Clothes Fit for a King at ‘Royal Male’

By: Nicole Baillargeon
Posted In: Entertainment

NEWPORT–Ever wonder what it feels like to dress in attire fit for a king or queen? Or, perhaps you are an anglophile and have an appreciation for all things British. Either way, one does not need to go overseas to buy authentic British clothing; all one has to do is take a walk to the Royal Male: Traditional British Clothing, located on 104 Spring St. Owned by husband and wife Maurice and Lynn de La Valette, the store specializes in top quality clothing that comes directly from the British Isles. Both of the de La Vallettes’ worked in the fashion industry in New York, and decided to join their talents and open up their own specialty clothing store. Formerly called the Royal Warrant, the Royal Male opened 24 years ago in 1983, on Spring St.

Why did you decide to open up a British clothing shop?

My husband and I were both in the clothing business. I worked at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York and my husband bought furs for a French company Revillon.so it was just natural for us to get away from the corporate world.

What is so special about British clothing?

We try to find British clothing that’s made in the British Isles, not get knockoffs, i.e.: Ralph Lauren with a British look that’s actually made in China. We really get it from the source.

So, you get the clothes right from London?

From all over. A lot of our sweaters come from Scotland.so we should say the British Isles.

What is your favorite piece in the store?

When you are buying, you’re buying your taste for the customers.Everything is very very good in here and is very good quality and hopefully people agree with me.it’s not trendy, it’s very English, very traditional, and very classic.

Are there any interesting stories about any of these clothes?

The Barbour Waxed Cottons, is a company that is about 200 years old and originally it was made for horseback riding, for hunting, for farming, and for the military, so you get a lot of those types of traditional feels in the styling of the coats. They’re still there; people still wear them for all of those things. They make all of the jackets for the British military. It’s very good clothing for very bad, damp, weather…The tweeds are actually wonderful estate tweeds from Scotland. Originally, all of the tweeds were made for hunting, so they’re camouflage colors, you rarely get a blue tweed, most of them are greens and browns because they had to mix with the heather and the rocks and the surrounding area.This one tweed manufacturer we have makes the estate tweeds that are exclusive to the British estates in the U.K. We actually can’t buy them because they belong to the estate, it’s licensed to them.We carry the very, very fine stuff from a manufacturer that was the premier rifle maker for all of the royals in Europe and now they’ve come out with a line of clothing.their rifles start at 45,000 pounds and there is a six year waiting list so you can imagine it’s very sought after.

What is 45,000 pounds in American money?

$90,000.

What kinds of customers do you see the most often?

It varies across the board. We can sell anything from a pair of gloves, to outfitting somebody for hunting.

How expensive can the clothing get?

The average price is probably about $350. You’re talking about anything from a $48 scarf to an expensive sherling coat.

Do you sell any other types of British artifacts?

No. We just sell clothes.

Have there been any challenging times while running this store?

It’s always a challenge when you’re buying. I wish I had a crystal ball because then I’d know exactly what to buy and what is going to sell because obviously you don’t want it sitting around in the store, you want it to move out.but after a while you get into a feeling for what your customers want and you keep looking all the time.

What is your favorite part about working in Newport?

The physical beauty of Newport. I mean look at the town, it’s absolutely gorgeous.It’s fun in the summertime because we get an influx of tourists; you get a different group of people which is a lot of fun. We have two shops. We have one in Bannister’s Wharf; we get a lot of people off of the yachts. We tend to do more business in the summer down on the wharf and more business up here in the wintertime.

Would you like to have any other kinds of stores?

We’ve had other kinds of stores. We have had an Indian art store; we sold Iroquois art and artifacts. We’ve sold American Folk art; we’ve sold furs and leathers, so yes we’ve had other types of stores. We’ve already done that, so we sort of come down to clothing. It’s a little bit more manageable because we did have four stores at one time on Spring St., it was a bit much.

What is the best part about owning a British clothing shop?

Being able to make our own hours and not having to answer to anybody else. We don’t have a bureaucracy, because obviously we don’t have to make reports for anybody. And, as I said it’s our taste, we enjoy what we buy, we enjoy buying fine quality items, and we enjoy what we buy, we enjoy buying fine quality items and we enjoy selling them to customers who appreciate it.

What are your hours of operation?

We are open 11-5 Monday through Saturday, and 12-4 on Sunday.

Is there a website?

Yes, www.royalmale.com .

And, one last question, what would you do if you were a royal?

Well they’ve got all of the money in the world and they can shop anywhere.I’d dowhat they’re doing, acts of charity and enjoy my trust fund and buy nice things.