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Outerwear at Pitti Uomo 2013

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The greatest pleasure at Pitti, of course, is discovering new things. But there are fewer than you might think. The majority of what’s on show is ready-to-wear suits, shirts and jackets, and if you have those made bespoke then they are relegated to inspiration in cloth, or perhaps ensemble.

Instead, you find yourself concentrating on accessories, and outerwear. Schneiders, for example, is an Austrian outerwear company that sells largely in Austria, Germany and Italy. The cloak shown above was exquisite – made in a heavy flannel, with deer-antler buttons and beautifully cut slits for the hands, backed on the inside with almond-coloured suede.

Sealup was another strong outerwear brand, based in Italy and making a great range of coats from the fur-lined and luxurious to simple, laser-cut mackintoshes. Sealup have been around for a long time, but there are so few shops in London selling this kind of brand (other than Trunk), that we never see them. The UK may be great for tailoring and its own menswear traditions, but for foreign brands the citizens of Berlin or Vienna might actually be better off. 


And a final note on trousers. There is such a fantastic range here, from colours of flannel that you would never find in a tailoring bunch to chinos in washes that soften but don’t distort. All we see is Incotex, and great as they are, it would be good to have a little more choice.   

I can’t endorse the paisley above, but it is on a double-faced flannel, which in itself is impressive, and you get an idea of the range.

Papped at Pitti

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My question is, why do they credit Luca in these pictures but not me? Is he more famous or something?

Photo above by Tommy Ton at GQ, below by Nam from Grazia.

Cashmere/corduroy suit from Anderson & Sheppard, shirt from Satriano Cinque, cashmere tie from Drake's, handkerchief from Cravate Royale.


And another

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One more photo from Pitti Uomo this week. Trying to use a shawl (Loro Piana) and hat (Lock) to keep off the rain. Above from Tommy Ton, below from JCR


One more

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This one from High Snobiety, brother to Selectism. I find it interesting how much more casual a hat looks if the brim is just turned down at the back.

Stefano Bemer shoes back on track

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As many of you will know, master shoemaker Stefano Bemer sadly passed away last year. Since then his Florence workshop has been in something of a mess, with bureaucracy and financial problems holding back the reorganisation of the company.

Fortunately, I can announce that new investment has been found and a transitional arrangement that had the company in Stefano’s wife’s name will end in February. The staff are being paid their back wages and everything is once more on track.

The investor is Scuola del Cuoio, a fellow Florentine craft company that makes leather bags and other products. The Stefano Bemer company will move into new premises in their church, with three floors accommodating the workshop, office and a new shoemaking school.

Masako, one of the three staff at Stefano Bemer (all Japanese) will be the key last maker and do fittings, as well as travel to Japan for trunk shows there - something she has already done in the past.

This is also the 30th anniversary of Stefano founding the company, so expect some festivities later in the year.

It’s great to hear that such a wonderful outfit will continue, and that shoes such as the beautiful one at top will continue to be made.

Wallets: reader question

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Dear Mr Simon,

Let me first say that I always admire your passion and insight into gentlemen's garments. I am a fan of Permanent Style and I have been hooked on it for years.
 
I have one long-standing question: what kind of wallet should I carry with my suit? Which do you think is better - having a card case and bill case separately or a card-and-bill case combined? Of course, there are some alternatives like money clips. And then, which pocket to store it in?

I know that some tailors close suit pockets up for two reasons - to prevent wearers from putting items in and then to prevent the suit from being out of shape because of the first reason.

Because of that, one side of my brain is saying to me that I should buy a combined one to reduce my items to carry but the other side is saying that if I do so, it might be a lump and ruin my suit silhouette. I am sort of snookered. haha

These questions might sound rather trivial but I would be grateful if you could share your ideas about them with me.

I look forward to your reply.

Taku

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Hi Taku,

The key to carrying any kind of wallet is to keep it as slim as possible, so be very restrictive with what you carry you with you – the minimum number of cards, only the most recent receipts etc.

I find the best style is then a long wallet, sometimes called a coat or jacket wallet. It minimises the amount of overlap of your cards, so the wallet is as thin as possible (see picture above). If you restrict yourself to four or five cards, you can even just use every other slot.

The other side of the wallet carries your bills and receipts. I know people have to carry far more notes in other countries than in the UK (we get stuck with coins), but they shouldn’t thicken that other side too much.

