The launch of “Tuffington Classic Wear” is a play on the family name “Tuffin” and also has resonance in the fact that our initial featured garment is a British made “Harrington” men’s jacket. It also plays into a long held personal desire for some sort of “re-connecting” with the textile trade…
Let me declare my corner. My grandfather, Allan Fred Tuffin was a tailor and textile merchant. In the early 1900s he set up “Ebenezer Maxim & Son (Pty) Ltd in Johannesburg. Some seven or so outlets eventually constituted the outreach of “Maxims.” In those distant years, all men’s clothing was hand-made. One selected a length of cloth, was measured up and in a jiffy your suit, jacket or trousers was stitched together with whatever peculiarities you fancied: pleated trousers, turn ups, button fly, waistcoat, double breasted jacket with single or side vents, etc., etc. A man’s trouser often even featured a “tickie” pocket – that small pocket for coins situated on the waistband. That was a different world – one I love and admire! Businesses were family owned, customer service was personal and paramount – and social relationships were forged over tea on the shop floor. This was a world where clothing distinguished people in so many ways!
This was before my time, but in due course my own father Theo Arnold Tuffin, took control of the sole surviving branch of Maxims in the early 60s. This had now become a regular “off-the-peg” retailer, but with all the familiar trappings of excellence in service and quality. At that time, South Africa boasted a vibrant textile industry with names like “Rex Trueform” and “Man-About-Town” being household suit brands. “Suits” was the name of the game – standard gentlemen’s ware, perhaps with felt hat, cufflinks, overcoat and brolly to complete the picture. Our premises were in a building with a quaint facade in President street, Johannesburg. As a youngster growing up, this is where I cut my teeth, working every Saturday morning from as long as I can remember. A fond remembrance of these Saturday obligations, was the mandatory 10 am tea and donuts, and the subtle teasing of Mrs Dixie, a secretarial relic of many years dedication!
My father was a master in “peoples skills” and built a fine clothing retail business utilising such skills as well as his gift for name retention and genuine love of his clients and attention to their needs.
In his regular advertising broadsheets to his clientele, he would harp on almost stuffy old English words and concepts as encapsulated in phrases like “sartorial elegance…” His advertising would by definition be witty and catchy – each word painstakingly laboured over while quaffing copious quantities of cappuccino in the delightful setting of “Riental Confectionery” – an inviting and warm restaurant around the corner from the distinctive Dawson Hotel (corner Bree and President). All this defined my dear father as well as Maxims, which in time became synonymous entities. With his passing, so passed “Maxims…” Theo Tuffin had one son, who is your writer, Bernard. In promoting this range of jackets – which one may say are elegant while informal, my desire is to recapture and rekindle some of the long-gone sentiments and memories which were the hallmark of “Maxims” and Theo Tuffin. May you take as much pleasure as I have in donning one of these smart/casual jackets and boasting a touch of tartan!
Happy Shopping!
Bernard Tuffin