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...

You know when you think you’re not part of a trend, and then see everyone wearing the same thing? As a clothing snob that likes to think he’s different to everyone else, it’s very annoying. I had admired Michael Hill’s green-corduroy suit -...

This is a made-to-measure corduroy jacket from William Crabtree, the shop in Marylebone run by James Priestley.  We covered William Crabtree previously here, looking at a MTM chore suit. James also offers a very well-priced MTM tailoring programme a...

Charcoal is a surprisingly useful colour in an odd jacket. Great with muted tones of tan, green or brown, it's also dark enough to go with lighter grey flannels. And charcoal is my favourite colour to wear with cream trousers. It tends to tone down...

In my continued exploration of all things the colour of mourning, I commissioned this black-corduroy suit from Pommella (trousers) and Zizolfi (jacket) last year.  The logic seemed sound: if black is going to work in tailoring, I’d consistently fo...

This is the Mk.1 Games Blazer from Drake’s in russet corduroy. To be honest, I’ve lost track of the numbers and which style each is, but the important thing is that this one's a fairly regular jacket with notched lapels - not the version I’d k...

This Anderson & Sheppard jacket is part of a suit I had made over 10 years ago. When I wrote back in January about my ‘favourite clothes ever’, I named it my favourite ever piece of bespoke.  It is therefore a good candidate for our ‘Ho...

This may be a little niche, but it’s something that often stresses me out in the morning, so hopefully it will be of some use to others.  My plans for what to wear on a particular day usually don’t account for rain.  I might be going into town,...

The main reason I shot this outfit with Milad last month was to talk about the cords - a heavy Brisbane Moss brown that has both its pleasures and its weaknesses. I’ll run through the rest of the outfit too though, because there are a few things to...

 Cordings is a rather special shop. Not for its history, which I know others would focus on, but for its consistent philosophy of quality materials and practical construction.This is not a luxury retailer. The knitwear is of lambswool, not cashmer...

*This is an extract from the book Bespoke Style, which is available here on the PS shop* Nunzio Pirozzi has a strong reputation in Naples. Indeed, he’s one of the few master tailors that other tailors consistently praise. (The usual method of ex...

I have a friend who wears what he calls ‘knockabout’ suits. How exactly he knocks about in them I don’t know, but the meaning is clear: these are casual suits, that don’t belong in a formal environment like an office. Most non-worsted suiting...

This is the corduroy suit I featured the fitting of last October - at the E. Marinella store in London. Although labelled as Marinella, it was made by Nunzio Pirozzi - a Neapolitan tailor with a wonderful moustache and a sterling reputation in N...

This outfit was used in a piece written recently for Drake's regarding corduroy. The piece mentions some of the associations that corduroy often carries, and ways to avoid them; basically, keeping the colours dark and the fit contemporary. But you ...

I'm a relatively recent convert to cordovan, but have come to love it as I've started to wear more casual clothing, and darker colours. It also added a layer of love visiting the Horween tannery in Chicago last year (shown below). That’s worth a re...

Although casual clothing is far more susceptible to fashions than tailored clothing, it is possible to organize it into certain groups, or paradigms.These groups, such as preppy clothing or workwear, often have their roots in particular parts of the ...

When we published our second capsule guide to trousers recently, there was a discussion in the comments as to their smartness - and a request for an article setting it out.  Now, trousers vary in more than just their material, so this will always be...

I like wearing suits. Not only do I have a lot that I like wearing, but I continue to commission them – not as much as sports jackets, certainly, but consistently. It can be an issue knowing how to wear them without a tie though. I know I have a bi...

I had my first suit made at Anderson & Sheppard 12 years ago, in 2010.  As I begin a series looking at the making of a new A&S jacket, I thought it would be interesting, even fun, to look back at that first suit and the ones that followed it...

This jacket from Sartoria Pirozzi doesn’t really need a normal review.  The point of it was to cover the tailor again because they are now coming to London frequently, having taken a share of a space in Shepherd Market.  And it was to check the q...

Broadly speaking, I dress in one of three ways during the week. They are defined quite clearly (to simplify the process, as much as anything else) and represent three general levels of smartness. I know readers will be interested in having these set ...

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...

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...

This is the first piece of black tailoring that’s been featured on Permanent Style, I think, outside of evening wear. Over the past three years we’ve been exploring how black’s role in the wardrobe can be expanded, beyond tuxedos and lace-ups. ...

Pitti Uomo this year felt busier than last, but that was a little deceptive - two of the big buildings were still closed for lack of exhibitors, and more squeezed into the main pavilion. The show’s future still feels a little uncertain.  My time w...