My leather jacket from Sartoria Melina arrived a couple of weeks ago, and I’m relieved to say the fit is good and the product excellent. I was rather worried at the fitting we had in Naples, because the canvas toile they had created was rather too...

 My apologies to Philip, who wrote recently that he's been waiting for my review of this Camps de Luca suit. And to anyone else. The suit was completed a few months ago and we managed to take some photographs last month. But books, polos and even...

Dear Simon,I was talking with a local bespoke tailor to sound out what they offer and how much handwork goes into their garments. Obviously everything is struck and cut by hand on premises, but he told me that the main seams are machine-sewn. The lap...

When selecting a cloth for an overcoat, what should you look for? This might seem like a pretty easy question: you want warmth. That’s what an overcoat is for. But how much warmth, and where it comes from, are not straightforward. As with anyt...

Although I love rich, natural colours (particularly in Autumn) I've always been particularly fascinated by the subtleties of monotone dressing.  It has such a strong style, and yet there is so little too it. It's striking and unusual, and yet quie...

I’ve known the De Luca family for a while now – particularly since Julien rejoined the business a few years ago. Julien was English-educated and worked in the City before going back to join Camps de Luca, and somehow the English connection makes ...

 In Paris this week, seeing a few lovely people at Cifonelli, Camps de Luca, Caron and Mes Chaussettes. Again with the Cs.The Camps de Luca suit needs one more fitting, while the Cifonelli overcoat is almost ready, even if it's not cold enough to we...

  In my recent post on a handkerchief capsule collection, there were quite a few questions about commuting to work by bike. They can be summarised as:What should I keep in the office, and at home?How do I rotate them to avoid things being boring?Is...

At last, after many rounds of correspondence by email, Hugo and I had a chance to meet at Anderson & Sheppard last week. Hugo was over in London for a couple of days, touring the Savile Row houses for the purposes of his own excellent blog Parisian G...

   Quite a few people asked how my suede Cifonelli jacket was being made - on the blog, on Instagram, on Facebook. And by email, with two separate tailors asking for advice to make one for their clients. Key to the questioning was how you could se...

As promised a while back, here is some video coverage of the talk Lorenzo Cifonelli and I gave at Attire House in Hong Kong last month. We cover a pretty broad range of topics, from how annoyed Lorenzo looks when he's doing fittings, to the various ...

Dear Mr CromptonMy name is Francisco Gomez, from Colombia. I recently stumbled upon your blog and have become an avid reader of it, since I have always loved all things related to clothing, accessories etc.I am currently in the process of having my f...

This is probably the busiest week of the year. I tend to avoid the fashion shows, but there are now some great tailoring events in the calendar - including The Rake's party at Claridge's on Sunday night and the English Gentleman tonight. And then tom...

  Back in February I began working on a jacket project with Nicoletta Caraceni, of Ferdinando Caraceni in Milan. There are, as you know, several tailors with the name Caraceni in Italy. They all stem from Domenico Caraceni, the founding father, a...

 The process of commissioning a bespoke suit is a nerve-wracking and, of course, expensive one. Permanent Style has provided extensive advice on this process over the years, particularly in posts covering suits from more than 20 tailors.But a reader...

I’ve been pleased to see that suede has enjoyed something of a renaissance in recent years. Italians like Loro Piana have always done it well – often in a classic Italian mix of brown suede and grey cashmere – but others such as Berluti, Dunhil...

"Edward, Edward," said Antonio Panico, in a conspiratorial whisper. "What was it like to fit Mick Jagger?"Just like the Shoemakers Symposium we ran in January, the biggest pleasure of our Tailors Symposium at Pitti this week was bringing together won...

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 ...

Last week I was in Paris for two days, catching up with old friends and artisans, and seeing a few new ones. One of the most interesting things was an interview with Lyne Cohen Solal, the new head of the Institut National Metiers d’Art - the organ...

It's that time of year, and new things are all arriving at once. Today it's a new, lighter shade of the Everyday Denim. Everyday Denim shirting went down really well with readers, both as fabric and finished shirts, and several asked for other varia...

Just before Christmas, I organised a Permanent Style Christmas dinner, to thank a few people that had helped and supported PS in recent years.  We were hosted by Geordie D’Anyers Willis of Berry Bros & Rudd, which was kind of Geordie, and also...

By Manish Puri Whenever an article related to Rome is published on Permanent Style I’ve noticed there’s usually a reader comment or two about Sartoria Ripense – either asking about their style or praising their work. With this in mind, I decide...

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’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...

A few weeks ago, a reader made the point that all my adventures with bespoke tailors could give the impression that this is the optimum way to build a wardrobe. That's certainly not the case.The process of bespoke tailoring is about building a relati...