Eric Clapton Saves Gentlemen's Outfitters

Eric Clapton is helping to save a historic gentlemen's outfitters from closure. The 59-year-old musician, who bought a half-share of Cordings on London's famous Piccadilly in December, is now helping update the store, spokeswoman Melanie Cable-Alexander said earlier this week. "I wanted to help preserve Cordings for myself so I could continue to shop there," Clapton said in an interview with the British news agency Press Association.

A Cordings client since 2002, Clapton said he'd been "a big fan of English traditional tailoring and have always been intrigued by the balance between functionality and style in the development of men's fashion."Founded in 1839 as a specialist in clothing for country sports, Cordings was the originator of the checked Tattersall shirt and made riding boots for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

The store will launch its first women's collection next month. "Cordings had been about to go bankrupt, but now its accounts are in the black for the first time in seven years," said Cable-Alexander. "Without Eric, the shop would have gone bankrupt." Guy Ritchie used one of Cordings' jackets in his 2000 movie, Snatch, and there are drawings by Damien Hirst and Rolf Harris in the visitors' book. Cable-Alexander said the shop had been hurt by the depressed tourist market after the 2001 terrorist attacks, the congestion charge now levied on drivers in central London and poor decisions by some previous managers.