Reader profile: Mattia
January 17th 2022I met Mattia during our recent pop-up shop on Savile Row. A Permanent Style reader, he is also a fashion student, which gives him an interesting perspective on classic menswear. I enjoyed talking to him, and his friends, about their studies and the...
Reader profile: Mattia
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I loved reading this and I love Mattia's style. As someone who doesn't earn a lot of money most of my reading here is pipe dream stuff. But me and mattia are on the same boat - there is a way to dress well for under 3k! ...
Why I’m wearing more belts
January 5th 2022In recent months I’ve been wearing belts more often, after years of hardly doing so at all. I never wore them with tailoring, preferring the clean, elegant look of an unfettered waistband with side adjustors. And I didn’t even wear the...
Why I’m wearing more belts
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My whipcords came back from Steed yesterday with added belt loops, yet retaining the brace buttons and combined with my Tim Hardy belt, the look and comfort are absolutely fantastic. It’s very dark brown, almost black,...
Cocktail attire: An argument for a new type of ev...
December 31st 2021Just before Christmas, I organised a Permanent Style Christmas dinner, to thank a few people that had helped and supported PS in recent years. We were hosted by Geordie D’Anyers Willis of Berry Bros & Rudd, which was kind of Geordie, ...
Cocktail attire: An argument for a new type of ev...
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Great, sounds good David...
Reader profile: Ben C
December 10th 2021I’ve known Ben for a long time now. He worked round the corner from me during my journalism days, and we were both customers of visiting artisans like Elia Caliendo and Simone Abbarchi. We even did a shoot together for Elia years ago. Ben and ...
Richard Burke: Style hero
November 5th 2021There’s this one outfit worn by the character Richard Burke in Friends , played by Tom Selleck, that has stayed with me for years. It’s in the penultimate episode of series six. Richard comes to Monica’s restaurant to try and win ...
Richard Burke: Style hero
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Ah so yes, you want a brushed cotton probably, and there should be a few around at this time of year. I know Luca Faloni does some, though with a lower collar...
Reader Profile: Andrew
October 27th 2021This is the third in our series of articles meeting, and questioning, Permanent Style readers. The first profiled Manish , who enthused about Russian watches and recommended that readers should start building a wardrobe with good trousers. And the s...
Reader Profile: Andrew
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I also used to wear Malle Cologne Indelebile in the summer quite frequently. I liked it because it is light and citrusy which I think it nice for the summer. But I finished the bottle and never got around to replacing it...
Be open minded. Or, what is style?
September 3rd 2021I believe that core to understanding clothes, and perhaps even to enjoying them, is appreciating styles that are not your own. If you can’t, it closes you off to dozens of ideas - something as simple as the shape of a sleeve, or a colour comb...
Be open minded. Or, what is style?
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The problem with work coats and shapeless clothes is that it’s about a retro look of the working class in the grand epoch , Apache types for instance . Armani was nothing to do with that because he actually gave a styl...
Playing around with white bucks
August 4th 2021During sunny weather in the past few weeks, I've been playing around with these old shoes from Lodger, the shoe shop that used to be on Clifford Street in London, and where I first started writing about menswear . The shoes were a recreation of a 1...
Playing around with white bucks
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I have two pair of white BUCS. One is Nunn Bush and is a Derby style. The second is by Churches. It is a wingtips style. I have a Sperry trainer in white canvas. I think I am well represented here. I like my white shoes ...
Should you dress for yourself, or for others?
July 14th 2021Should you dress for yourself or for others? Unsurprisingly, the answer is both. Anyone that dresses without any regard for people around them is probably being rude, and certainly inconsiderate. Dressing purely to conform, other the other hand, i...
Should you dress for yourself, or for others?
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75 Million gave him a chance and he failed by not working well with others and making it all about him....
A casual Summer capsule
July 7th 2021About a month ago, proper Summer started in the UK. Now I don’t define Summer by the solstice, the calendar, or even the moon. Summer, for me, is when it's so hot that it severely affects the clothes you can wear. Anything consistently above...
A casual Summer capsule
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With the Ambrosi linen, it's because they're lighter, more open, and softer. Opposite of a stiff Irish linen. The Fox should be sharper being a high-twist, but maybe it's because of the colour there. They are softer than...
How relevant is 80s Armani?
July 2nd 2021By Tony Sylvester It might seem counterintuitive to be talking about past fads or subcultures on a platform named Permanent Style. But while it is certainly admirable for a man to build a wardrobe around the timeless and perennial, it would be fooli...
How relevant is 80s Armani?
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I don't think that's really accurate, Tim. Agree that many people didn't look great in his suits, and that handmade ones are better in many ways, but his originality in cut and colour and texture was a long way from Atto...
The rules and how to break them #10: Suits withou...
June 30th 2021This is a new installment in the series ‘ The rules and how to break them ’, which has been a little neglected in recent years. It’s a great little guide, exposing myths of menswear and calmly explaining the rationale be...
