Over the years I've had a few casual waistcoats made. What makes them casual? Well primarily cloth, ideally something with a pronounced texture and perhaps a chunky pattern - in this case, a tan/black herringbone woven from a wool/linen mix. I ...

  One area that fascinates me – perhaps more than any other – in my writing is the overlap between formal tailoring and more casual dress.If it is possible to retain the beautiful craft aspects of bespoke tailoring in casual clothing, as well a...

Every Pitti Uomo for the past  two years, we have held an event to bring people together with a unique group of the finest craftsmen in the world.For the next instalment, we will be returning to last summer's focus: bespoke tailoring. But whereas t...

A couple of months ago I started the process of trialling Craftsman Co, a new and small Hong Kong-based company that is making leather and suede jackets. The process was smooth and well run, but the end results were a little mixed: good but not perfe...

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...

Thank you everyone that responded to my ‘You are the interviewer’ post a couple of weeks ago. The number of variety of questions was staggering, and I will try to answer as many as I can over the coming weeks. It may take time, but I would ra...

In recent weeks we’ve done more coverage of top-end made-to-measure – the likes of Orazio Luciano and Jean-Manuel Moreau, Anglo-Italian and The Armoury. Some of these approach bespoke in terms of the handwork involved, in particular hand-padding ...

Fred Nieddu (above) recently set up on his own under the name ‘taillour’ (an Old French term for tailor), having previously been the bespoke cutter at Timothy Everest in London. However, chances are you will have seen Fred’s work around for a ...

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...

This is the belted suede jacket I had made earlier this year by Fred Nieddu, based on film and bespoke pieces he had made while cutter at Timothy Everest.  It’s quite an unusual style, but after a couple of months of wearing it in different permut...

I'm back! Hello everyone, I hope you had a nice week in the amiable arms of Manish, and you haven't all decided he is better in every respect than me. Although even if you have, fear not - he will be writing again very soon, including the second part...

This is the single question I get asked most, and when it is, I nearly always reply that it’s a complex area that really requires a full in-depth article.  I think it actually takes two.  In this first article, today, I'll explain my personal pri...

Please read part one of this article, here, before this one. Without that context, setting out my priorities, this summary will likely be misleading. Everyone is different, wants different things from bespoke, and simply gets on with people differen...

Sometimes the lapels of a jacket can get squashed in the wardrobe, making them fold at a point they’re not supposed to (the ‘break point’).  It happens particularly with jackets that have more intentional roll, such as a ‘three-roll-two’, ...

In my continued exploration of all things the colour of mourning, I commissioned this black-corduroy suit from Pommella (trousers) and Zizolfi (jacket) last year.  The logic seemed sound: if black is going to work in tailoring, I’d consistently fo...

For the first hour-and-a-half of our Open Day last week, no one turned up. I sat there on a bench outside the shop, considering that maybe the ‘I am 15’ badge and the birthday banner weren’t so funny after all. Maybe they were just stupid.  Th...

Next week we’ll begin a series of articles that breaks down the style of my bespoke coats, building on the popular 2018 series that looked at suits and jackets.  That turned into a book, Bespoke Style, which was a great illustration of the rich...

This talk a couple of weeks ago with Anda Rowland was flagged as a discussion of the future of Savile Row. And while we did talk about that – including how to get more new tailors into the area – the most interesting area was probably how the Row...

When the shoemaker Seiji McCarthy came to New York recently to take part in our pop-up, he brought with him a recent commission from Tailor Caid, the Japanese bespoke tailor run by Yuhei Yamamoto. Yamamoto is a big enthusiast for mid-century American...

Bespoke driving jackets designed by Dege & Skinner, Henry Poole, Gieves & Hawkes and Huntsman. Which is your favourite?(Worth expanding to full screen)

A reader recently commented that, as a newcomer, he struggled to see why he would get into bespoke tailoring - given the number of negative experiences I often report.  It made me realise that I rarely set out the case for bespoke (both for and agai...

Artisan of the year 2020: Sartoria Ciardi Enzo Ciardi has a lovely smile. It’s big (but then he’s big), it’s warm, it’s friendly. It’s extremely welcoming.  And best of all, I can enjoy that smile fully. Because when he opens the door to...

 What a lovely evening. Food, laughter, and some damned serious discussions about cufflink manufacturing and soft-shouldered tailoring. I love serious discussions at dinner.The film of our Gathering dinner last month, in collaboration with Essence L...

  Last week was the summer party of the Bespoke Tailors Benevolent Association, which is always a nice affair. There's a mix of cutters, coatmakers and cloth merchants, as well as the friends and family of apprentices receiving their Savile Row Be...

  At our book launch in Stockholm last week, Konrad Olsson (above) – editor of Plaza Uomo magazine – asked some rather stimulating questions.Such as, what is quality? Well, for me quality (in clothing) is aspects of manufacture that lead to p...