One of the nicest aspects of the Bespoke Tailors Benevolent Association dinner every year is the evening wear.Although most cutters and tailors aren't actually into clothes and style, they are all wearing something bespoke - so the fit is good - ...

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

It is the time of year for wedding preparations, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to share images of my friend Oliver's wedding last year. He is wearing probably my favourite groomsman's outfit. First, the colour. Pale grey is suitably serious...

It’s taken a while to get to these remaining questions from our ‘You are the interviewer’ post (thanks again for those - some great questions in there). Hopefully I’ll be able to get through them all over the Christmas break. Today, we’...

If shirts are the items in a man’s wardrobe where he wants most predictability and consistency, then trousers are undoubtedly second. In that spirit, over the past year I have regularly commissioned odd trousers (‘odd’ as in separate, so not...

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 everyone is thinking about what ...

  The simplicity of classic wedding attire - in colour, in pattern, in tone - is a reflection of respect  for the importance of the event. Business attire, once-upon-a-time, was similarly restrained; but while I can see the argument for relaxing c...

A few weeks ago, a reader made the point that all my adventures with bespoke tailors could give the impression that this is the optimum way to build a wardrobe. That's certainly not the case.The process of bespoke tailoring is about building a relati...

 Last week three of us visited the Barbour factory in South Shields, in the name of a new book on British heritage brands. Given we were researching the stories behind the companies, it was natural to stay next to the lighthouse that was the ear...

Understanding formality is a cornerstone of dressing well.  Only when you understand that flannel is more casual than worsted, and a derby more casual than an oxford, can you begin to understand the impression clothes create - and how to put appropr...

This summer there were several launch events at Pitti Uomo. Kenji opened up in Florence again, with his new Tie Your Tie store (small but lovely); Benedikt had his Shibumi showroom with new tailoring; it was effectively the launch of Neapolitan trous...

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 have moved from the pop-up in So...

This is the third article in the Suit Style series dedicated to trousers. We previously looked at pleats, and at cut, in hopefully comprehensive detail.  Here we’ll aim to cover off the remaining style details - including cuffs/turn-ups, belts ...

In recent weeks we’ve been talking a lot about reflections on bespoke over time; the lessons I draw from commissioning tailoring for 13 years or so. We did an article on how dramatically tailoring can be altered, using my Chittleborough & Morga...

A reader commented recently (or rather, berated me) for not keeping my jacket buttoned.  I understand the feeling behind this, but I also want to emphasise that just because it usually looks better, it doesn’t mean you have to follow this rule ...