Category: Suits

As soft Neapolitan jackets have become popular in the past 10 years or so, the phrase 'spalla camicia' has been more and more frequently used. However if it means anything consistently, this Italian phrase for 'shirt sl...

I’m very fond of the cut of this Vestrucci suit, and it is more unusual than I realised when I first received it.  Although many aspects are similar to Liverano and other related Florentine tailors, there are small an...

This is my first suit from Hong Kong and Taipei-based tailor The Anthology.  Launched in 2018, The Anthology was created by the combination of London-educated Buzz Tang (below) and Hong Kong tailor Andy Chong, using a ...

I do not know Roman tailor Gaetano Aloisio. But I've heard good things, and seen one or two as well. So when Bruce Boyer told me he was having a suit made by Gaetano, I asked whether he would write something brief about...

This is the sixth 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 or on the dedicated guide page here.      God, I love ...

Wearing a dark shirt with a tie is an easy style to get wrong, I think.  It used to be quite widespread in the 1990s: dark maroon or navy shirts with a strongly coloured tie. It seemed to be worn by a certain kind of s...

Cifonelli is one of the three best-known tailors in Paris – the others being Camps de Luca and Smalto. (Though Smalto’s influence has rather waned in recent years, as the others’ has waxed.) It is best known fo...

This dark, muted green linen was a risk. I had never had anything like it before, let alone seen it on anyone else.  But I think it’s worked out very well. I’m pleased as well as relieved.  The colour is unusual y...

  I found it very interesting in our recent capsule suit collection article how many readers mentioned wearing suits casually.  It’s natural to assume that suits are for business. It is how they have been most co...

One of the lovely things about the questions and comments we get on Permanent Style is the trends they highlight. In the past two weeks there have been dozens of questions on old posts about wedding attire. So I know ev...

Pitti is a long trade show: four full days, when most are usually three. As a result, by Friday everyone is exhausted, with selling, talking, and late dinners. Although it does depend on why you’re there. Most people ...

  Musella-Dembech is a tiny tailor. They’re still based in the family home, even though recently they’ve expanded to make the whole appartment a working sartoria. Their reputation, however, is rather lar...

Relief, and relaxation. Those are my abiding memories of this, my fitting at Gieves on a new suit. Readers commented on a previous post that it was nice to know what I was thinking and feeling during a fitting. That it ...

These ‘Building a Wardrobe’ pieces have now been collected into a Guide, which will expand over time. You can see the list at the right (on desktop), at the bottom of this post (on mobile) or simply on its ow...

  Having run through the major types of tailoring style in Naples, we’re now onto the smaller variants. For those that might have them, those previous Neapolitan posts were Solito (the modern Neapolitan cut), Ciar...

Given how much readers have liked the posts recently looking at Armoury trousers, and then the Bryceland’s range, I thought a post going through the Armoury’s tailoring would be interesting. If anything this is more...

  This talk with Tommaso Capozzoli of Sartoria Vestrucci is a useful beginner’s guide for commissioning a suit.  Tommaso explains how he would work out what kind of suit a customer wants, how he would direct ...

  Best-dressed non-professional 2019: @Gusvs9 Runners-up: @urbancomposition, @flannels_and_tweed   @Gusvs9 doesn’t like people to know who he is. You never see his face on Instagram, and there is no biograph...

In our last installment in this Tailor Styles series, we looked at the modern incarnation of the Neapolitan jacket: light and soft, but also short with a small shoulder. Today’s suit, from Sartoria Ciardi, is the diam...

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 Campaign for Wool recently asked me to help them with a series of videos educating people on caring for wool products. Chaired by HRH Prince Charles, the Campaign is a charity that communicates how environmentally f...

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...

There are many unsung heroes of bespoke tailoring, but one of the biggest has to be the presser. Frankly, a jacket can look awful once a coatmaker has finished with it - dragged all over the place and wrinkled to hell. ...

It’s easy to draw conclusions about a tailor from their surroundings. The big houses of Savile Row certainly benefit from this, in particular those with wonderful interiors like Huntsman or Anderson & Sheppard. Bu...

We are travelling gradually south in this series covering the styles of the finest tailors in the world. So having covered the major styles of London, we arrive in Paris – which is all close chests, roped shoulders...