By Manish Puri.

There’s a scene in Frasier where Niles is packing some clothes to keep at his girlfriend Daphne’s place, for the morning after the nights he stays over.

Daphne, becoming increasingly concerned that she doesn’t have enough spare room in her closet, asks: “Isn't there anything you can leave behind?”

“I don't see how, I have formal, semi-formal, deshabille, wet weather, cold weather, cloudy. I mean, if there's something here you find excessive, jump right in.”

I mention this because it was the first thing that came to my mind when Simon asked me to write about what I wore on my recent holiday to Thailand, where I was celebrating my girlfriend’s 40th birthday.

I’m a hopeless overpacker, Simon!

The problem is only magnified on warm weather trips, where the absence of coats and knitwear frees up precious weight allowance that I seem hellbent on filling with wispy cotton shirts and a variety of beige shorts, which are so similar it would require a scanning tunnelling microscope to distinguish them. (Don’t worry, I pack one of those too.)

But, perhaps my weakness in this area presents an opportunity? A chance for me to reflect on what I wore the most and what stayed untouched in the case. I hope the exercise proves helpful to readers too, and by reading this you are now personally responsible for holding me to account should you ever encounter me at the airport trying to flirt my way out of excess baggage fees.

The above outfit is what I wore on the first full day in Bangkok, and it’s one I returned to again and again over the course of the trip.

The shirt is the Bigman from The Anthology (size large, off-white). Long-time readers will know that I’ve been a customer of the brand since their first UK pop-up with Permanent Style back in 2019, and I think the Bigman is one of their best RTW designs.

The chest pockets are ideal for carrying a phone, sunglasses and a tub of ya-dom (a herbal inhaler beloved by Thai people). Cash remains king in Thailand, and given I’ve long abandoned the billfold wallet in favour of a cardholder, the facility to button both pockets proved to be very useful for keeping my Baht safe.

Inspired by vintage workwear, the shirt is a straighter and fuller cut than their house style without ever feeling blousy. And the fabric, faithful to those origins, is a relatively sturdy linen/cotton blend. 

To be frank, it was perhaps a touch heavy for the extremes of heat and humidity in Thailand. However, I continued to favour it over lighter shirts that were more tailored, which led me to a minor epiphany: if there’s a choice between a relaxed fit in a heavier cloth and a closer fit in a lighter one, I will pick the former.

Of course, the ideal garment would marry a relaxed fit with a lighter cloth - and I’d like to try that with this shirt using The Anthology’s MTO programme. But, I also fully appreciate that not everyone wants different weights and silhouettes for a holiday wardrobe, and will try to make do with the things they wear at home in the summer.

The realisation that I prioritise fit over fabric will certainly help me make better holiday selections in the future.

The trousers are the 5-pocket Swinger jean by LEJ, and are something of a departure for me. They’re made from a 10oz cotton sateen - which means they’re fairly light and much softer than denim jeans - with a camouflage print.

I picked them up after seeing the brand’s founder, Luke, wearing them. I convinced myself I could pull them off, and then (somewhat predictability) filed them in my wardrobe for 18 months. Ironically, given the print, the trousers stubbornly refused to blend into the background, and became a persistent reminder of my sartorial meekness.

However,  as I mentioned in my article on Rondini sandals, I wanted to wear clothes that felt relevant to the places we were going in Thailand. The aim was to feel as at home in a cheesy backpacker bar (one of my favourite genres of bar) as I do wearing a suit and tie in a cocktail joint in London, and for me that meant trying a couple of new things.

After all, isn't travelling our opportunity to escape the quotidian? We meet new people, wrap our tongue around new words, savour new flavours and, if we’re lucky, feel something new stir within ourselves. Given how much we embrace novelty when we travel, why shouldn’t that extend to what we wear?

Now, I’m not for a second advocating that a group of men who are as particular about their clothes as we are stuff their suitcases with new and untested clobber. I can imagine few things more dispiriting than getting to your destination and feeling like you’ve got nothing nice to wear.

But, I will challenge readers to try one new thing on holiday. It's the perfect opportunity to experiment with a 'stimulating' shirt, a wide-leg trouser, a shorter short, a pair of sandals, a hat, a new colour. And please do report back on what's brought unexpected joy. 

My camo trousers certainly fell into that category. A little fun, a fuss-free way to indulge my preference for trousers over shorts (which helped keep my shins bite-free), and still less punchy than the elephant print trousers sold to unsuspecting tourists who don't realise you can't wear shorts to the magnificent Buddhist temples.

The two green shirts in the photos above are also LEJ. You can read more about my and André’s view of the brand in this article we wrote in 2023, but shirts continue to be one of its strengths. They’re not just well-made, but also well-curated.

For example, an apparently conventional striped shirt might come in an offbeat colour or with a shadow stripe, and the summer cloths - typically a super-light (2.5oz - 4oz) cotton voile - have a silken handle that rests delicately on the body.

All of LEJ's shirts are relaxed in fit, and usually I take a medium - as I did in the sage green Officer's shirt. However, as I'm certain Morrissey once sang, some shirts are bigger than others.

