Hello Simon I am struggling with a lighter grey jacket like in your Caliendo denim post, or a navy jacket. Are they really that versatile to be the top 2 odd jacket colours? (As you mentioned in your oatmeal jacket post.)What are the trouser colours...

As mentioned in our post on Marco Cerrato last week, much of the sartorial industry in Naples occurs outside the city - in the suburbs and towns of the surrounding area.Much of this is in the north-east, just above Mount Vesuvius, the still-active v...

A friend used to say that he knew whether a suit was going to be good at the first, basted fitting. I’m not sure I entirely agree. The first fitting is largely for the tailor, to make sure the fundamentals of balance and so on are correct. It is ...

  Kathryn Sargent, perhaps unexpectedly, is one of the most structured and square-shouldered of the suit styles in this series. The make is most similar to Huntsman, which we featured here as a hunting jacket in their house tweed, w...

Picking what to offer in this next iteration of the Friday Polo was not a hard decision. So many readers have asked in the past few months for a button-down version of the PS polo.  That may be because there are more out there at the moment; or it m...

Robert Armstrong is the US Finance Editor at the Financial Times. He has also been their Chief Editorial Writer and edited the Lex column.  In the midst of all this international finance, he has also fallen into the role of FT menswear columnist. I?...

A few months ago, Brioni contacted me to ask if I would be interested in having a suit made, in order to review it.  Not knowing much about the Brioni product, I was a little unsure. Invitations to cover other big-brand made to measure have not alwa...

The next young tailor I wanted to highlight on Permanent Style is Ayres Goncalo, a Portuguese who worked at Gieves & Hawkes in London for four years, before returning to Porto to set up his own shop in 2011. I met Ayres over the summer while in ...

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 ...

“A smarter short-sleeved shirt is not something I ever considered before, but I do actually like it.” I have to say I enjoyed the process of launching this shirt last year - it’s fun to make something that challenges people, pushing at a few pr...

If you're looking for a good bespoke suit in London, there aren't many English options between £1000 and £3000 or so. Most are closer to the £1000 make and finish, but simply charge twice as much. An interesting option is to have the bespoke cu...

If shirts are the items in a man’s wardrobe where he wants most predictability and consistency, then trousers are undoubtedly second. In that spirit, over the past year I have regularly commissioned odd trousers (‘odd’ as in separate, so not...

This dark, muted green linen was a risk. I had never had anything like it before, let alone seen it on anyone else.  But I think it’s worked out very well. I’m pleased as well as relieved.  The colour is unusual yet subtle. Indoors, it looks mo...

Trying to look natural while eating. Which is impossibleThe linen suit shown here is my most recent commission, from the sterling outfit that is now Kent Haste & Lachter. There is a blog; there is a group photo on the wall; there is a real spirit of ...

Hi Mr Crompton,I'm a fan of yours (Permanent Style, The Rake) from Singapore. I've been agonising over my shirts for some time and would like to ask your advice. I've been wearing bespoke T&A for about 10 years and I regard Steven Quinn as a friend. ...

This is the third in our Finest Tailors series breaking down the styles of the world’s finest tailors. Following on from Richard Anderson and Henry Poole, we now turn to Anderson & Sheppard. Now, Anderson & Sheppard is justly fam...

This is the kind of suit that makes you glad you're wearing a suit.  The kind you look forward to wearing, as a change to the floppy casual home stuff you've been in too much recently. Why? Because of the structure, the shoulder and to a lesser exte...

One craft I’ve never covered before on the blog is cufflink-making – design, yes, but not making.The photographs here are of Bill Skinner, who makes links for Duchamp and others from his workshop in Otford, Kent. This is not bespoke jewellery to ...

  Back in October there was a lot of interest around my post on the bespoke service at Whitcomb & Shaftesbury. Their ‘classic bespoke’ service, which involves cutting the suit in London (by a very experienced Row cutter), and then having it...

Last summer, a reader responded to a post by reminding me that in Slim Aarons's photography of Italian aristocracy, most wore cream or tobacco-linen suits, a white shirt and black knitted-silk tie.  My post had been on 'Dressing pale colours for...

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 love how enthusiastic the reaction to our new website has been. Even a few non-digital natives have said they're coming to love the navigation.People are highlighting quite a range of different points, however.So I thought it would be useful to sh...

* Sold Out * A new iteration of our Friday Polo is available from today on the Permanent Style shop: a short-sleeved model for the summer.  It is made in the same Caccioppoli piqué cotton as the long-sleeved polo, in two colours: our standard na...

In recent years I’ve done an increasing amount of personal consultancy, meeting readers in person to answer their questions rather than just here on the website. I don’t really advertise it because I don’t have much capacity, and most peopl...

When I first had a bespoke suit made at Anderson & Sheppard, 12 years ago, the head cutter John Hitchcock made a paper pattern for me.  This pattern is one of the fundamentals of what makes bespoke, bespoke. Or rather, it’s the fact that the p...