This outfit I wore last week really tickled me - I think primarily for its combination of T-shirt and tailoring.  Working the two together in some way (as in this, perhaps Summer equivalent) is often an effective way to achieve the ‘casual chic’...

Of all the things we cover in the ‘How great things age’ series, a bag such as this probably has the most potential - because it is made of canvas, leather and brass.  All those three materials age differently.  Brass, presuming it’s not ...

Peter Nitz is a Swiss craftsman based in Zurich. He does a lot of teaching of hand-sewn leather techniques, including classes, videos and individual training. He also sells leather-working tools. (When you’re a bespoke craftsman, it’s good to hav...

   A few weeks ago I received my final pair of Foster & Son bespoke shoes. The process has, unfortunately, been both good and bad.  First, the good. The fitting I had with John Spencer - Foster’s lastmaker - was impressive. The fit around ...

Polishing leather shoes up to a brilliant shine is an extremely enjoyable pastime. Nathan Brown over at Lodger always says that one of the problems with being an entrepreneur is that he never gets the time to sit down and polish his shoes any more. G...

Last month I wrote a fairly comprehensive piece on the ways to deal with rain damage on shoes, when it happens.  In this article, I’ll outline the best ways to prevent that damage happening in the first place - both in terms of which shoes you wea...

I now have three pairs of Saint Crispin’s shoes: the alligator/calf wing-tips pictured here; brown-suede chukka boots; and most recently a pair of very-dark-brown suede cap-toes. I have ordered steadily and regularly, each time gaining in confide...

Walking along the Burlington Arcade last week, I took the opportunity to have a shoe shine. It’s rarely offered in London these days, which is a shame. So it was nice to support someone that’s making the time to set out there and ply his wares.(T...

As the last post on building a wardrobe - focused on Neapolitan tailoring - proved popular, I thought I'd do a second looking at shoes. But rather than look at my whole shoe collection, which numbers more than 40 pairs and would take a long time to...

Finally, the last stage of my George Cleverley shoes. This is the finishing, which involves waxing the edges, sealing the sole and polishing the upper. The edges of the sole are stained in a similar colour to the upper – though perhaps a few shades...

When was the last time you washed your knitwear? I have to say it's one of the clothing maintenance things I'm worst at. Even though I know it's great to avoid pilling, and more importantly moths, I rarely do it. I feel guilty every few months an...

Good English shoes are pretty much always worth the money you pay for them. Three things reminded me of this in recent weeks. One was a friend’s wedding. After years of buying in the low end of the market, he bought a pair from Crockett & Jones to ...

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...

The tips on looking good in a pair of shoes are simpler, in a way, than those for suits. They come down to two things: spend as much money as you can afford, because you are buying value and longevity; and look after them well, because you will be re...

This article was originally written back in 2014. Back then I had tried seven bespoke shoemakers, and nothing in Japan. Seven years later, the number has more than doubled, and the spread is wider - also encompassing some semi-bespoke and some remo...

What shoes do we still find ourselves wearing after 10 years, and why?  I find this is mostly about making sensible, functional choices; then a little bit about quality and fit; and almost nothing to do with bevelled waists or stitches per inch.  W...

  In Autumn last year, John from J Adler Shoes asked if I would review his bespoke shoes in return for a review. I don’t normally take up such offers, particularly for lower-end shoes such as these, but I was interested in Adler's unusual fit pr...

Spanish shoemaker TLB sent me these ‘Artista’ suede oxfords to try, following my mention of them in our round-up of cheaper shoe brands last month.  I have to say, I was immediately impressed. Not necessarily compared to the top-end shoes I usua...

I love my brown Cleverleys – the first bespoke shoes I owned – but I’ve never been that happy with the colour. Cleverley are good at many things, but patination is not one of them. George Jr has looked at introducing a patination service, but i...

A couple of weeks ago, Justin Fitzpatrick at The Shoe Snob launched his first range of shoes, which are now available at Gieves & Hawkes on Savile Row. For Justin, this is the culmination of a long period of working and dreaming. He trained as a shoe...

As mentioned in my recent article on Yohei Fukuda, I ordered a pair of bespoke shoes from him last year, when I was in Tokyo.  However, I opted for bespoke without a fitting.  Why? Well, at the moment I seem to be getting to Tokyo every three years...

There is a far stronger tradition of shoemaking in Warsaw than of tailoring. One manifestation of that tradition is that all the shoemakers – of which there are about five good ones left – make all their shoes by hand. There is no machine work in...

This is the first in a series of videos - made in conjunction with Richard Anderson - on maintaining, brushing and pressing a suit.  [It's worth enlarging to full screen if you want to watch it all] They are practical guides to regular maintena...

Over the past two or three years, a group of mostly Chinese shoemakers has come to prominence for making high quality, usually hand-welted shoes at relatively cheap prices. I’ve experienced some of these, and talked to those in the industry about o...

I watched my Berluti shoes being re-patinated last week. This is a service the company offers to anyone – they recommend that you take the shoes away, wear them half a dozen times (without polishing them) and bring them back in. It enables the staf...