Brand: whitcomb and shaftesbury

    Chinos from tailors never feel like chinos. Why is this?  I used to think I knew the answer: the fabrics they used were too fine – dress cottons, made with fine fibres, finished for a sleek look and good...

Checked jackets are always a lot of fun for tailoring discussions. Nothing makes you look harder at a fabric than working out the advantages and disadvantages of check arrangements. The jacket above - first shown in our...

Two years ago, when we visited the Joshua Ellis mill near Batley, Yorkshire, I spent a happy couple of hours browsing their archive.  As you might expect, the vast majority were classics: plain or textured cashmeres, h...

Back when these things were possible, I remember an American friend visiting in the Spring and asking: “How on earth do you dress for this weather? I can see my breath in the morning, but my midday I’m roasting and ...

Whitcomb & Shaftesbury have achieved great popularity in recent years because of their pricing.  They offer one service where the majority of the suit is made in their Indian workshop, and as a result can offer a Sa...

Best artisan 2021: Whitcomb & Shaftesbury   I decided to give my Artisan of the Year award this year to Whitcomb & Shaftesbury because, looking back on recent commissions, they have so consistently delivere...

The main reason I shot this outfit with Milad last month was to talk about the cords - a heavy Brisbane Moss brown that has both its pleasures and its weaknesses. I’ll run through the rest of the outfit too though, be...

A couple of weeks ago, we looked at a relatively casual outfit - and how elements such as a baseball cap or bright knitwear could make classic menswear less formal, with some Ivy influences. Today I’d like to talk abo...

Just before Christmas, I took my belted coat into Whitcomb & Shaftesbury to have it converted into a normal overcoat.  As detailed on my original article, this was always a possibility.  I began the experiment of ...

On the final day of the pop-up shop back in October, it occurred to me to bring in my blue PS Oxford shirt - to show how it had softened with age.  The response was telling. Half of the people that felt it bought one o...

I’ve generally cautioned in the past against wearing navy tailored trousers as separates, with a jacket. This is for a few reasons.  First, I know from experience that it’s an option men often go for. They’re lik...

Despite the inquiries readers often make during the pop-up, we have no plans to open a permanent shop. However, we have started working with a few friends around the world to make it easier to try on the various shirts ...

This outfit, worn on the last Saturday of our pop-up shop, is a good illustration of the kind of clothing that excites me at the moment. It could be defined, perhaps, as casual but luxurious, muted but refined. Casual, ...

The traditional, nubby oxford fabric we developed last year has proved so popular that we’ve decided to introduce another option. It’s a little unusual in another way though, beyond the robust, textured yarn. It’...

So this was an interesting experiment. My idea was to make my first overcoat with Whitcomb & Shaftesbury as a belted wrap coat. So no buttons on the front, just a belt. A jigger button inside to keep the inside laye...

It was really lovely being back in Hong Kong last week, after a few years away. The talk we Lorenzo Cifonelli and I did at Attire House worked well - more a conversation than an interview, with Lorenzo asking me questio...

Last Friday was annoyingly cold, and damp.   Combinations of subdued, rich colours always give me the most pleasure - but it felt particularly appropriate on a day like this. The textures of the three pieces also went ...

  One of the reasons jacket fits and styles are so hard to describe is they cannot easily be put into numbers. Trousers, by comparison, are pretty straightforward. From the shoe up, there is: circumference at the trous...

If shirts are the items in a man’s wardrobe where he wants most predictability and consistency, then trousers are undoubtedly second. In that spirit, over the past year I have regularly commissioned odd trousers (‘o...

I had this tweed jacket made by South Korean house B&Tailor over the past 18 months, using Robin Petterson - a Swede who does their fittings in London and at home in Stockholm. Unfortunately, although the end resul...

It is the time of year for wedding preparations, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to share images of my friend Oliver’s wedding last year. He is wearing probably my favourite groomsman’s outfit. Fi...

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 sm...

This is the fourth article in our  Guide to Suit Style. You can see the full contents so far, and browse between them, on the right-hand side of this post. Fitting on a Hardy Amies single-breasted jacket How many butto...

   Whitcomb & Shaftesbury, the fabulously good value tailor I have written about recently, visit the US 5-6 times a year.  They will be there next in a couple of weeks – in New York for three days and then L...

   Air force blue is a beautiful colour. Better than the bright, tonic blues that are so popular these days – so much deeper, so much more subtle.  Also known as RAF blue, the colour refers to the uniforms issue...