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 is the first in a series of three videos in which I look at how a jacket should fit. In this first one, we cover the basics around the jacket - front, back and side. It's a useful summary of the main points, and applies as much to a high-street...

The next chapter in our Shirt Style series is on checks and related patterns.  The first, looking at stripes, was surprisingly popular.  I always imagined this type of article would be most useful in the long term - as a piece to look up, to li...

Everyone gets stuff wrong. We all have outfits we look back on years later, and cringe.  Fortunately, I believe this is something where you learn and progress. It is not a cycle of fashions, where every few years you wear something different, and di...

This is part of a long-running series of articles known as the Guide to Suit Style, covering everything from the number of buttons on a suit to the difference between made-to-measure and bespoke.    It will continue to be added to over the next...

This is the second in a series of videos in which we're looking at how a jacket should fit. The first one, here, was a summary of the basics on fit. In this second one, we look at the length of a jacket. This is the kind of thing that can seem like a...

[Top photo added since this post was originally written, as the bottom one distorts the shape of the suit rather]As requested, here is my Anderson & Sheppard suit. A 13-ounce, grey Prince of Wales cloth with pale blue overcheck, made up into three-pi...

Permanent Style has appeared once again in Spice, the top luxury magazine in India. The piece, which tells the tale of how Daniel Craig had to get his Turnbull & Asser shirts entirely remade, appears in the April issue. The full text is belowTurnbull...

  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 - ...

I’m not sure we really answered the question in this chat.  The idea of each of these videos is to take a frequently asked reader question, and then tackle it from every angle. Here the question was: ‘I’m going to a tailor or shirtmaker for th...

Incotex trousersDear Simon,I have a couple of questions on trousers which I haven’t seen you address. First, you said in a post a while ago that side straps should be positioned on the waistband seam, not the waistband itself, to make it more comfo...

Last week I wrote about Claire Barrett of Hawthorne & Heaney, who does fine embroidery on livery, shirts and slippers for the bespoke menswear trade, as well as working with fashion designers in London.I came to her to learn about the process and wit...

Since I wrote a post at the beginning of the month urging readers to comment and ask questions on Permanent Style, quite a few have asked about different ready-to-wear and made-to-measure brands. I’d like to explain how to compare RTW, and why I ca...

Images from US men’s magazines Esquire and Apparel Arts are relatively common around the internet, but less common are Italian illustrations from the same era. These come from a collection of a small Italian tailor, who kindly allowed me to scan a ...

This is the second post we've done highlighting our favourite cloths from new seasonal bunches. The first, on Spring/Summer 2018, is here. Unfortunately the bunches come in late in the season, but there's still probably time to use these recommendati...

The proprietor of Norton & Sons gives his thoughts on dressing up and dressing well. What’s the key to a great men’s outfit? The great thing about the way men dress is we have so many bits and pieces we can put together. And if you’ve got an ...

  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...

Selecting cloth may be the hardest part of the bespoke (or made-to-measure) process. You pick the style of a suit every time you buy one off the rack, but you’re unlikely to have ever looked at a tiny square of cloth and tried to imagine what it wo...

Akihiro Mizobata, Ring JacketA well-fitted jacket is the most flattering thing a man can own. It occurred to me recently - in conversation with a long-term reader - that we don’t talk about the importance of fit anymore. Yet it used to be all we t...

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’...

When Bruce read our article on Nicoletta Caraceni’s 50-year-old jacket recently, he was spurred to send an example of his own: the Anderson & Sheppard jacket worn above.  And really, there are few people better placed to talk about how tail...

A perennial topic on this site, and indeed other style fora, is how customers interact with their tailors when they have their first suit made. The customer thinks he knows what he wants but he can’t quite express it – at least not in the termino...

A friend of mine once told me about regular meetings with Prince Charles (as he then was). Assembled at Clarence House, a team of six would wait in a shockingly cold room, to the extent that anyone who was near a window could see their breath. Charle...

Near where I grew up in Mortlake, south-west London, there is an incredible antiques shop.  ‘Memories of Mortlake’ is the life’s work of collector Elke Crowther, who sadly passed away last year, after decades of selling anything and everything...

By Tom Mastronardi. Anyone that knows me appreciates my resolute affection for being well-tailored. Even as a kid raised in a decidedly blue-collar neighbourhood on Chicago’s South Side, I never required any coaxing to don a jacket and tie. But of ...