Rear Admiral William Sowden Sims had been making a name for himself—and making waves—within the U.S. Navy for some time when Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels (they were destined to become mortal foes) designated him the representative for the Navy Department in London and shipped him off in March 1917. For diplomatic reasons, Sims traveled incognito. It was a fateful time to head to England—in April the United States entered the world war that had been raging since 1914. The internationalist-minded Sims suddenly found himself in the catbird seat, and he approached his quickly expanding agenda with concern, forethought, and conviction. He would emerge from it all, famously, as a harsh critic of U.S. naval readiness and a lauded visionary of the future U.S. fleet. But that was all still to come as he first showed up in London without even a uniform. The British Admiralty steered him to . . . where else? Savile Row, old boy, and the preeminent tailors of Stovel & Mason, who kitted-out Sims in fine fashion. Sims’ original Stovel & Mason coat, a potent relic of his history-making London billet, is now in the collection of the Naval History and Heritage Command and on view at the Naval War College Museum (a fitting venue, considering how large the legacy of Sims looms there). In the group photo below, taken in London on 8 June 1917, Sims stands in the center, wearing this very coat upon the arrival of Major General John “Black Jack” Pershing (far left).
But there is another wrinkle to this particular priceless piece of clothing: Years later, Stovel & Mason apprenticed a rising talent who would emerge as a legend in the 1960s London fashion scene. His name was Tommy Nutter, and he became the go-to outfitter for the superstar British rockers of Swinging London—everyone from the Kinks to the Rolling Stones to the Beatles themselves. It was the Stovel & Mason–trained Nutter who designed the famous colorful uniforms worn by the Fab Four on their revolutionary Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover. From World War I to the Beatles, from Admiral Sims to Sergeant Pepper—therein lie the mysteries of the unseen “threads” of history.