Category: Uncategorized

When Bruce read our article on Nicoletta Caraceni’s 50-year-old jacket recently, he was spurred to send an example of his own: the Anderson & Sheppard jacket worn above.  And really, there are few people better p...

It’s hard to use terms for this past year that haven’t already been overused, and lost most of their meaning along the way. But there are certainly several issues and trends that have naturally emerged from it, and ...

Over the past six months, we've made several improvements to the website based on requests in last year's reader survey .  Some of the new pieces of functionality will not be that obvious, so I wanted to highlight them...

**UPDATE: The answers to the quiz are now listed at the bottom of this post. Don't peek if you want to try it out yourself first! The winner of the competition was Mathias Olsen. Well done to him.** This is a spot of fu...

Now more than ever, I think it’s important to say what we stand for at Permanent Style. And one of the ways that comes across clearest is our editorial policy: what we cover, and what we don’t.  Implicitly, this de...

I recently saw a presentation by the cultural historical and writer Benjamin Wild (below), on the history of menswear. The talk covered everything from 1300 to the present day, but it was pre-20th Century that was the m...

I’ve been lucky this year that so many outerwear collaborations have come to fruition - no delays, no problems, everything fulfilling my expectations. That doesn’t always happen.  This next one is no less exciting ...

Working from home has thrown up lots of interesting clothing debates recently - including whether people will just stop caring, as we discussed recently .  Another interesting one, I think, is the idea of comfort. As i...

I’m not sure about the mock neck.  It’s been having a resurgence recently - everyone is doing one, from Camoshita to Loro Piana, Margaret Howell to Inis Meain. I can’t remember the last time a style of knitwear b...

While in Stockholm last month, I spent a morning shopping with Oliver (Dannefalk, above) and Carl (Pers) of Rubato. I was particularly interested to hear their views on vintage shopping, as I knew that both of them used...

Philip Warkander is a Swedish academic, lecturer at Lund University in fashion studies.  We got to talking recently thanks to an introduction by Dag at Saman Amel, and it was interesting how many of the topics Philip c...

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a men’s fashion magazine in the new (very nice) newsagent on Chiltern Street. I really miss good print products, and fashion magazines in particular. I think I flicked through it all ...

So here's the weird thing about Stockholm: nothing is weird. Everything feels normal.  No one wears a mask, and while there’s still social distancing, it's minimal and feels almost like politeness. People do sanitise...

It’s probably surprising how little time and attention I’ve put into my beard over the years.  I’ve had it almost 20 years, long before it was fashionable (which I do tell people, to my shame). Yet I’ve always ...

When I was young, my family used to play a game on holiday. The question for all of us was: what can you see that tells you you’re in a different country? It could be the types of trees, the style of road signs, the w...

Fashion media has had a hard time of it in recent years, with near constant disruption - which Covid-19 has only made worse.  So why am I confident that Permanent Style can survive this turmoil? What revenue streams su...

Despite the uncertainty in the world right now - and the economy in particular - it has never been easier to launch a brand. Indeed, I suspect that in the next couple of years most of the new, interesting designs will c...

Apparently there is a thing called a Zoom shirt.  It sits on the back of your chair at home, and just before you start a meeting with your boss or colleague, you put on the shirt to look professional. You know, over a ...

Readers have commented fairly regularly that it would be good to include more local UK tailors on Permanent Style.  I’ve generally been resistant, largely because those tailors would be relevant to only a small numbe...

A reader recently asked about what constituted the ‘finishing’ of a suit - and what indicates quality.  I initially planned a response going through every aspect of this, with examples, but that quickly became unwi...

  This article was spurred by two things. First, by a reader specifically asking for it, on another capsule post in this series (always a good sign). And second, by some consultancy work I’ve been doing, where the...

  This post was originally written in 2012: a breakdown of all the tailors I have tried personally (rather than just written about), split into different countries. It was updated in 2016, and I have updated it agai...

These are dark and uncertain times for businesses everywhere, in particular fashion.  Who will care about their clothes if they’re at home the whole time? Who will spend large amounts of money on clothing when the ec...

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...

I’m sure this won’t be the first message you will have read about Covid-19, and how it affects what we do. But I think it’s worth setting out a view, even if it repeats what others have already - perhaps more eloq...