Three guys, mates from school some 25 years ago, who each wanted a tonic suit, started up Ace Face after spending
five years searching for real tonic fabric. At the point of giving up and over a few pints, they had a brain wave -
if no one was making tonic, then why not put it back into production? They mulled the idea over, spoke to people
to find out their opinions (mainly down the pub) and when the feedback was really positive they set up Ace Face and
set out to put tonic back onto the fashion map.
Of course it does help when venturing into the fashion world that one of you is a Savile Row tailor. Ace Face's
Creative Director, Marc Griffith is one such tailor. His knowledge of the business enables Ace Face to offer high
quality made to measure suits that are made in Britain. Keeping the suits 100% British was an important factor for
Marc, "Mods are quintessentially British and as Britain has such a great tailoring pedigree, coupled with our
textile & fabric heritage it was important that the essence of Ace Face was British. So much manufacturing is
flogged off abroad because it's cheap - we just didn't want to be that sort of company".
Stuart Murray brings his business head to the Ace Face mix. With over twenty year's sales experience and several
businesses under his belt, Stuart is in no way the boring 'suit' of Ace Face. In contrary, he often recounts his
stories of 'daring dos' when he was a dandy Skinhead (his words) to any available audience on a Saturday night.
Sunday mornings follow with 'Liquidator' and Judge Dread blasting out of his Jukebox into the Surrey countryside.
As a teenager Stuart began his love of fashion with smart Crombie coats, polished Loakes, braces and a grade two.
A look that he still, to some extent, still embraces! Stuart’s ethos for Ace Face is "to bring back the spirit of
tonic into the present day for his generation, and to introduce tonic to the younger generation".
And finally Gary Robinson, a true entrepreneur who ditched the braces and DM's some time ago for a more relaxed life
in Somerset. Gary brings relaxed karma and a gift for turning his hand to a variety of things, which annoyingly he
always does very well! Excited by the prospect of reintroducing true tonic to the fashion market Gary says "It's
fantastic that we've been able to source original tonic material and have the means to bring it to market.
The initial interest in Ace Face has been astounding - we couldn't get the fabric made quick enough".
Other than being a forty-year-old ex-Mod, Gary's other passion is Jaguars – that's the cars, not the cats.