Ideally, your wallet should still not be in your jacket pocket. It should be in a briefcase or whatever bag you carry with you. Certainly that’s where chunkier items like your keys should go, and you should avoid it altogether with lightweight suits.

But if it does have to go in your jacket, put it in the in-breast pocket and balance the other side with something – I have an iPhone 5, and that’s light and thin enough to work. (It wasn’t really excuse enough to upgrade from the iPhone 4, but then I like gadgets.) Keep your jacket done up too – that helps a lot with supporting the jacket and its contents.

It is also helpful if your tailor cuts the in-breast pocket slightly higher than in a normal, off-the-peg suit. It means that the wallet will slightly fill out your chest, rather than your chest and waist. Of all the tailors I’ve tried, only Anderson & Sheppard and those that trained at A&S do this as standard. Perhaps it’s having that bit of drape to play with.

I hope that's helpful. The image at top is an Asprey coat wallet.

Simon

Emanuele Maffeis shirts

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This is the first in a series of posts about producers I met in Pitti and Florence more generally.

Maffeis is part of a family of companies around Bergamo, in northern Italy. Another is Bresciani socks, which of course I’ve visited and written about before. Both companies were founded after the war and are now run by the second generation – Massimiliano Bresciani, who was launching his new underwear at Pitti, and Paulo Maffeis. Both founders are still around and have a particular role in quality control at the factories.


Maffeis employs around 32 people, all making shirts to a range of qualities. Every shirt is hand cut, but the amount of hand stitching varies. That amount is largely chosen by the shop that chooses to stock the shirts – Maffeis is sold in many stores in Belgium, Holland, France and Italy under its own brand, and by several UK brands under their label.

Customers that opt for made to measure in these stores can also pick the amount of hand stitching they want. You can just have hand-sewn buttonholes, what I would call the functional hand stitching (collar, sleevehead) or everything. The price will range from about £200 to £300 with that choice of handwork.

The amount of detail offered to made-to-measure customers is huge. There is no strict bespoke service, with an individual pattern, but things like the collar stand are stated in centimetres and can be adjusted to any height. Like many Italian bespoke shirts, the collar stand is also set to be smaller at the back and larger at the front, to stop the front of the collar from collapsing.


Two little innovations caught my eye too. One was a small section of rougher cotton in the middle of the collar (above) which is intended to stop the tie from slipping and was invented by the founder, Emanuele. Another is the Maffeis boxer shorts (below), which incorporate a small cotton lining at the front to provide a little of the support you get with a brief. I don’t wear boxers, but this solves one of my problems with doing so.


Maffeis makes great shirts and some nice knitted products - it recently rescued a local knitting company from bankruptcy and now offers cashmere shirt-jackets. 

Hidetaka Fukaya, Il Micio

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Hidetaka Fukaya, also known by his nickname Il Micio, is as much artist as artisan.

Shoemakers tend to divide into two groups: those that are primarily driven by the artistic side of their work and those that are motivated principally by the craft. Norman Vilata is an artist, as is Pierre Corthay; most English shoemakers fall into the second group, as does anyone who trained to bench-make shoes. Despite their slightly heavier construction than, say, Cleverley, Gaziano & Girling is the only English shoemaker I would put in the first category. Tony’s design aesthetic is truly original, even if the make owes much to Northampton.

Norman makes dirty shoes; Pierre makes shoes that melt; Hidetaka prefers wobbly or slanty shoes. The examples below are nothing more than art. Only someone driven by the artistic possibilities of his professions would create such expensive works of fantasy. Also in Hidetaka’s showroom, though not pictured, was a pair of shoes made in a leather that had been ‘marbled’ in the same way as traditional Florentine paper.



Tony has his own ideas for objets d’art. He also appreciates other arts in a similar way to Hidetaka.

But to give the basics. Hidetaka is Japanese but has lived in Florence for 15 years. He has a small showroom and an office on one side of Via dei Federighi and a workshop on the other. Three other Japanese work for him. His bespoke shoes start at €3000 and he makes around 50-60 pairs a year. He trained under Alessandro Stella in Sienna and the vast majority of his clients are from outside Italy.

“I came to Florence because it is the centre of bespoke shoemaking in Italy. It is also a centre for many other crafts, which is inspiring,” he says.




