Category: Hanks and scarves

The pocket square, or handkerchief, is an interesting indicator of how dapper clothing has trended in the past 15 years.  Broadly speaking, the late 1990s were all about business casual and the dotcom boom. Silicon Val...

Let me set the scene. Macclesfield is a small English market town, and it’s a grey day. The bright-green casentino overcoat of Benedikt Fries, as he walks towards us, rather stands out.  Photographer Alex Natt and I ...

The silk and leather headquarters of Hermes are in a pretty nondescript set of white buildings just outside Lyon. Here, there are the 100m and 150m-long silk printing tables that I described in our previous post. There...

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...

I’ve been buying and wearing Hermes silk scarves for several years. (Indeed, a nice thing about the seasonal collections is, with a little work, you can date them all precisely). So it was a personal pleasure to visit...

The tangerine orange looks nice against the brown tweed, doesn’t it? This combination, worn up to see Joshua Ellis recently, spurred a few thoughts on colour. Here they are. First, I don’t wear many strong colours j...

To what extent can rags be beautiful? Is there even a point at which fetishising the clothes of the poor– how threadbare they are, how re-worn and re-hashed – can be disrespectful? Twenty years ago, when Stephen Szc...

  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...

The small, fine cashmere scarf I designed three years ago with Begg & Co - intended to be worn on cold days tucked into knitwear - is available again. It's on the PS Shop now, in grey, navy and green. I've reproduce...

It’s been over a year since I last had the chance to browse the stock at No Man Walks Alone and write one of these pieces, for which I blame a lack of travel to New York. It is possible to select a few favourites onli...

This was a nice opportunity to do a practical video, and express a forthright opinion. Videos on folding pocket squares and handkerchiefs are normally so terrible. Guys in black suits using fiddly folds to wear yellow-s...

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...

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...

First off, I need to mention that the J.Girdwood website is finally up and active.  Anyone that has been into the first or second pop-ups will have seen James (above) and his J.Girdwood range of products. They include ...

I finally got around to putting together a Christmas gift guide for this year, which I know many readers have asked about (and like forwarding directly to their wives). I have deliberately not included either Permanent ...

Many readers said they liked the personal, behind-the-scenes approach of Plaza Uomo's cover story on me last year.  Here, then, is another angle. My desk, where I write most of these posts, and therefore probably the m...

The Style Guide has been wonderfully received so far - at the launch events in London and New York, but also online and through personal messages. Thank you all.  There are a few things I realise I haven't emphasised s...

1 R. Culturi There are many brands launching ties or handkerchiefs online these days, given it’s an easy area to try and express something new - and the lack of sizing makes it relatively easy to sell online. One that...

Over the past 10 days I have generally prioritised writing about new brands in our Savile Row pop-up shop.  But there are also new developments at makers you will be familiar with - Baudoin & Lange, Luca Faloni, B...

I know I've written about green and pink a few times before. I could find one old post with a little flower illustration, but there must be more. Perhaps it's the fog of Christmas food and wine clouding my mind.  In an...

The Permanent Style scarves that we introduced last winter are in stock again in two new colours, and available to buy from the Begg & Co site now.  The two colours are grey and green - the grey is pictured above...

The next in our regular installment of small brands doing interesting things looks at some ties, handkerchiefs and knitwear. Viola Milano x Alexander Kraft First up is a collaboration between Alexander Kraft and online ...

At the beginning of December, there will be an event in Brussels bringing together some of the craftsmen that featured in the Permanent Style trunk show last month - Lavabre Cadet and Michel Heurtault - as well as seve...

Thank you. Thank you so much on my behalf, and more importantly on behalf of the four artisans - who trusted me, and by extension you, to come over to London and do something they'd never done before, in a location the...

I am very proud to say that we have a Permanent Style trunk show organised for October 5th, co-hosted with Gaziano & Girling at their Savile Row store.  This has been a good while in the making, particularly as I w...