When Stuart Fraser of Frasers Menswear announced to his Midhurst staff on the 21st of May he’d received an enquiry through his website for at least 100 dinner suits from the Royal Navy they were astonished, realising this was the largest rental enquiry in the company’s history.

HMS Illustrious’s Summer Ball was to be held on the 23rd of July at the Guildhall in Portsmouth – a Las Vagas Themed Night which would require everyone in DJ’s. 540 people were expected to go to the ball.

When asked how he felt when the email arrived Stuart said “I didn’t bat an eyelid at first. I’d worked for a clothing manufacturer in the late 70’s and early 80’s as a production executive and huge enquiries for all sorts of things crossed my desk. After a while you get immune to surprises. But, I admit when I started to think about the logistics of this one I knew it could be a nightmare.”

The enquiry had been circulated to lots of firms. Only a few bothered to reply. After a negotiation on price Frasers landed the contract.

The Navy was only prepared to act as agent. Every sailor would be a separate order with a different suit specification and payment.

Stuart arranged to visit HMS Illustrious with Ted Jelley, a member of staff, on Monday 1st of June. It was an early start as they had to be aboard at 8.30 am to start the measuring-up process and away again by 11.00 am . The ship had to sail at 12.30 pm .

Ushered into a windowless below-deck room with six computers spewing out heat he realised how stifling it was. Dripping, he and Ted got down to work. The sailors were all marshalled in a long queue which kept ebbing and flowing as they rushed off to do something even more urgent and then return later. It was an orderly bedlam. Stuart and Ted soon got it down to a rhythm of one sailor every two minutes, Stuart recording the details whilst Ted fitted the jackets. They had lugged down companionways only seven different sizes out of twelve available having decided they could estimate for the rest.

The measuring process involved getting details on chest size, waist, leg length and fitting – regular, short, long – collar type - wing or standard - as well as the sailor’s name and last three digits of his service number. Thirty five sailors were measured. The rest would have to wait until the ship returned to harbour on the 16th July

In contrast to the first fitting session the second was exceptionally quiet now HMS Illustrious was in dock for a period. But for Stuart and Ted it was manic. They had to fit the remainder of the sailors whilst collecting a signed contract and payment from everyone. Most decided to pay by credit card or by cheque. But a few had cash. Stuart not allowing for this had to stuff £148 in notes and coin into the back pocket of his trousers which he said ‘bulged alarmingly’.

On Tuesday July 28th a further journey was made to HMS Illustrious to pick up the DJ’s.

When asked how everything had panned out Stuart replied smiling and not a little relieved “Very well, thank you. They seemed happy. Hopefully they’ll send us pictures of the ball which we can put on our website. Although this was the largest mass fitting so far we are accustomed to doing groups and have travelled as far a field as Woking . Midhurst’s central location and access to fast roads in all directions is a boon. Highland wear is becoming increasingly popular too for weddings, big corporate events and kilt parties as well as Burn’s Night and Hogmanay. Come the autumn and the start of the party season we expect to be kept pretty busy.”

We now await pictures of the Summer Ball from HMS Illustrious.
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