This post could come under the ‘How great things age’ or the ‘Reflections on bespoke’ heading. Whatever the category, readers have asked frequently about this pea coat, how it has held up and - more specifically - whether I ever changed t...

We all know different materials age in different ways.  Leather is probably the most beautiful, and certainly the most varied. As a skin, if untreated it darkens when exposed to dirt or hands, yet lightens where it’s exposed to sunlight. It wil...

In the coming months I will be writing more posts again in our ‘How great things age’ series, which aims to illustrate the beauty of quality clothing over time.  Basically, it’s an antidote to the new clothing that it’s much easier to wri...

One of the great attractions of buying classic, handmade items is how they age; true investment pieces that last not just more than one season, but more than one generation. However, few articles are written about aging. Understandably, most are writ...

 Denim is really beautiful in the way it frays and fades. Most cotton twills used for workwear age in this way – losing their saturation at wear points as the surface dye rubs away. But the thickness and indigo dye of denim make it particularly at...

Usually it’s pretty hard waiting for your favourite things to come back from being repaired. But unlike the Edward Greens I reported on last in this series, my Globe-Trotter suitcase hasn’t really been missed. There were two weekends away in that...

  During my recent series of posts on Levi’s bespoke jeans, a reader commented that he didn’t like denim because it didn’t drape like wool, linen or other materials commonly used for suiting. He’s not wrong, but denim and other cotton mater...

Three years ago I met Judy Bown, a bag designer who had left her previous career working for companies such as Mulberry, Asprey and Tanner Krolle to set up her own label. The make of her bags was superb. The edges were inked by hand, for example, whi...

It’s easy to think that people have always appreciated vintage items like leather luggage, bags and accessories. But back in the early eighties, that wasn’t the case. It was only in the middle of that decade that taste in the UK started to turn a...