When Michael Agyeman-Boaten needed some shoes to match one of his custom-made suits, he turned not to a fancy Italian shoemaker but to a group of craftsmen working out of a garage in Accra.

At a time of necessary national belt-tightening, Gordon Brown has made yet another gaffe by being snapped in a rather fancy suit from Gieves & Hawkes. The Savile Row tailor is anathema to the ...