Strictly speaking, Il Micio is Hidetaka’s bespoke brand. He makes ready-to-wear shoes, to the same quality as bespoke, for Tomorrowland and Tie Your Tie in Japan under the brand Hidetaka Fukaya. He only travels to Japan for bespoke appointments, but is considering adding Singapore.

(RTW shoes from such Florentine craftsmen are worth keeping an eye out for, given their quality; Stefano Bemer is an example. Benchmade shoes are only cheaper to make if you already have the machinery.)



Hidetaka’s shoes are, as you might expect, slim, sharp and finely worked in the details. He likes monks, slip-ons and balmorals. On the wall of his workshop is a sheet of sketches for bespoke commissions. He also likes designing original leather goods. 


I am not yet an Il Micio client and therefore cannot speak to the fit of his shoes. But my good friend Wei Koh, founder of The Rake, extols their virtues. And he should know. 


As I leave, I ask about the two vintage bicycles leant against one wall of the workshop. It turns out Hidetaka is a keen cyclist and has ridden L’Eroica three times. Suddenly I begin to spot the references around the room, such as the three riders drafting each other across the top of the strip light. I knew we had something in common.  



My headphones: Sennheiser Momentum

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I do not drink cocktails. I have no interest in classic cars. I find bizarre the assumption that because I pursue refinement in clothing I will be interested in the best cigars, hotels or opera.

If I am to write a ‘lifestyle’ piece, therefore, this will be it. The beautifully made and beautifully sounding headphones I bought just before Christmas.   

I’ve had Sennheiser before. I listen to a lot of jazz and the range of sound necessitates a decent frequency response. In terms of quality, cheap headphones are a false economy.

But I’m not an electronics geek. I chose Sennheiser Momentum headphones because they use decent quality materials for the ear cups, the headband and so on – the non-technical stuff. Usually headphones that attempt to look more organic or old-fashioned make do with poor-quality materials.

The leather used for the Momentum headphones is vegetable-tanned, in Somerset. The stitching of it on the headband and ear cups is done by hand (ie sewing machine) rather than mass produced. The result is that the cups sit comfortably over the ears and derive their softness from the leather, rather than having a thin skin over a wad of foam. If you want an example of how it’s done badly, look at House of Marley.

The overall design is very classic, as is probably obvious from the picture. The brown leather, brushed steel and taupe-coloured exterior to the cup are a very subtle combination.

I’m not going to wear Beats headphones for the same reason I don’t wear an IWC Big Pilot’s Watch. Instead I choose these Momentums and my Portuguese. The aesthetic should be consistent; it just doesn't necessitate smoking or driving.


My note board on Pinterest

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There are many badly dressed people at Pitti. There are also people like Luca Rubinacci, Lino Ieluzzi, Ignatious Joseph and others - one-man brands - that benefitted hugely from being shot by Scott Schuman and need to be there to maintain that profile. 

But there is also no other place in the world where you get such a concentration of sartorially inspired clothing. There are only ever a handful of people whose looks I would adopt wholesale, but on the other hand almost everyone has some little thing I admire. I like the blue textures and how well they go with the mid-brown gloves in the picture above, for example.

I collect photos from Pitti, as well as from the Armoury and other blogs, on my Pinterest board. It is more for my own recollection that anything else - each has a little note on it to remind me of what I liked about the outfit. But readers might also find it interesting, so I mention it here. I only use one board, Permanent Style.





Profile piece in How to Spend It, Spain

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The Spanish version of How to Spend It, Fueria de Serie, interviewed me and did a photo shoot when I visited Jose Maria's Club Aristocrata last year. The piece came out today.

Unless your Spanish is a lot better than mine, you won't be able to read the interview. But the picture is nice.

Linen suit by Terry Haste; shirt by Turnbull & Asser; handkerchief by Rubinacci; shoes by Cleverley.   On the table my antique croc cigarette case, now used to carry my phone, and shagreen card case. Personalised Louis Vuitton Alzer on the ground.



Permanent Style picked by The Times

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It seems to be raining recognition at the moment. Today The Times published a list of the top 15 men's style websites. Permanent Style was number one, with other recommendations including great sites such as Mr Porter, HypeBeast, StyleSalvage and Selectism.

Dylan Jones, who picked the five that included us, said "Simon Crompton is particularly strong on Savile Row, tailoring and the bespoke process".

