Can subcultures ever exist in this century the way they did in the last? Why are logos better on some clothes than others? Why do French men dress like happy Englishmen?  When I introduced this talk with Tony Sylvester I promised a wide ranging mens...

By Tony Sylvester It’s been three long years since I last shuffled along the cobbled streets of Florence, winding my way to the Fortezza Da Basso, the medieval castle that hosts Pitti Uomo, the international menswear trade fair. Without stating the...

By Tony Sylvester Earlier this year, some readers may remember, I joined Simon and photographer Alex Natt on a jaunt to Paris. I spent the day investigating and chasing ghosts of the cult Parisian brand Arnys, visiting with their old designer Dominiq...

By Tony Sylvester From the kilo stores to the more specialised outlets, Paris is a city with an enviable array of vintage menswear options. This spring, Simon filed reports on two of the best. Le Vif in the 16th, with its highly curated focus on Amer...

By Tony Sylvester. I used to travel to Oslo regularly for a decade or so. A beautiful city, but not one abundant with window shopping options for those interested in menswear. One of the exceptions was Cavour; slap bang in the well-heeled part of tow...

By Tony Sylvester. I am sure you too have a full and eclectic ‘Saved Searches’ section on your eBay app. Mine includes everything from rare Barbour jackets to Finnish glassware; old Polo coats to Georgian jewellery. Some are comedic reminders of ...

By Tony Sylvester. “On the pleasant shore of the French Riviera, about half way between Marseilles and the Italian border, stands a large, proud, rose-colored hotel. Deferential palms cool its flushed façade, and before it stretches a short dazzli...

By Tony Sylvester Roughly three years ago I wrote a piece for the Drake’s in-house magazine Common Thread. Given a free rein on any subject I wanted to talk about, I’d started ruminating on the similarities between French and English style, one o...

The Bores jacket from Chato Lufsen has been covered on PS before - it was reviewed by contributor Tony Sylvester in November last year.  But seeing that jacket in person made me reconsider the style, and then when Christophe of Chato Lufsen - who ma...

I’ve been buying and wearing more corduroy in recent years - including the new dark-brown jacket above, from Sartoria Ciardi.  I think the reason is that if you’re not dressing for a formal office, worsted is likely to feel out of place; flannel...

The photographer Milad Abedi is someone whose style I've liked for a long time, but in a quiet way. Whenever we’ve shot together I’ve been interested in what he’s wearing and found something I liked, but he wasn’t the first person I thought...

Brut is an interesting French brand, and store. Since it was founded by Paul Ben Chemhoun (below) in 2012, it has evolved from a vintage shop, into a home for rescued and reworked clothing, and now its own brand.  When I visited earlier this year wi...

By Manish Puri In between short walks to the kitchen to restock on mince pies and watching Home Alone for the 83rd time (this genuinely may be an understatement), the festive period offers a singular opportunity to contemplate weighty matters concern...

This was really fun. I guess it’s always easier interviewing someone you know well, but there’s also a temptation there to just chat - to forget the perhaps more significant topics you had wanted to discuss.  I think we got a nice balance. Th...

This past Sunday was the second installment of ‘Mr Vintage Fayre’, a new vintage-shopping event in London. The first one was back in April, and was by all accounts a success (I couldn’t attend unfortunately, weekends being always a bit tricky w...

A new season of talks is starting this Autumn, following the same format as the four we held last year - with Ethan Newton, Tony Sylvester, Jamie Ferguson and Rubato. The evenings at Mortimer House were immensely enjoyable, with around 50 readers gat...

By Tony Sylvester For the first time in a long time, I find myself in a particular clothing predicament: having spent the past few years in the same home, a move is imminent. While the change is welcome for many reasons, one of the obstacles is parin...

By Tony Sylvester Sitting down to write today, I am wearing my favourite recent piece of clothing. Brand new from Bryceland’s, the knee-length linen Farmer’s Smock (below) might be a bit of a departure from what you expect from the design team of...

By Tony Sylvester A couple of weekends ago, at the invitation of photographer Jamie Ferguson and writer Aleks Cvetkovic, a few friends got together for a weekend away in the Devonshire countryside. Obviously, social invitations and jaunts out and a...

By Tony Sylvester This Autumn past, I took my first trip since before Covid. A short flight to Copenhagen, a city I know well. A very brief holiday, it served as a primer of sorts; a way to ease back into the idea of travel.  Everything was familiar...

By Tony Sylvester “A few years back, I posted a photo of Paul Weller on my Instagram (above). It was taken in 1984 in his Style Council era, where much to the consternation of the Mod faithful, he was constantly tinkering with his attire - alienati...

By Tony Sylvester It might seem counterintuitive to be talking about past fads or subcultures on a platform named Permanent Style. But while it is certainly admirable for a man to build a wardrobe around the timeless and perennial, it would be foolis...

I believe that core to understanding clothes, and perhaps even to enjoying them, is appreciating styles that are not your own.  If you can’t, it closes you off to dozens of ideas - something as simple as the shape of a sleeve, or a colour combinat...

1. Drake’s bright-red suede chore jacket £1195 I’ve been asked a few times over the years about these suede chore jackets from Drake’s. Personally I tend to prefer blouson styles, and chore coats in cottons, particularly vintage ones. But sinc...

Vintage clothing has become more and more popular over the past decade.  Underneath obvious markers like the launch of brands RRL, or artificially aged sneakers, men have been gradually buying into vintage because it’s authentic, because it’s a ...