Abercrombie & Fitch -- that bastion of expensively-tacky preppy clothing and scantily-clad male models -- is planning on opening a new childrenswear store in Savile Row -- that bastion of elegance, refinement and fine English suiting. But the bespokers have bespoken: over their lifeless, immaculately-tailored bodies. 

There's already an Abercrombie within shouting distance of the Row, but this new store would be located right within the district at historic 3 Savile Row, on whose rooftop The Beatles played their final live gig. Thus, tailors have responded with various levels of outrage.

Gieves & Hawkes claimed that the addition of A&F was "totally out of character," while H. Huntsman & Sons voiced concern that  "the arrival of Abercrombie & Fitch at the end of Savile Row has dramatically changed not just the tone, but the safety, of the street."

An anonymous tailor, however, was not so keen on mincing words: "I don't think anyone objects to moving forward, but a chain store selling crappy clothes to ghastly people isn't really the direction in which we should be travelling."

Not to be hyperbolic or sensationalist, but that's literally the best thing that anyone's ever said in the history of mankind.

While there have been no official objections lodged against Abercrombie's expansion, a spokesperson from the Westminster City Council stated that "comments to applications are always taken seriously."

So should Savile Row lighten up and go with the flow or is A&F the final nail in the coffin of good taste? [Guardian]