That Times article

Begg launches first collection at Pitti

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One person it was nice to catch up with in Florence was Ann Ryley, who used to be sales and marketing director at Drake’s but left last year to help Scottish company Begg launch its first collection.

Begg is an old name in Scottish weaving, growing up in the 1860s in Paisley and now based in Ayr. It is also one of the very best names, having always made scarves, stoles and blankets for some of the biggest luxury houses. 


It is known for its ripple-finish scarves, which require the wool to be brushed with teasles – the dried heads of plants that are widely grown in Italy (see Loro Piana visit here). But it has a big range of other finishes, involving pressing in no-longer-made paper, beating the wool up in boxes and putting it through particular washes. The old finishing machines are one of the finest things about the factory, and the Pitti stall proudly displayed pictures of them on the walls.


Begg’s first range under its own name has been designed by Angela Belle for womenswear and Michael Drake for men’s. As Begg has always traditionally focused on womenswear, Michael was important to the launch, although looking around the collection there are only little touches of the old Drake’s aesthetic. There is a blackwatch tartan, for instance, but no gingham checks or paisleys.

My favourite of the Begg scarves was a washed version you can see in cream at the top of this post. It gives the cashmere a spongy character and turns an otherwise fine, dressy cloth into something much more casual – better suited to the workwear side of the Pitti crowd.

Begg is also publicising its Nuance scarf, which fades very subtly from one colour to another. This is rather less to my taste, though it does demonstrate Begg’s technical ability, as other fades are normally done with dip-dying and are therefore nowhere near as subtle.


Simone Righi, Frasi

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It was nice to meet Simone Righi in Florence. I’ve been into Frasi, and Tie Your Tie as it was before, but not when he has been in the shop.

Simone rebranded his shop three years ago, leaving the Japanese group Tie Your Tie. The stock and service were always very much Simone’s own, however, and therefore little has changed. It offers a range of luxurious knitwear (Fedeli, Hawick), knitted ties (Mattabisch, Tie Your Tie) and jackets from the likes of Sartorio Napoli and Orazio Luciano. 



One thing Simone has expanded is the ‘bespoke’ service, in which he measures customers and has suits made up by one of three tailors – Kiton, Attolini and a Florentine tailor. There is one basted fitting, changes are sent back and then the final suit arrives. Simone is not a trained tailor, but he is certainly a perfectionist when it comes to fit – as you can see on any customer he is fitting, and of course on himself. (My favourite ever shotfrom The Sartorialist is of Simone.)

The shop is fun and worth a look in. The stock isn’t much of a draw, but the appeal has always been the man, the space and the community around it.    


Photos: Luke Carby

Women's tailoring at Kathryn Sargent

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I’m asked fairly regularly by female readers about starting a version of Permanent Style for women, but in my experience there just isn’t enough out there of interest – that’s well-made, classically styled and not too middle-aged. They also ask if I know of any good sites – so if you do, please let me know in the comments to this post.

Several of the bespoke tailors do make clothes for women, but they are mostly women’s versions of male styles, with the same proportions and priorities. Then there are tailors such as Edward Sexton, who make fabulous creations but generally to their own, refined aesthetic.


Kathryn Sargent, who made me my fantastic travel blazer while she was at Gieves & Hawkes, has quietly been making suits for high-powered female clients for quite a while. Perhaps they were attracted by Kathryn being the first-ever female head cutter on the Row, but they seem also to have become regulars.

Interested in exploring the differences in women’s tailoring (and perhaps in a vague attempt to assuage the guilt of recent purchases), I asked Kathryn to make a bespoke jacket for my wife. The images here are from the first fitting.



As my wife rarely needs to or opts to dress smartly, we needed to make something that would be fairly casual, yet perhaps could be dressed up with grey flannels if so desired. We went therefore for a green herringbone tweed from the Sherrytweed bunch – the same from which Steven Hitchcock made me a jacket last year.

Kathryn’s tailoring for women is very flexible and adapted to the individual. There are far less presumptions than with male tailoring. A business suit for a female director might therefore more closely mirror the proportions of male colleagues, but a casual jacket like this one, for a relatively young client, is often more contemporary. She has her own book of sketched designs to illustrate the various options.


Most noticeable is that the length is much shorter than a classic male suit. It tends to be with women anyway, partially because the waist is that much higher, but it is also necessary to make slightly greater concessions to fashion. The back of the jacket at this fitting was also slightly shorter than the front, so the effect is exaggerated; it will be lengthened.


