At the end of last year I began a project to create a versatile top coat with Sartoria Vergallo – the Italian tailor based in Varese that I have used twice in the past, for a navy cashmere suit and a silk houndstooth jacket. The aim of the coat wa...

Last year I got to know a group called The Disguisery, based in Fitzrovia. (‘Disguisery’ is a collective noun for tailors.) A trouser workshop for many houses on Savile Row, they have been branching out into jackets and suiting, and creating the...

Gieves & Hawkes has always had a good bespoke operation, and surprisingly large on site, but it gets relatively little press. A definite bonus has been Davide Taub, who joined from Maurice Sedwell recently to become co-head cutter alongside Lee Webb....

  I began the process of having trousers made by Salva (-tore Ambrosi) just over a year ago. Since then I’ve had two pairs made - in fresco and flannel - and while the quality of the product has been good, the process hasn’t. Salva had problems...

  This is the finished charcoal overcoat from Edward Sexton, and it’s hard to over-estimate how much pleasure it gives me. It’s a very different feeling from my navy Cifonelli coat. That is practical, every day, an anonymous touch of luxury. I...

  Me and Theo, in Cifonelli jacket and Paul Stuart shirtThanks to everyone who came along to drinks a couple of weeks ago at The Armoury trunk show. It was to meet everyone and it looked like the prosecco went down well. A few shots of people below...

Parisian tailors differ in some interesting ways from English tailors. An apprentice cutter has to learn tailoring to the same level as his cutting, for example. Most of the tailors are full-time employees, not freelance. And they are all situated on...

There are very few bespoke tailors I would have faith in to explore an entirely new style or new medium. They include Lorenzo Cifonelli, Davide Taub and Rubinacci (Luca plus cutter). Many more, although highly innovative, tend to make within a defini...

 I’m getting pretty excited about this Camps de Luca suit now. Not only will it be one of the most beautifully made suits I own – coming from a Parisian tailor – but also one of the most versatile. In both those ways it is similar to the nav...

 Although I decided to have my first Milanese suit made at Ferdinando Caraceni (see previous post), I've visited and got to know Carlo and Massimiliano Andreacchio at A Caraceni as well. Between them, they are the highest form of central-Italian tai...

  On Thursday, November 5th I will be helping Cifonelli officially open its new ready-to-wear store in Paris, with a book signing event for The Finest Menswear in the World in the shop.If you are in Paris and would like to come, please RSVP to me o...

Over the past few weeks I've been talking to Neapolitan trouser makers Marco and Massimo Cerrato, and commissioning the pair in cotton drill pictured here. I'm pleased to say that it looks like we have a reliable, good-value maker at a very high qua...

At the end of last year I got to know the new owners of the General Leather Company on Chiltern Street - now renamed Cromford Leather. This was exciting because they not only make leather and suede jackets on the premises, but undertake alterations f...

The pop-up store opened last night at Fortnum & Mason, and several readers headed for the new batch of Everyday Denim fabric, which was nice to see. The one I have in it (pictured) remains my absolute favourite shirt. That denim is now available ...

A reader recently asked whether there was anything I particularly liked on The Rake’s online shop, given how much they’ve added in the past year. I feel I know why he’s asking. The Rake has added so much product recently that it’s hard to kn...

I liked the made-to-measure jacket I got from Sartoria Melina in 2017 so much, that last year I commissioned something new. This is it: their bomber-jacket style, in a tan colour of their signature nubuck leather. Having worn it for a few months ...

Thom Sweeney is a bit of an outlier in British tailoring. First because it's a high-quality bespoke workshop with a stylish, effective ready-to-wear brand as well (something no one else seems able to achieve).  And second because their bespoke genu...

These are dark and uncertain times for businesses everywhere, in particular fashion.  Who will care about their clothes if they’re at home the whole time? Who will spend large amounts of money on clothing when the economy is so uncertain?  Two bi...

The most formal suit combination for a modern man is a navy suit, white shirt and silver tie. When that tie is a woven like a Macclesfield, it is a classic wedding combination and much more suitable to being married in than the tuxedos so favoured in...

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...

Pictured at the MTBA party last week, this is the finished jacket from Neapolitan tailor Elia Caliendo. Readers of The Rake online will have read previous posts on Elia, looking at both the man himself and an analysis of the inside of the jacket. Alt...

These are shots from the inside of an old jacket made by the French bespoke tailor Henri Urban. A customer of Gianni at Sartoria Vergallo brought it in to show him and to see if he could copy the design, particularly the embroidered initials. I photo...

A Stefano Bemer bespoke solePlease remember, loyal readers, that I am now writing every week - indeed, twice a week - for The Rake online, which is expanding into a great source for international artisanal articles.Recently we have had posts on:- Lor...

The Rubinacci jacket is back, and feeling pretty good. Having been worn once, all day today, I don’t feel it’s too early to say that this is the most comfortable bespoke jacket I’ve ever worn. That might not be surprising, given that it’s a l...

A reader commented that the way he spots a good bespoke suit is to look under the lapel and look for the little pinpricks that betray hand padding. This does indeed show where the tailor has come through the suit cloth as he sews the parts of the che...