I love the fact that more men are wearing pocket handkerchiefs. It’s a great avenue for expression and way to wear colour when so many men dispense with a tie. But it is also dangerous. It is unusual, and therefore stands out. If not done right it ...

At a party last week a nice young man asked me what my top five tips would be for wearing suits. It sounded like a nice practical question, so here we go:1. Have a ready-to-wear suit alteredMost men that buy suits don't have them altered, but for £5...

 I do like it when readers suggest posts. You feel you’re fulfilling a need. Two weeks ago, on Five Tips on Bespoke Suits, a reader requested a similar post on bespoke shoes, so here it is.1 Be conservativeI know it’s the same as the first suits...

The combination of suit, shirt and tie that a man selects in the morning is certainly not the most important thing about what he wears. That would be the quality and fit of the articles themselves. But picking good combinations remains the thing men ...

The tips on looking good in a pair of shoes are simpler, in a way, than those for suits. They come down to two things: spend as much money as you can afford, because you are buying value and longevity; and look after them well, because you will be re...

 The process of commissioning a bespoke suit is a nerve-wracking and, of course, expensive one. Permanent Style has provided extensive advice on this process over the years, particularly in posts covering suits from more than 20 tailors.But a reader...

  A few weeks ago a reader asked about tips on having a suit altered. As often happens, this came up in the comments to a post - some of the best information is in there!I always recommend having a suit altered of course, if you have bought it off ...

Shirts are often underrated. Lying beneath tailored jacket and silken tie, they can seem less important than both. But in an age when men usually take off their jacket during the day, indeed often don’t even wear a jacket to the office, the shirt h...

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 denim, starting indigo dark and ...

 This is the 1000th post on Permanent Style. In the past five-and-a-half years I have written about having things made at 20 different bespoke tailors, 6 bespoke shirtmakers and 2 bespoke shoemakers. But looking back over the most popular posts, it...

  When I was in Milan two weeks ago I had a first and second fitting with Ferdinando Caraceni in a day. This isn’t something that all tailors are happy doing, but for some such as Caraceni – which has a lot of foreign clients hoping to have su...

I know a few men who have discovered an interest in clothes in recent years – primarily suits, shirts, ties, good shoes. The working wardrobe, essentially. They know about the canvas in a jacket’s chest; they have established how and why somethin...

The remarkable heat in London over the past two weeks has led to a few questions from readers as to the best way to stay cool in tailoring. Here are my top five tips.1 Wear linenLinen is a wonderful cloth: breathable and cool to the touch. Although e...

As Permanent Style is now 11 years old (that past year went quickly…) I thought it would be nice to consider what my favourite 11 posts from that little-more-than-a-decade. And I’d be really interested to hear what your favourite is too. It??...

 Dear Simon,My name is Lukas. I've been an avid permanent style reader for several years and absolutely love your articles. For about four years, I have been altering RTW blazers, trousers and suits. On two occasions i've also had MTM suits made. Ha...

  This is the fourth 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. Following on from previous articles on single and double-breasted suits, ...

Summer outfits often involve white somewhere, as it’s nice to reflect the brightness of the weather – particularly if you’re in Italy and the sun is that much more consistent than it is in the UK.Combining more than one white – or cream – t...

  There are many ways in which you can make a sartorial outfit look younger or more modern. Extremes are always wrong: very short jackets, big puffy shoulders. They just look trendy, for a bit. But aside from the extremes, I would argue proportion...

Ten years ago, I started a blog. It seems odd to call it a blog now - given how much Permanent Style encompasses today - but back then it was definitely a blog. It contained a lot of rants. About how there were no good magazines; about how men wo...