Lord of the Isles tartan suit worn by the Duke of Windsor

The Duke of Windsor (1894-1972) took a special interest and considerable care in the way he dressed. This suit shows the Duke's taste for richly coloured and textured fabrics. It is one of two tartan suits in the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection that belonged to the Duke - the other is in a red Rothsay Tartan (3503847).

The Duke often wore tartan while at the Mill, the Windsor's weekend residence in France, and his autobiography makes particular reference to this suit.

Each of the elements of the suit are made by a different tailor, illustrating the lengths that the Duke went to, to find the right clothing. His favoured London tailor, Frederick Scholte, made his jackets, his waistcoats were made by Hawes & Curtis and after World War II he had his trousers tailor-made by H. Harris Clothing Company in New York. In his autobiography ‘A Family Album’ the Duke writes

'I never had a pair of trousers made by Scholte. I disliked the cut of them; they were made, as English trousers usually are, to be worn with braces high above the waist. So preferring as I did to wear a belt rather than braces with trousers, in the American style, I invariably had them made by another tailor.' (A Family Album, The Duke of Windsor, 1960: 103).

His wife, Wallis Simpson, called the Duke's trans-Atlantic suit trousers his 'pants across the sea'.