Category: Trousers

As mentioned on my ‘What I pack’ post, I’ve been travelling a lot in high heat recently. There was Pitti in Florence, where the temperature topped out at 37 degrees. Naples in July was very similar. An...

As with most of my reviews, I wrote a first, introductory post on P Johnson last year, after they opened in London. My apologies that the full review, here, has taken so long. In that time John, James and the others hav...

*UPDATE: Edward Sexton have just confirmed they will producing a ready-to-wear version this Autumn/Winter, probably in flannel, price around £600* One of the more unusual bespoke commissions I made over the past s...

This is the first in what will be a series on artisanal workshops in Naples - following my trip there with Jamie a couple of weeks ago. One of the loveliest we visited was the Cerrato atelier, which is on the first flo...

Last year I got to know a group called The Disguisery , based in Fitzrovia. (‘Disguisery’ is a collective noun for tailors.) A trouser workshop for many houses on Savile Row, they have been branching out int...

Shades of tobacco and tan are one of the loveliest things to wear in the Summer. As the weather warms up, I've put together three outfits here - all somewhere in the 5 to 7 formality range - that illustrate this. Th...

The key functional aspect of trouser cloth is the body that enables it to drape well and hold its shape. It should throw a nice, clean line down the leg, hold its crease, and recover from wrinkling when hung at the end o...

Last year, while in Japan at Bryceland's, Salvatore Ambrosi offered me two pairs of his new ready-to-wear trousers to try. Regular readers will remember that the bespoke trousers I had from Ambrosi the previous year suf...

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 so...

Finding the right material for odd trousers - those worn with sports jackets rather than suits - is not easy. The kind of smooth, worsted cloths you're used to wearing as part of a suit are too sleek and formal. Many c...

For many reasons - personal, business, product, sheer beauty of execution - I’ve long been a fan of The Armoury. They were therefore one brand I was particularly excited to get into our Savile Row pop-up shop. How...

In most areas of the world, tailors commonly outsource their trouser making: cutting in-house but then sending the work to ateliers used by several different houses. Just as common in recent years has been the move for ...

Earlier this week, No Man Walks Alone published a piece I wrote for them while in New York, selecting my favourite pieces from the stacked shelves of their NY showroom. This is something we started with the Spring/Summ...

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 they...

Over the past few weeks I've been talking to Neapolitan trouser makers Marco and Massimo Cerrato, and commissioning the pair in cotton drill pictured here. I'm pleased to say that it looks like we have a reliable, good...

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 wa...

Those on the Drake’s mailing list may have seen this outfit on Friday, accompanying an article on their new trouser range. To fill in the details: the olive Drake’s chinos were worn with a white lightweight ...

Braces (or suspenders) are great. The tension in hanging from the shoulders maintains a smooth, elegant front to trousers. The high-waisted style gives a man longer legs and stops any shirt puffing out between trouser t...

Richard James are an interesting name in bespoke tailoring. Better known for ready-to-wear suits and various accessories, they’ve actually had a bespoke operation since they set up – in a small shop at 31 Sa...

A brief post today, with some pictures from holiday. Casual but still classic in cut and colour, and catering to the heat. First, above, 'Dani' espadrilles from La Portegna. I'm still in two minds about these, after a...

Hello Simon I am struggling with a lighter grey jacket like in your Caliendo denim post, or a navy jacket. Are they really that versatile to be the top 2 odd jacket colours? (As you mentioned in your oatmeal jacket pos...

I began the process of having trousers made by Salva (-tore Ambrosi) just over a year ago. Since then I’ve had two pairs made – in fresco and flannel – and while the quality of the product has been g...

There are just 19 of our cashmere squares left – the beautiful collaboration we started a few weeks ago with Begg & Co. The colours have sold pretty evenly, with 9 navy and 10 ‘natural’ (pictured...

I interviewed Vincenzo Attolini (above) back in January. This post is therefore a little late, although the advantage is the clothes will be dropping into shops now, unlike other pieces from trade shows where you have...

UPDATE : A few people have asked for contact details to make appointments. The event is being hosted by The Armoury – it’s ambrosi.napoli@gmail.com and london@thearmoury.com. (Zach is taking appointments an...

Dear Simon, I’ve always been extremes: a worsted wool suit or denim jeans. But having had my first couple of “sports jackets” made I thought it was worth while moving up in the formality stakes with ...

Green cotton trousers – the second part of the three-part commission from Spanish tailors Calvo de Mora. A lovely soft green moleskin from Scabal (Ascona, winter cotton, 501003) with a slightly longer nap. Non-En...

Cordings is a rather special shop. Not for its history, which I know others would focus on, but for its consistent philosophy of quality materials and practical construction. This is not a luxury retailer. The knitwear...

In our last post in this series on new London shops, we looked at how readers – with a natural affinity for fit and materials – could analyse the casual wear offered by Private White VC. In this post we shall...

Men increasingly wear separate jackets and trousers. It is an inevitable result of more casual office wear, and dressing down more generally. But separates are hard. Men are not used to combining them effectively, and ...

There’s no reason you would have heard of Rota, yet it is one of the best makers of trousers in Italy. A small, family-run company, it has been making nothing but trousers for the past 50 years – largely as a...

There are precious few clothing shops anywhere in the world that can still be called ‘destinations’: unique stores that aren’t in every country and every airport, where visiting them is a distinct pleas...

Hi Simon: Just wanted to say a big thank you for the wonderful work that you have been doing, it’s really pointed the rest us in the right direction. One thing that I have been rather confused on is how pants shoul...

Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; m...

Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; m...

D ear Mr. Crompton, I am hoping to follow up quickly on a blog post of yours concerning pleats. I’m having a bespoke suit made up from a Neapolitan tailor, and can’t decide on whether to go with pleats....

1. Jeans are great. But wearing them every day is boring. Most importantly, you will never let out the stylish man that lies within if you always wear jeans. Get some variety. The jeans that you do wear should be a raw d...

Anonymous: Do you prefer adjustable metal tabs or adjustable buttons on your suit pants? Is one more formal than the other? Also, I assume your suit pants do not have belt loops…correct? I’ve had a few such q...

To Palm Beach via the French Riviera Esquire, February 1938: “Here are two important new fashions in beach wear. On the left, the combination of the new mocha-coloured linen and cotton-mixed beach shirt, made in co...

I’ve written before that trousers can be the hardest thing for a man to source once he has gone bespoke with his jackets and shirts. It seems like a waste to have separate trousers made by a bespoke tailor – ...

I recently received my first braced suit. That is, one designed to be worn with braces, featuring a high waist and fish-tail back. When I first wore the suit it seemed that the front two pairs of buttons were a little to...

A while ago a few readers requested a picture of the lap seam, as referred to in my feature on Pogson & Davis, tailors of Mayfair. Apologies this has taken so long, but here they are. The lap seam is a decorative te...

Summer brings many things bright and unusual, one of which is shoes. They may be a normal colour but in suede, they may be a pale leather or they may be in adventurous and contrasting hues. I’ve had two questions i...

It often seems odd quite how many men wear jeans outside the office, and no other trousers. I was sitting in a taxi with three friends a while ago, all facing each other as you are in a black cab, and it struck me that w...