[The votes and nominations for the Permanent Style awards closed today, by the way. Thank you for all your comments and emails. The winners will be announced next week.] At the Shirtmakers Symposium in Florence last week we had a display of five s...

[Everyday Denim shirts available here. Lighter Denim shirts here] When you talk to craftsmen or designers about things you like in their range, there’s often a particular smile that creeps across their face. Actually, it usually starts as somethin...

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...

One of the things bespoke artisans have struggled with during the Covid-19 crisis is not being able to travel. Savile Row makes more than half its money in the US, and the Spring trips weren’t possible. Should they try to do remote fittings? Can th...

Last Summer, I had coffee with a friend on a hot afternoon in Mayfair. Sitting outside a pavement cafe, he was wearing loafers, a beautifully tailored trousers and - to my surprise - a short-sleeved shirt.  I’ve never really liked short sleeves, b...

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...

This post is an illustrated explanation of how I wear trainers, or sneakers. As with similar exercises on the blog, I have attempted to be as structured as possible, keeping some parameters constant in order to focus on those being discussed.So in t...

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, ...

Readers have asked in the past what it’s like developing new clothing, what helps and hinders, what the challenges are. One piece of advice a friend gave me a while ago was to visit the factory more than you think - that even a one-day, flying visi...

On the final day of the pop-up shop back in October, it occurred to me to bring in my blue PS Oxford shirt - to show how it had softened with age.  The response was telling. Half of the people that felt it bought one on the day, and several of the o...

  The next batch of our Friday Polos, designed by myself and Neapolitan shirtmaker Luca Avitabile, are now available to order and be sent out. As we described in our first post on this collaboration, these long-sleeved polo shirts are cut long in ...

[NOTE: Luca Avitabile, the cutter for men's shirts at Satriano Cinque that I use, has split from the company and set up on his own. I recommend contacting him for any inquiries, at [email protected]]The Italians, frustratingly, don't tend to ...

  [NOTE: Luca Avitabile, the cutter for men's shirts at Satriano Cinque that I use, has split from the company and set up on his own. I recommend contacting him for any inquiries, at [email protected]] As promised in my recent posts on Nea...

[NOTE: Luca Avitabile, the cutter for men's shirts at Satriano Cinque that I use, has split from the company and set up on his own. I recommend contacting him for any inquiries, at [email protected]]For those with an interest in Neapolitan ta...

 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...

  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...

There are many reasons to commission a bespoke piece of clothing. I think the decision I made earlier in the year to order a bespoke shirt at Charvet, however, was the first time I have done so out of pure curiosity.I used to have shirts made by T...

I’ve always found that an oxford shirt fills a very specific gap in my wardrobe. Smart enough for almost any sports jacket - from cashmere to corduroy - it is also the perfect partner for jeans. It might bridge formal and casual perhaps better tha...

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...

  Decent made to measure. That's how I would describe this final jacket from Kiton - made for me as part of the Harrod's MTM events and described in previous posts on the commissioning and fitting. The basics are all there - sleeve length correct,...

  This is the third of the commissions I made with Spanish tailors earlier last year. It is a lightweight donegal jacket, from Calvo de Mora. It is probably the best of the three, and the most expensive. Funny how those things often go together.*Th...

 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...

  Simone Abbarchi is a Florence-based shirtmaker that has made for my friend Tommaso Capozzoli for a long time. He has always said that they have a very good relationship between price and quality, and he's right. Simone's made-to-measure shirts s...

  When I brought my shirt from Simone Abbarchi back to him in June (or rather his assistant, Gianluca) we ended up making quite a few changes. This may be a cause for concern, though I will reserve judgment. I had had one fitting originally, in a ...

  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...