In particular, their Come-Up-To-The Studio shirt is one of the more generously proportioned RTW shirts around. I sized down to a small in the striped shirt (above and below) without any noticeable loss of ease and comfort, and, to be honest, I think I could potentially wear an extra small without it looking tight.

Now, I don't want to give readers the impression that I spent the entire tropical holiday swanning around in full-sleeve shirts and trousers. I did wear shorts and T-shirts too.

I do have a tendency to pack too many shorts. As mentioned earlier, this is partly because I prefer trousers and partly because some of my shorts are too similar to one another. However, I also keep forgetting there are some days - spent at the beach or by the pool - where swimming shorts negate the need for other shorts.

The swim shorts I wore on this trip were from Ripa Ripa, an Italian brand that does a nice line in plain and patterned designs. The design above is the Toscano, in a washed-out aqua green. I'd definitely recommend sizing up, I'm a 34" waist and went for an XL as the mesh interlining on the large was so tight I felt like a dolphin caught in a fisherman's net (or some other less delusional analogy).

The non-swim shorts I wore split into two categories: the Tyler model by Ralph Lauren (above) and the Riviera model by Scott Fraser (below).

The former are a classic chino short with shallow double pleats and belt loops. They're a great option for anyone that wants to try a fuller short as they're so easy to pick up second-hand - this eBay link has over 300 options, and you shouldn't pay more than £30-£35 (I suspect US readers might be able to find them for even less).

I wrote about the latter last summer, and they remain my most worn shorts. They're undoubtedly high-rise, but I think it might be slightly exaggerated by the angle of the photo above.

What I really appreciated about them in the scorching Thai heat was the tab-and-button side adjusters, which allowed me to loosen the shorts whenever I was feeling particularly hot.

That ability to 'adjust' your clothes is something that shouldn't be overlooked when whittling down the final selection of one's holiday wardrobe. My fixed-length metal watch - which is perfectly comfortably on the wrist in London - felt like I'd been handcuffed by an overzealous dominatrix once in Thailand; it was swiftly abandoned for a watch on a leather strap that I could buckle one or even two holes looser.

For those same reasons, I'd consider taking drawstring trousers on future holidays, and I'd be keen to hear from readers that have any good recommendations in that area.

For T-shirts, I packed a lovely selection of knitted versions from Rubato (below), The Anthology and Adret. Like Simon, I'm an advocate of the knit T, and think it's one of the easiest and more inexpensive ways that a 'jeans-and-T-shirt-guy' can upgrade their look.

So, it initially came as a surprise that I didn't wear them as much as I thought I would - especially during the day. However, with hindsight, it does make some kind of sense.

The beauty of the knitted T-shirt is that it sits (and stays) higher on the neck, has cuffed sleeves, a ribbed hem, shape through the body, and is often made from a sturdy cotton. But in the intense and punishing heat of Thailand, those aren't necessarily the qualities I prize.

I want a T-shirt that weighs nothing, that sags away from the neck and flaps off the body whenever there is the merest suggestion of a breeze. In short, I want a T-shirt that is (and forgive me for using a highly technical menswear term here) a bit shit.

Of course, I'd have my Permanent Style accreditation revoked if didn't pack any tailoring. On this trip, our stints in Bangkok (which book-ended our travels) coincided with two dinners hosted by The Decorum to mark the trunk shows of Assisi Bespoke House, The Anthology and Edward Green - ample reason to take a suit.

As an aside, I had the chance to visit some of The Decorum's stores and chat with co-founders Guy and Ball, and I'm really impressed by the breadth of what they're doing. There's a strong emphasis on classic menswear and an exciting roster of almost weekly trunk shows. But they're also making more fashion forward brands like Bode accessible - I'd love to have attended a recent event where you could personalise Senior Cords.

The suit I wore to both dinners was made by J. Mueser from a Spence Bryson dark-brown linen. It's the first thing Jake made for me and it's turned out just great - no mean feat considering one of the fittings had to be held in the back room of a busy wine bar at Pitti. (Apparently if an Italian sees a man wandering around in their underpants they just assume they must be getting a new suit.)

I do find plain linen suits one of the easiest to break up, and I think the trousers combined well here with my (tucked) Bigman shirt and Baudoin & Lange Stride loafers.

I actually wore the suit one more time on holiday. The third occasion came unexpectedly in Ko Samui, where a very polite and well-groomed gentleman stopped me by the pool of our hotel to let me know he was a Permanent Style reader. Hi Pawel!

We chatted over the next few days, played a few frames of pool, and on Pawel's last night at the hotel agreed it would be fun to don our finest and enjoy a valedictory meal together.

Dressed in a navy polo and high-twist woollen jacket from Cavour, Pawel was elegant and cool as a cucumber, and remained so even after volunteering to take part in the evening's entertainment - a fire show. A final reminder of the importance of cloth selection when embarking on a summer trip: make sure it's both breathable and flame retardant.

Manish is @the_daily_mirror on Instagram. This article is dedicated to the birthday girl, my wonderful Gemma, whose unlimited patience in taking photos of me until we got one without my eyes closed made this article possible.