What Daks is known for
London tailoring house whose self-supporting waistband was invented by Alec Simpson in 1934, giving the DAKS name (from 'Dad' and 'slacks'). Sold through the Simpson Piccadilly store, Britain's largest menswear shop when it opened in 1936.
Daks traces to Simeon Simpson's bespoke tailoring business, founded in Whitechapel in 1894. In 1934, his son Alec Simpson took the company into ready-to-wear tailoring and invented the 'self-supporting' waistband - small rubber pads sewn into the waistband that held trousers in place without a belt or braces, aimed originally at golf and sportswear. The company held a worldwide patent on the design for years. The DAKS name itself was coined from 'Dad' and 'slacks.' The brand became the flagship of Simpsons of Piccadilly, which opened in April 1936 as, at the time, the largest menswear store in Britain, and Daks grew under that platform into one of the country's major ready-to-wear tailoring names, later expanding into its recognisable house check.
How ORBIS reads this city
Best for — Trousers, heritage
UK
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Where next
- Chester Barrie — London
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