Style

Layering knitwear can be both stylish and practical. Practical, because it gives particular warmth on a cold day - more, usually, than a shirt. And stylish because it looks so relaxed and casual, yet unusual.

You know when you think you’re not part of a trend, and then see everyone wearing the same thing? As a clothing snob that likes to think he’s different to everyone else, it’s very annoying. I had admired Michael H...

  The starting point for any decision about what shoes to wear with an outfit, is that they should be darker than the trousers. So with a charcoal trouser, a black shoe or very dark brown. With a mid-grey trouser, d...

Thank you for waiting so patiently - particularly those on the waiting list, who were alerted to the Friday Polo's availability a couple of days ago. The Friday Polo is now back in stock, in its original four colours: n...

Eight months ago I quit my day job as a financial journalist in order to dedicate myself to Permanent Style. (Many heartfelt thanks for all the messages I’ve received since then.) This prompted an interesting question...

Wearing a white tie with a blue shirt is something that makes perfect sense in Naples. To a certain extent, wearing sugary-pink jackets and lapis-blue tailoring makes sense too. It's just sunny so much of the time, even...

'Dressing up in a Dress-Down World' felt like a very timely subject for this Symposium, our first in New York. And particularly relevant in the US, perhaps, where there has always been a cultural aversion to dressing to...

* For updates and stock please see the shop page*   Of all the things I’ve developed or helped develop over the past few years, the PS Trench Coat was one of the most satisfying. That was partly because it seemed...

Following on from French bespoke style with Camps de Luca, we now arrive in Milan with Ferdinando Caraceni. Milanese tailoring has quite a distinct style, with light structure overall but a strong shoulder. So while tail...

The first Symposium we've held in New York was a great success last week - thank you to all of the 200+ people that came. The discussion was free-flowing and even funny in places, as we discussed dressing up and dressin...

Charcoal is a surprisingly useful colour in an odd jacket. Great with muted tones of tan, green or brown, it's also dark enough to go with lighter grey flannels. And charcoal is my favourite colour to wear with cream tr...

One of the most useful things in this day and age is a jacket that can be worn equally well with jeans and with formal, tailored trousers.   I’ve talked about this in the past, but in summary I find that for a jacket...

This question might seem like an easy one, but I do get a lot of comments and emails about it, so I thought I’d lay it out in a post. No, in short, a leather belt and leather shoes do not have to match. But they shoul...

This is the latest in a nice series of posts called ‘ The Rules and How to Break Them‘. Like the other Guides we have put together recently, it now has its own homepage, here.  You can navigate to that page ...

I don’t tend to wear brightly coloured ties. Too often they’re brash and loud, where a dark simple tie would be more tasteful. The only time I’ve regularly worn them is in unusual colours like lime green, rath...

“The therapy I never knew I needed.” That was how one reader described our reader dinner at Huntsman last year, and this year’s was no different. Ten winning readers came to the event, with four flying in speciall...

Fashions sweep through the world of classic menswear on a fairly regular basis – no matter how permanent we think our tastes and styles are. I find it pays to consider each carefully, and then over time decide which o...

When I first had this cotton jacket made, I noted that it was a tricky one to work into an outfit. The vintage cotton cloth ( more details here) is rather rough and casual, yet the cut and style are quite smart. Having ...

Our debate at the Media Symposium last week covered everything from influencers to Interview, story-telling to Supreme. It was one of the best discussions we've had, and probably the one with the broadest appeal. The au...

  The reviews of bespoke suits I’ve written over the years haven’t always been the same. Some included more on the experience (particularly when it was bad); some focused on the fit; others were more about style or ...

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...

Taka from Liverano. Lots of colour and pattern, but overall quite cold Being able to judge the relative formality of an outfit is a key component of dressing well in modern, variable working environments. Many things c...

  This is the latest in my somewhat infrequent series on the style of my favourite people in the menswear industry. For those that want to catch up, the previous instalments have been: Personal style: How to dress l...

I think it’s telling that the thing that makes me happiest about this outfit is the oatmeal-linen shirt, a piece made bespoke by D’Avino. I’ve been doing this for a while - trying to combine pieces of classic mens...

This was an idea that a reader suggested to me a few months ago. (Readers are the best...) It's called  The Lookbook, and it's a collection of all of my outfits from the past 10 years of Permanent Style.  One hundred ...