The rules and how to break them #10: Suits withou...
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I cannot believe its acceptable for the mayor of london to wear a suit without a tie, I work on a building site and have to wear hard hat ,boots and a hi vi's,xthats the dress code, if I worked in a office I would Don a ...
Flash vs fuddy
June 18th 2021Here's an idea. I reckon men face two, polarised dangers in their style that we haven't discussed before, or at least not formalised. O ne is being too flash or showy; the other is appearing too old-fashioned - a ‘fuddy duddy’. When guy...
Flash vs fuddy
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Hi Andy, With a simple suit, I think there's much less of a risk - the style aspects will come largely from what you wear with it, and the style itself won't vary that much either. A suit that is a little shorter in the ...
The Western shirt four ways (with Begg & Co ...
June 14th 2021One of the reasons Western and denim shirts have been so popular in recent years is their versatility. On the one hand, their conventional pale blue means they sit easily beneath all manner of jackets or suits, while adding an intentional, unexpect...
The Western shirt four ways (with Begg & Co ...
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The shirt? It's from Ralph Lauren...
The T-shirt under tailoring
May 26th 2021I’ve never actively disliked T-shirts under tailoring. I just tend not to wear them myself and, when I have seen them worn, I think it can be done quite badly. Done well, wearing a T-shirt rather than a collared shirt can pleasingly subvert t...
The T-shirt under tailoring
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Thanks for your time and input....
Tailoring and milsurp: How to dress like Ethan Wong
May 21st 2021Like many men that feature in this ‘How to dress like’ series, I find the differences between how I and Ethan Wong dress just as interesting as the similarities. In fact more so. We have similar influences in classic menswear and vint...
Tailoring and milsurp: How to dress like Ethan Wong
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I like his style. It's not necessarily the attire, but more about the attitude that goes with the attire. Asians do it better than most. Not sure why....
Learning to dress my body better
May 17th 2021I've learnt many things over the past 13 years of writing Permanent Style, but one I've learnt most intimately is how different clothes suit my particular physique, and physiognomy. This does come up on PS, in articles about collar height perhaps, o...
Layering and accessories for cold Spring days
May 7th 2021Back 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 can barely wear a jack...
Layering and accessories for cold Spring days
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Wonderful! Thank you Jack...
Both chic and bold: How to dress like Angel Ramos
May 5th 2021Although Angel Ramos and I have only met a few times, we’ve always seemed to have something in common when it came to styles we liked. Angel wears slippers a lot, and has more of a tendency towards bright colours and patterns. The ov...
Both chic and bold: How to dress like Angel Ramos
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Yes I expect so. Certainly all perspectives valid and should be considered, but there are always many...
White jeans: how to buy, wash and wear
April 7th 2021White jeans are a classic example of menswear that has been damaged unreasonably by association. Unfortunately, they carry connotations of flash Mediterranean men, wearing their white jeans with a shirt unbuttoned to the navel. Or skintight ripped ...
White jeans: how to buy, wash and wear
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I wear white jeans in the autumn/winter, as long as it’s dry and sunny. I pair them with a denim shirt, blue chore jacket and oxblood Dr Martens...
These are the tools: you have to use them
April 5th 2021“Can I wear dark-brown shoes like these with a suit in my office? Do you think it would be appropriate?” The answer is, I don’t know. I don’t work in your office: I don’t know what the implicit dress code is. You have t...
These are the tools: you have to use them
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I haven't thought about it to be honest. There may be something in the contrast colours, yes, though I think key is probably just having colours you're not really going to wear elsewhere...
My favourite outfits
March 12th 2021In our recent article ' Outfits that I got wrong', a reader commented that he would be interested in the opposite post. Not outfits I got right - hopefully there are lots of those - but ones I got the most right, or I like the most. Perhaps, those t...
My favourite outfits
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The Galway just about, the Ambleside yes with the storm welt etc...
Outfits I got wrong
February 19th 2021Everyone gets stuff wrong. We all have outfits we look back on years later, and cringe. Fortunately, I believe this is something where you learn and progress. It is not a cycle of fashions, where every few years you wear something different, and di...
The imagery that inspires me, by Oliver Dannefalk
December 21st 2020This is a guest article by Rubato designer Oliver Dannefalk, explaining what the hell he was looking at all the time on his phone. And then showing to everyone. It is a description of how he works, what inspires him, and what keeps him de-stressed. ...
The imagery that inspires me, by Oliver Dannefalk
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I don't, sorry Albert. You could ask 40 Colori, who do MTM knitwear, but it might be too complicated for them....
The cold-colour capsule
December 9th 2020I realised recently that an increasing number of my casual clothes fall into a narrow colour range. A good proportion of my favourite things - and certainly combinations - are a mix of brown, cream, black and grey. With some secondary colours at th...
The cold-colour capsule
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Perhaps just about, yes. It is a slightly strong colour having seen it in person, but should be OK. Might struggle with things like black...