Masaru Okuyama - the Japan-trained but Hong Kong-based shoemaker - made me this pair of shoes over the past 10 months.  Their relevance is twofold. As a review of Masaru and his work, of course, but also as an experience of Japanese shoemaking, as t...

I love Lorenzo Cifonelli's constant innovation in his menswear designs. Some I like more than others, but I love the embroidery of the Japanese symbol for love on the lapel of this grey jacket. I'd go for a bit of subtle embroidery on a sports jacket...

When I walk around Pitti each season, interviewing makers and researching articles, it can be easy to feel lost in a flood of Italian cashmere and trainers that look like each other.  For that reason there are a handful of brands I return to every t...

Earlier this month I visited Seoul, to see some of the tailors I had been intrigued by but mostly seen from afar, and to visit some of the shops and brands. My impression was of a dynamic city – new development, new retail, every shop with a dis...

In Japan earlier this year I started the process of commissioning a pair of bespoke loafers from Seiji McCarthy.  Loafers are often tricky to make bespoke, and bespoke as a whole I’ve found a little inconsistent, so why did I take this leap with S...

With the PS reader profiles, we’re always looking to add something different - a different style, a different age, hopefully at some point a different location.  Although Shun’s love of classic menswear will be shared by many, he is a little dif...

  You could never refer to yourself as a style icon. But if someone else gives you the title, it's alright to pass it on, right? Seriously, I was highly flattered to be asked to appear in the latest issue of PEN magazine, which I am told by thos...

  Hong Kong has long been a centre for international commerce, driven by its location as a port and later by its strategic importance to the British Empire. When it was handed back to China in 1997, the city retained its vibrancy and ...

I’ve always loved Japanese circular-knitted T-shirts. They have so much body, and such a nice hand compared to regular tees.  By comparison mainstream T-shirts can feel flimsy, almost like underwear.  But the problem, usually, with Japanese tees ...

Anatomica is one of my favourite shops in Paris. It’s unique, with a range of menswear that’s often exclusive to them - whether under their brand or others’ - and always centred around quality. In fact it has such a reputation - often driven b...

Although I’ve known The Real McCoy’s and been a customer for quite a long time, I’ve never really known the company itself very well.  So it was niceduring a recent visit to the new shop in London to interview Emika Tsujimoto - the daughter of...

One of the most interesting things about visiting Globe-Trotter recently was learning how the company has evolved. Like most British brands, although old, its history is a chequered one – which is all the more reason to celebrate its current stabil...

Back in 2017, Jamie Ferguson and I visited fabric mills in Japan - like Hosoo, in Kyoto (pictured below), which produces the most extraordinary silks. It was really interesting to see the weaving side of Japanese heritage, and the typically innovativ...

A reader commented recently (I paraphrase): “Why should I care about old jeans? They were all mass produced and basically the same.” There are a couple of things wrong with that. The first is that mass production doesn’t necessarily mean lower ...

You know that feeling when you realise a new purchase unleashes potential in an old, beloved garment? Like getting a yellow oxford and realising it doesn’t just look good with jeans, but also with your favourite herringbone jacket? OK, I’m going ...

In the corner of the Aigat mill in Wakayama, there are a few knitting machines that look like none of the others - monsters, hybrids. The rest of the mill is split in two, with the more modern ‘sinker’ machines (below) in one half, wooden-beamed ...

When we approached the headquarters of 45R, I was a little nervous. I'd been given an introduction by a friend, but had no idea what the management team knew about me or Permanent Style, or how much they cared.  It was late afternoon and already get...

Readers will be aware that I have become a little sceptical about bespoke shoes in recent years. As I detailed in the article ‘Are bespoke shoes worth it?’ my experiences have been a little patchy, and looking back on 13 years of commissioning, i...

James is a reader I met in Korea last year. A friend of our host Sam Ahn, he joined us for dinner on the last night with Assisi.  James has been a customer of various bespoke tailors for about 10 years, but has largely settled down to using Sartoria...

Gene Krell is a legend. Today the international fashion director for GQ and Vogue in Japan, he ran the seminal glam and dandyism shop Granny Takes a Trip from 1969 and later worked with Vivienne Westwood. He is a punk, a buddhist and a philanthropist...

Ortus leather goods are run by Naoyuki Komatsu (above) from a small leather workshop in Tokyo, just around the corner from Clematis shoes, where Komatsu was based until he set up his own company in 2012. They are entirely hand sewn, often rathe...

At Pitti back in January, Shuhei Nishiguchi - menswear director at Beams - kindly gave me a copy of his book, ‘Nishiguchi’s Closet’.  I liked it immediately. It rationalised a lot of the outfits I’d seen him wearing over the years, breaki...

There is a handful of menswear shops in London that I recommend regularly to friends visiting from abroad.  They include Trunk, Connolly, Drake's and Anderson & Sheppard Haberdashery. All boutiques, all founded in the past decade.  The most rec...

A reader recently asked me about what jeans I wear. The answer is largely Albam; I’ve found the British company’s product to wear well, while the raw Japanese denim is good for getting a nice fit and a personal patina. I’ve also tried a few hi...

There is a concept American readers will be most familiar with, and which often surrounds vintage and reproduction military clothing, known as ‘stolen valour’.  It describes how wearing military clothing as a civilian, and particularly medals an...