Category: Suits

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...

This suit from Vicenza-based Sartoria Pasinato has turned out very smartly, with a clean fit and very sharp line. Part of this is a result of the cloth, which is a cavalry twill from Vitale Barberis Canonico (584, 440g)...

Of all the tailoring we have looked at it in this Tailor Styles series, this suit has to be the most dramatic and stylised. The lapels are big. Not just wide but rounded, ending with peaks high up the shoulder. The jacke...

This is part of a long-running series of articles known as the  Guide to Suit Style, covering everything from the number of buttons on a suit to the difference between made-to-measure and bespoke.    It will continue...

Apologies to those that had been waiting a while for coverage of this suit. It was finished in the Spring, but Japanese magazine Men’s Precious asked me to wait until it had been shot as part of a feature before publi...

One of the most interesting things about the growth in tailoring in recent years has been the way models have changed, split or evolved. We have bespoke suits being cut in London but made in India (eg Whitcomb & Sha...

First, there must be coffee. With the Italians, always coffee. Being English I find it hard to relax and chat. I want to get straight to the fitting, rather than sit down and exchange niceties. But it is a nice social r...

  A nice thing about our Finest Tailors series is that, as we add more tailors to it, each becomes a reference for the next, making comparisons easier. This Henry Poole suit, then, makes an interesting comparison to the...

I always enjoy visiting factories, and seeing Eduardo de Simone’s tailoring factory last month outside Naples was no exception. Indeed, it is right next to the first such tailoring factory I visited - Kiton back in 20...

  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 ...

I've been on holiday for the past two weeks, swimming every day, and have noticeably lost weight. I'm tightening the side adjustors on my trousers where I didn't before. It reminds me how frequently readers ask about su...

One of the less-discussed sides of Pitti Uomo is the number of tailors that set up in a hotel or appartment at the same time as the fair, in order to see customers. Although most visitors to Pitti are buyers from aroun...

Right. Let’s do this by first running through the Vestrucci style and cut, and then going into the more subjective areas of reaction and experience. The suit being discussed is a Holland & Sherry  charcoal fla...

Given Japan’s reputation for quality and craft - particularly in denim and bespoke menswear - it would be natural to assume its suit manufacturing was of the same level. But until recently, most factories in Japan p...

A friend used to say that he knew whether a suit was going to be good at the first, basted fitting. I’m not sure I entirely agree. The first fitting is largely for the tailor, to make sure the fundamentals of balanceÂ...

One thing readers asked for in our 'We are 10' post was more reflections on bespoke pieces. When covering bespoke, I tend to write both an initial piece giving the background and approach of the maker, and then a fuller...

Renato Ciardi, who sadly passed away earlier this year, was truly one of the greats of Neapolitan tailoring. Succession planning is rarely one of a bespoke tailor’s strengths, but fortunately the Ciardi family began p...

It has always surprised me how many Italian tailors say they can’t source good, unpolished horn buttons. Particularly because, since its launch last year, even customers can buy them from UK distributor Bernstein &...

So how shall we review a suit? Let me count the ways. One: style. Still the most important thing, as much as we encourage men everywhere to care more about quality and fit. [Read my first post, with the background on Mu...