It took a certain type of entrepreneur to step in when a shop as unique and special as Cordings was in need of support. Someone with a passion for clothing, an eye for detail and an understanding of the importance of preserving British heritage.

Step forward Eric Clapton.

Aware of the country clothing store in Piccadilly from his teenage years, when nights out in London to watch bands often resulted in a few hours window shopping in the West End, waiting for the first train back to the Surrey countryside. It was in fact years later that Clapton first ventured into Cordings when a Firley tweed jacket caught his eye in the window. The jacket was a perfect fit, and Clapton quickly became a regular customer in Piccadilly.

“I became aware of Cordings; I think when I was in my mid teens. I come from the country, and the highlight of our week would be to come up to London and listen to guitar players and musicians, and it was difficult to get home. I’d spend that time till dawn just walking the West End and I remember Cordings. It stuck in my mind as a place of tradition, part of the heritage of England.
I went off on my life, travelling around the world playing guitar but every now and then I would look in the window at Cordings. One day, I saw this suit. It was a sort of a moss green herringbone tweed suit, three piece, and I thought, God, that’s beautiful, it was just the most exquisitely cut jacket.
I had to pluck up courage to come in! I don’t know what that’s about, but, perhaps its something to do with the fact that I’ve always considered myself a working class country boy and this, in a way was like entering a gentlemen’s club. I felt that I really wasn’t entitled to come in here. So in I came very shyly, and tried it on and it was immaculate, it was storm-proof, and solid. I mean it was like wearing a green wooden suit!
From then on I visited Cordings every week……My favourite tweed jacket is the House Check action back. I just feel like I’ve come to a kind of home in terms of what clothing I need to be in the country.”

When Noll Uloth, now MD of Cordings, was looking for someone to invest in the company he felt that Clapton was an obvious choice. He explains “Cordings was struggling, the previous owners had tried to make the brand fashionable and it had lost its identity. I was searching for someone who had the same love of Cordings and understood that it was a unique part of London’s heritage. I didn’t want it to get swallowed up by a big company, and lose its individuality”

Uloth asked Clapton if he could have fifteen minutes of his time to pitch his proposal on a management buyout. The answer was yes.

Three minutes into the carefully prepared presentation, Clapton interrupted to say that he would happily support the buyout, such was his enthusiasm for Cordings. Famously Clapton never heard the rest, he once said he selfishly only preserved it so he could continue shopping there. But his involvement with Cordings has been ongoing and his enthusiasm for it is tangible. He visits the store whenever he is able and moonlights as Design Director.