This pale, oatmeal-coloured cashmere is my new favourite sports-jacket material.When men are picking colours for sports jackets, their second choice (after the obviousness of navy) is usually grey. Which can be great, in: a rougher, preppy herrin...

I've always found cotton very appealing for summer suits, but historically haven't had much luck with them.I had a navy one made by Choppin & Lodge, but the make was really too English and structured for the material (my fault, not theirs). And...

This Neapolitan tweed jacket – made recently for me by Elia Caliendo – is perhaps the perfect update of an English classic.  Tweed is a wonderful material – tough, soft and highly wind- and water-resistant. It makes a great jacket for the m...

Pictured at the MTBA party last week, this is the finished jacket from Neapolitan tailor Elia Caliendo. Readers of The Rake online will have read previous posts on Elia, looking at both the man himself and an analysis of the inside of the jacket. Alt...

After months of indecision, I finally decided to have my length of Permanent Style tweed made up by Elia Caliendo in Naples. Every time I have been to Graham Browne recently, I see another length being made up for a reader. It looks beautiful, such a...

Some hopefully enlightening and entertaining posts on The Rake, including the French chestnut tanneries of JM Weston (above), the cute patch pockets of Elia Caliendo (below) and the making of a Globe-Trotter suitcase.

The Friday Polo was one of the first proper products we ever developed on Permanent Style and has gone through several iterations - spread collar, button-down, lightweight and heavy, short sleeve and long.  But in the eight years since it launched, ...

Hopsack and similar materials are a good choice for summer blazers - sharp jackets usually made in smart colours, such as navy.  The materials don’t vary that much, even if the weaves themselves are different. A mesh in a classic menswear dark-nav...

I’ve known Ben for a long time now. He worked round the corner from me during my journalism days, and we were both customers of visiting artisans like Elia Caliendo and Simone Abbarchi. We even did a shoot together for Elia years ago. Ben and I hav...

In recent years I’ve done an increasing amount of personal consultancy, meeting readers in person to answer their questions rather than just here on the website. I don’t really advertise it because I don’t have much capacity, and most peopl...

One of the most popular posts we’ve ever written on Permanent Style was ‘Which office are you?’, back in February 2016. It showed a spectrum of outfits from T-shirt and jeans, through knitwear and flannels, up to a jacket and tie - with just on...

I have been included in a list of the Top 10 most influential men in fashion by Esquire. Which is nice. You can read the full article and a short interview here. I dislike the term 'influencer' - frankly if that's how you define yourself, there ca...

Naples has the biggest concentration of high-end handmade menswear in the world. Although not so much for shoes, for tailoring and shirtmaking this is the motherlode, with hundreds of tailors in the city and surrounding region, and thousands workin...

What makes a cloth suitable for a jacket, but not for a suit?This is a question I know many readers struggle with, particularly as offices become more casual. Without the safety of a dark suit and dark shoes, what should a man wear? Why doesn’t the...

Thank you everyone that responded to my ‘You are the interviewer’ post a couple of weeks ago. The number of variety of questions was staggering, and I will try to answer as many as I can over the coming weeks. It may take time, but I would ra...

  Four things contribute most to the formality of an outfit: shine, darkness, contrast and desaturation.We see all four of them in formal outfits such as black tie. Dark black or midnight blue is contrasted against stark white. There is virtually n...

  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...

I’ve wanted a Liverano ulster coat for a long time. Ever since I first saw one on Ethan Newton I think, and subsequently reinforced by seeing versions on Jeff Hilliard (now at Mr Porter) and others. Liverano is very expensive, however, and it w...

 One of the interesting tensions in a factory visit is the way machinery is portrayed. Some manufacturers will boast of their old, traditional methods, when in fact the same thing could be done, quicker, by a newer machine - they just can't afford i...

The much-loved Friday Polos, which I design and produce with shirtmaker Luca Avitabile in Naples, are back in stock. Thank you to everyone that has been waiting so patiently. As per usual, we have produced them in four colours. However, as I know t...

*For updates and stock please see the shop page* Of all the things I’ve developed or helped develop over the past few years, the PS Trench Coat was one of the most satisfying. That was partly because it seemed to fill a particular niche for peopl...

In recent months a few readers have asked for a breakdown of how I built my wardrobe - my plans, my process and my lessons learned. Doing so across all types of garment and even styles would produce a very long, unwieldy piece, so I thought I would f...

My favourite Harris Tweed has not been available for a few years now.  Originally offered by Holland & Sherry, I was such a fan that I used it for one of my favourite tweed jackets (from Elia Caliendo, below), a fantastic ulster coat from Livera...

Last month we talked about how small changes in the proportions of a double-breasted jacket can have a radical effect on its style - and therefore on the people or situations it suits. This week I've used five of my own jackets to demonstrate these ...

 This Caliendo hopsack blazer was completed earlier in the year and is now fast becoming the most useful item in my wardrobe.Just like the Solito cashmere blazer I had made for Autumn/Winter last year, it is thrown on with everything: with a shirt a...