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 post.)What are the trouser colours...

 These past few days I've been in Madrid, speaking at the Aristocrata club meeting and seeing a few of the tailors and shoemakers I know (Langa, Reillo, Calvo de Mora, Norman Vilalta).  I invited Elia Caliendo and Luca Avitabile of Satriano Cinque...

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. And Puglia at the end of that month was h...

  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 although I see more nice jac...

On the wall of Sartoria Panico in Naples, there is a framed picture of our Tailoring Symposium in 2016. Antonio Panico stands there with other greats of modern bespoke such as Edward Sexton, Antonio Liverano and Lorenzo Cifonelli, basking in the su...

  If there is one question men ask more than any other, it is how to wear a jacket with jeans.Behind this usually lies a desire to dress up an outfit without appearing too up-tight.Friends in the creative or digital industries often have this probl...

  A cream jacket is more useful than you might think.  Certainly, I've found myself using this one from Jean-Manuel Moreau more than I expected since I received it earlier in the year.   This post describes, and illustrates, three ...

 Walking along the River Tweed, wearing tweed that (is it just me?) is rather reminiscent of the colours of the landscape. Of course, it's Harris tweed and we're in the Borders, but it seems fitting nonetheless. Cloth suited to its country. This wa...

  Some of my best, certainly my most original bespoke projects have been undertaken with Davide Taub, head cutter at Gieves & Hawkes. Regular readers will remember the bespoke leather jacket we made together in 2013, and the pea coat in 2014.?...

Best Artisan of the Year: Musella Dembech This award, readers may remember, is the only one of the Permanent Style Awards that will be decided purely by me. The overlap of readers that have used a bespoke artisan in 2017 is simply not enough, i...

The colour combinations that we discuss every week in regards to formal wear, can be applied just as readily to casual wear.  Although there will always be elements that don't crossover (such as the immense versatility of denim) a lot of the themes...

This post was originally written in 2012: a breakdown of all the tailors I have tried personally (rather than just written about), split into different countries. It was updated in 2016, and I have updated it again now in 2020, adding a further 1...

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...

I found it very interesting in our recent capsule suit collection article how many readers mentioned wearing suits casually.  It’s natural to assume that suits are for business. It is how they have been most commonly used in recent decades, aft...

  As readers never fail to point out, I have had a lot of bespoke items made over the past 10 years. But while I love pretty much all of them, some get a lot more use than others.These pieces become staples - the things I turn to time and again. An...

At the Young Tailors Symposium in a couple of weeks, we will have one floor of the Stefano Bemer atelier dedicated to my favourite Holland & Sherry cloths. Holland & Sherry have generously supported the event, and I thought the best way to r...

Dear Simon, I recently read your 2014 article, 'The staples of a good wardrobe' and was wondering how you would modify it for warmer climes like Hong Kong and Singapore?Grey flannel isn’t a great option for most of the year here, cashmere is har...

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...

Our ‘complete capsule’ article last month went down particularly well with readers. Setting out a concentrated, versatile wardrobe, I think it provided both a good starting point for new readers and a way for older ones to realise gaps in their...

A Stefano Bemer bespoke solePlease remember, loyal readers, that I am now writing every week - indeed, twice a week - for The Rake online, which is expanding into a great source for international artisanal articles.Recently we have had posts on:- Lor...

Simon I have been thinking lately about removing the belt loops from some of my bespoke suit trousers.I was previously convinced that I wanted to remove the belt loops, but now I'm confused after discussing it with my Neapolitan tailor. She is a prop...

I've been wearing in my Levi's bespoke jeans gradually over the past few weeks, and the raw denim is settling in well. For those unfamiliar with raw denim, it is favoured by those passionate about indigo twill for the way it moulds to the legs - far ...

  OK, let's break this down. There are four major choices of colour here:Trousers: greenJacket: tanTie: brownShirt: blueI put them deliberately in that order because that is the order in which they were chosen. Readers are familiar with my love of ...

In case anyone's interested in my views on cycling and style - particularly the crossover between technical innovation and luxury - here's a video of an interview I did with Konrad Olsson during Pitti. Konrad is the editor-in-chief of Plaza Uomo maga...

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 pique-cotton shirt made by Luca Avitabil...