streets long associated with the craft of the English shirt. From the beginning, the house worked within a circle defined by refinement, discretion and a particular understanding of how a gentleman should be dressed.

Within this world of discreet standards and established custom, Turnbull & Asser became part of a tradition of British style that continues to shape expectations of elegance today.

THE FIRST ROYAL WARRANT

Formal royal recognition followed in 1919, when Queen Alexandra granted Turnbull & Asser its first Royal Warrant as glovemaker. It marked the beginning of an official relationship with the Royal Household, though the connection itself reached further back into the early character of the business.

Through the decades that followed, the house remained guided by the same standards that have long defined dress at court. Craft remained central. Continuity mattered.

A RELATIONSHIP ACROSS GENERATIONS

In 1974, a young Prince Charles came to Turnbull & Asser for his first shirts. Six years later, in 1980, he granted the house a Royal Warrant, marking the beginning of a relationship that would continue across generations.

In 2013, the then Prince of Wales visited the Turnbull & Asser workrooms in Gloucester, meeting the makers and spending time with those behind the craft itself. He returned once more in 2020 to thank the team for their support of the NHS, after the workrooms had temporarily turned to producing scrubs for frontline staff during the pandemic.

That relationship has continued from Prince of Wales to King.

FROM PRINCE TO KING

Following his accession in 2023, His Majesty King Charles III renewed his confidence in Turnbull & Asser through the grant of a Royal Warrant. In the same year, the house also had the honour of creating the Coronation shirt for His Majesty, made to his own specifications for a moment of national significance and standing as a continuation of a relationship shaped over many decades.

A COMMITMENT THAT ENDURES

Across reigns, generations and changing times, those principles have remained constant. Care in making. Respect for tradition. And a lasting commitment to the standards of British dress that have guided the house from its earliest days in St James’s through the generations that followed, carried forward by the same dedication to craftsmanship and the same belief in the enduring value of things well made.

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