Brand: Kiton

As mentioned in my original post about this reader competition, our aim was to explore the different forms formalwear can take today. Men will always have a need to dress up, in order to appear appropriately for a smar...

Bespoke suit, Anderson & Sheppard This is the first in a series of articles that will, overall, create an in-depth guide to buying tailoring. Some of these areas have been covered before on the site, but not in ...

Finally, wonderfully, the book on luxury craft I began writing three years ago is coming out: The Finest Menswear in the World. – You can buy your own personalised copy of The Finest Menswear in the World in the...

Everything seems to be happening at once at the moment. Next week the Permanent Style magazines should be here, which is probably the most exciting thing. On Monday we held our first Gathering dinner, which everyone se...

Decent made to measure. That’s how I would describe this final jacket from Kiton – made for me as part of the Harrod’s MTM events and described in previous posts on the commissioning and fitting. Th...

The Lasa service from Kiton is being offered as part of the Made-to-Measure service at Harrod’s (the last event was this past weekend), but may actually be closer to bespoke. Indeed, the question highlights the f...

The simplicity of classic wedding attire – in colour, in pattern, in tone – is a reflection of respect for the importance of the event. Business attire, once-upon-a-time, was similarly restrained; but whil...

Regular readers will remember the video I did for Harrod’s last year, to help them promote their quarterly made-to-measure events. At the same event this quarter, I took Kiton up on a longstanding invitation to try...

Last week Caruso held its first made-to-measure suit event in the UK – at Trunk Clothiers. It was an interesting experiment for both sides. Caruso has never done MTM in the UK before, just in Italy and one or two o...

A reader asked what I was wearing at the dinner of Parisian Gentlemen last week. Fortunately, a profile photo was taken that day at the intellectual property conference I was speaking at – the reason I was in Paris...

One of the new makers I met in Naples last month was D’Avino, a small shirtmaker run by Fiorenzo Auricchio (above). Fiorenzo trained as a boy under his father, who worked for Gino Borelli – so a pretty decent...

The film was made to coincide with the made-to-measure events coming up at Harrod’s. You can see the other video with Richard James here....

Hi Mr Crompton, I’m a fan of yours (Permanent Style, The Rake) from Singapore. I’ve been agonising over my shirts for some time and would like to ask your advice. I’ve been wearing bespoke T&A for ...

It was nice to meet Simone Righi in Florence. I’ve been into Frasi, and Tie Your Tie as it was before, but not when he has been in the shop. Simone rebranded his shop three years ago, leaving the Japanese group Tie...

I recently wrote about my favourite evening combination – blue shirt and grey/silver tie with a navy or charcoal suit. This is a rather more dressy combination for formal events and dinners, making use of a waistco...

The most formal suit combination for a modern man is a navy suit, white shirt and silver tie. When that tie is a woven like a Macclesfield, it is a classic wedding combination and much more suitable to being married in t...

This is Seb. Sebastiano really, but Seb to us. Because we’re just that fond of him. Sebastiano is head of shirtmaking at Kiton, overseeing the 40+ team of cutters and sewers that makes all of Kiton’s shirts i...

You could never refer to yourself as a style icon. But if someone else gives you the title, it’s alright to pass it on, right? Seriously, I was highly flattered to be asked to appear in the latest issue of PEN ma...

There is one essential to a quality tie: the slip stitch. This is a loose, hand-sewn stitch along the length of the tie, usually finishing in a loop of excess thread at its smaller end. It enables the tie to move along i...

Men wear fewer suits today, as we all know. But they retain the need for a jacket, if only to appear smart or professional. Two of my friends, a doctor and a teacher, are particular examples. Their jobs do not require th...

In the UK, good shoes split into two very clean categories: benchmade and bespoke. With the former, workers use a series of hulking Victorian machines to make the shoes. Each applies force in a different way, whether str...

I mentioned in my previous post on the Kiton factory outside Naples that the shirt manufacturing impressed me post. In fact, it wasn’t so much the manufacturing operation as the handwork that resulted – somet...

Not for the first time, the inimitable Andy Barnham has ridden to my rescue. Below, the pictures of the suit making process at Kiton in Naples that I discussed in my previous post, but lacked images for. These are taken ...

My most extensive visit while in Naples this week was around Kiton’s factory, which is just outside the city. It is a big, well-aired facility that serves a frankly cracking lunch. I’ve never had mozzarella l...

About two years after the project was first discussed, and a year after I finished writing the thing, my first book is finally out. It is part of a series of books called ‘Le Snob’, with expert views on such ...

After long gestation, The Rake magazine has finally launched its coffee-table book, Hand of the Artisan: The Soul of Italian Luxury. It is a tour through 17 different Italian manufacturers, heavily illustrated with hands...

Italian brands like Canali, Corneliani, Zegna and Pal Zileri all place a lot of emphasis upon the family ethic of their production and the hand-made nature of their suits. At least with the highest label, such as Zegna&r...

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with Blake-construction shoes (the method used on all traditional Italian models). They are just more delicate and will not last as long as Goodyear-welted shoes. The same could be...