Is it possible to look good in cheaper clothes? Absolutely. But that doesn’t mean you can’t look better (in some ways) with better quality ones, or that there aren’t other reasons for choosing them.  This question often comes up when we featur...

I get asked surprisingly often what I wear with my children at the weekend - when there’s a chance I’ll be running round a park, on my knees in a playground tunnel, or simply within range of a ketchup spill.  There seems to be a presumption that...

Ian is retired, and got into luxury menswear late in life. But he always had an interest in clothes, from his early days in Ivy clothing to the forties and fifties influences that came with learning jive dancing.  It could be easy to see him as bein...

This is one of the many great questions people submitted in response to the ‘You are the interviewer’ post a couple of weeks ago. In fact, it brought together a few of the questions, as many of the good ones do. It’s an extension of the topic w...

I like the way my tattered old baseball cap makes an overcoat look, not just look less formal, but more human. I like the varied hues of my old Oundles not just because they’re beautiful, but because they speak of use, of life. They counter any imp...

Sweatshirts vary hugely in price, from £20 at a fast-fashion brand to well over £200 from a specialist Japanese maker.  And even though the price difference is that large among brands we cover - say Merz b Schwnen at £130 and The Real McCoy’s a...

Patrick Dawson is a retired news correspondent, now living in London. During his career he worked for ABC, CNN and NBC and covered the Balkans War from Kosovo, the Gulf War from Kuwait, and was the first NBC correspondent on the ground during 9/11. H...

Peter Nitz is a Swiss craftsman based in Zurich. He does a lot of teaching of hand-sewn leather techniques, including classes, videos and individual training. He also sells leather-working tools. (When you’re a bespoke craftsman, it’s good to hav...

Seiji McCarthy is someone I've wanted to cover on PS ever since we hung out in Tokyo some six years ago. But with no prospect of travelling to Japan soon, I turned to local writer and friend Christopher Berry to visit Seiji and report - on Seiji's Am...

Tim owns an antique luggage and travel accessories shop, and spends a lot of his time either in the store or on the road sourcing. His clothes are eminently practical, but they also speak of a love of old things, including all second-hand clothing. ...

I met Ben at our recent pop-up party, and liked what he was wearing (first outfit below). We got to talking and I discovered his interesting background - always good, as I’d like these profiles to explore different types of PS reader - and his pure...

I’m often asked by readers whether a particular piece of clothing is ‘worth it’. Yet the older I get - the further along my clothing journey - the more I realise how subjective this can be.  Also, I’m finding my particular subjectivity is ch...

Peter Middleton is an affable Texan with a real passion for fabrics. We talked previously for a PS piece on Navajo rugs, and also for an article about the design side of Ralph Lauren, where Peter (above, right) worked in fabric research. But when we ...

* This article is the first in a series that will look at New York bespoke over the years* By Manish Puri. In the 1956 version of the song New York’s My Home, Sammy Davis Jr. is eager to address the crazy rumour that some foolhardy New Yorkers are ...

Results of the Readers Awards 2023: Best customer service: Anglo-Italian. Runners-up: Anderson & Sheppard, The Armoury Best product: Private White VC. Runner-up: Anglo-Italian Best styling: Drake's. Runner-up: Rubato Best artisan: Corcos. Runner...

When we covered Ivy-inspired clothing in a recent Reader Profile, there were some slightly dismissive comments about Ivy as a whole. Given I’ve found that tradition particularly inspiring in the past five years, I thought it might be worth setting ...

I buy watches in much the same way as I suggest other people buy tailoring.  I have a small number, of high quality, which meet a range of needs - formalities, colours, and a little extra to keep things interesting.  I went through a period of abou...

I've had a few requests over the years to do one of these, our wardrobe-building guides, about knitwear.  One of the challenges of doing so is that very little is right or wrong, and a lot is personal. Still, there are some helpful things that ca...

Just outside the centre of Paris, in the Faubourg Saint Antoine district, there is an institution called Cour de l’industrie: a set of courtyards that houses around 50 different artisans.   As a home of industry it traces its history back to 1673...

Please read part one of this article, here, before this one. Without that context, setting out my priorities, this summary will likely be misleading. Everyone is different, wants different things from bespoke, and simply gets on with people differen...

Everybody loves a bargain. I think one reader referred to it as the ‘siren song’ of cheaper-but-quality clothing.  The reference is often apt. Enthusiasts of anything expensive are drawn to the idea - like hypnotised Greek sailors - that they c...

With the PS reader profiles, we’re always looking to add something different - a different style, a different age, hopefully at some point a different location.  Although Shun’s love of classic menswear will be shared by many, he is a little dif...

I began the companion piece to this one - looking at smart trousers - by saying that it was the hardest chapter to write in our Wardrobe Building series.  I was right. I thought this one would be harder, but it’s not. The problem with going fr...

Permanent Style reader, this is not for you. This is intended for your wife/husband/partner/child/dog, in an attempt to help source a Christmas present for someone who, let’s face it, is very fussy in general but particularly about clothing.  So p...

Sebastian has an interesting story - a clothing story with distinct phases. He’s a long-term reader (just over 10 years) and has worn many different styles, many different brands. But he's another PS reader in essence - always a little similar to t...