Brand: Drake’s

UPDATE: This is a nice video from Diegos showing how espadrilles are made. You can see the better, neater hand sewing of the soles mentioned below.  I remember clearly when I got my first pair of espadrilles. I was 19,...

This summer suit from Sartoria Cornacchia was made for me last year, and I would like to apologise for the delay in covering it. I didn’t get around to shooting the suit until the end of the Summer; events and the pop...

  Last week I explained why I find the knit polo shirt to be such a fundamental part of my summer wardrobe.  This week, I’m using that polo and a pair of cream linen trousers as the basis for three different look...

    OK, so. Friend and photographer Jamie Ferguson has been locked up indoors for weeks, as we all have. And he’s gone a bit stir crazy. We had started talking a while ago about shoots we could do remotely. Perha...

A reader asked last week what I wear when I’m working at home, given how many more people are now being forced to do so.  It’s something I’ve done on-and-off for years, but particularly in the past two, since Per...

Readers regularly ask about the best options for quality ready-to-wear trousers, so I thought I’d compare three I own.  They're three brands that will come readily to mind for those seeking trousers in London: Drakeâ...

Wearing a dark shirt with a tie is an easy style to get wrong, I think.  It used to be quite widespread in the 1990s: dark maroon or navy shirts with a strongly coloured tie. It seemed to be worn by a certain kind of s...

Pitti is a long trade show: four full days, when most are usually three. As a result, by Friday everyone is exhausted, with selling, talking, and late dinners. Although it does depend on why you’re there. Most people ...

Last week the weather in London turned from 12 degrees to 22 in a couple of days. It seems that what passes for the English Spring is finally here. Of course, with most shops and brands Spring/Summer collections arrived...

Best lookbook: Drake's Runners-up: Stoffa, Saman Amel   This was our first award on lookbooks, and I think it raised some interesting questions about how brands present themselves in their imagery. Certainly that w...

  It’s that time of year again. The TV adverts that started a month ago should have been a warning. Below is my Christmas gift list for 2019. It is not a comprehensive list of the best menswear gifts right now. I...

I don’t tend to wear brightly coloured ties. Too often they’re brash and loud, where a dark simple tie would be more tasteful. The only time I’ve regularly worn them is in unusual colours like lime green, rath...

Last week a friend in the industry asked me what aspect of writing Permanent Style I like the most. It is always, easily, discovering a new tailor, cloth or product that is different and inspiring. That journey from dis...

  Travelling to India on holiday this Easter gave me a reason to get the hot-weather clothing out early. It was unseasonably hot even for there, with the temperature pushing 40 degrees. We took the opportunity to vi...

Taka from Liverano. Lots of colour and pattern, but overall quite cold Being able to judge the relative formality of an outfit is a key component of dressing well in modern, variable working environments. Many things c...

I think it’s telling that the thing that makes me happiest about this outfit is the oatmeal-linen shirt, a piece made bespoke by D’Avino. I’ve been doing this for a while - trying to combine pieces of classic mens...

Although we sartorial enthusiasts aspire to style that lasts decades, not seasons, I think it's important to recognise the fashions we still follow. While we shun band T-shirts or 'ugly' trainers, we are still strongly ...

Although I love rich, natural colours (particularly in Autumn) I've always been fascinated by the subtleties of monochrome dressing.  It has such strong style, and yet there is so little too it. It's striking and unu...

Although casual clothing is far more susceptible to fashions than tailored clothing, it is possible to organize it into certain groups, or paradigms. These groups, such as preppy clothing or workwear, often have their r...

The Spring/Summer collections may be arriving, but it’s 2 degrees outside in London, and I’m continuing a season-long love affair with roll necks. The wonderful thing about a roll neck is that it is both very practi...

  Best Brand of the Year:  Drake's Runners up:  Stoffa, Private White VC The Permanent Style award for ‘Brand of the Year’ was understandably the hardest to define of our five awards - launched a few weeks a...

It’s so enjoyable writing good reviews. It is valuable to write balanced, semi-critical pieces of course, and this is a core part of Permanent Style. But you always feel very conscious of the effect the criticism will...

There are several ways to define the menswear world we write about. As classic style, for instance, or about quality and craft. Also as luxury, given such quality is expensive. But one aspect that is rarely emphasised, ...

The biggest potential pitfall with tailored dressing is looking fussy. Fussy is not sexy; it is not attractive. It is closely related to appearing ‘affected’ or ‘mannered’. Looking relaxed in clothing, on the ot...

Drake's was one of the first menswear brands that really inspired me, back in the days when I'd sit in Michael Drake's study going through old decorative art books, dissecting patterns. Drake's managed to combine craf...