Another interesting thing about small, short jackets is that the space for pockets is much reduced. If regular pockets were included the front would be very cramped. Kathryn normally goes without an outbreast pocket, therefore, and with something this small rarely uses patch pockets. (The chalk marking above is to illustrate the room it would take up.)

Kathryn’s branding is in burgundy, and she uses this for the melton under the collars as standard. We picked a Liberty shirting for the lining of the body that echoes the green of the cloth and that deep red. The sleeve lining is a red butcher’s stripe.



Kathryn's US dates:

New York
18th, 19th, and 20th February – The London Hotel, 151 W.54th Street

Chicago
22nd and 23rd February – The Waldorf Astoria, 11 East Walton

San Francisco
25th February – Clift Hotel, 495 Geary Street

Contact: Kathryn@KathrynSargent.com

Pictures: Luke Carby

Fuera de Serie video

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That profile piece in Spain's How to Spend It is now live, along with a little video. Not entirely sure where they got the footage of Anderson & Sheppard though...

You can see the story here.

In other news, apparently my column in the UK How to Spend It on Neapolitan tailoring was one of the most-read things on the website - it was flagged up on the contents page in this week's hard copy. And a friend pointed out that marketing analysts Cision rated Permanent Style one of the 20 most influential fashion blogs in the UK - the only other menswear one being Steve at Style Salvage.

The style of Francesco Maglia

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Wearing strong colours well requires a lot of practice. The key is learning how to balance bright colours with darker, but equally strong tones. A purple handkerchief will stand out against a mid-grey flannel suit, but it will be restrained by a rich, dark and textured brown.

As Francesco Maglia demonstrates here. Chino, as he is known, has been wearing these colours for decades and it has become second nature. Heavy green tweeds, brown leather accessories, and strong colours such as the purple hank and mustard vest.

“Green is my favourite colour,” he says. “I always associate it with England, ever since I was in London as an 18-year-old, working as a dishwasher. I remember going to a costume exhibition at Alexandra Palace and really being taken by the green in the country costumes, the tweeds, the umbrellas.”


Umbrellas, of course, are Chino’s trade. Maglia is the best large umbrella maker in Italy, the only peer being Talarico in Naples, who is much smaller. Maglia makes for most luxury brands under their own label – at least, most that care about quality and want something handmade out of a single shaft of wood.

Green is still the only colour that English umbrella companies – both those that buy from Chino and that make their own – tend to venture into. “The canopies are all green, black, green, black,” he says. “I like rather brighter colours.”


Those canopies all have to be in polyester mixes these days though – Chino says he can’t get the quality of silk anymore. “It has be of a high quality because you look through it and see all the imperfections. You can’t do that with a tie.”

The materials are lacking because of the lack of good umbrella makers – most of Maglia’s competition has fallen away. “The vast majority of umbrellas are made in China, where it costs 95 cents to make one. I pay 80 cents for the horn tip on each of my umbrellas,” he says.


But back to style. Chino is known for his braided-leather braces and his collarless jacket, which is lined in a bright country check. And of course the Father Christmas beard. “It’s either Santa Claus or Giuseppe Verdi that I’m told I look like, depending on the country,” he says. With that hair styling, glasses round his neck and umbrella in hand, Chino could easily come across as an eccentric. It is a testament to the way he wears those colours that he does not.

Chino is an abbreviation of Franceschino – a diminutive of his name, which is of course intentionally ironic, given that he’s six-and-a-half feet tall.   



Photography: Luke Carby

Merola gloves

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Rather like Maglia, which we discussed earlier in the week, Merola is among the very best makers in its field – in this case, gloves. Both are also based in Rome and have a similarly stellar roster of private-label clients.



There is more competition in gloving, of course, with a decent number of hand makers around Europe and many hand-cutting but machine sewing, as most of Merola’s are. Dent’s and Chester Jefferies are the leaders in the UK.

These makers tend to come with a long history, and the smart ones make the most of it. The Dent’s archive is certainly worth a look if you are ever in the area, but Merola goes one step further and often recreates old designs. The best example on display at Pitti was a hand-sewn driving glove made beautifully in chamois leather (below).


Most of the other designs being pushed at Pitti weren’t quite to my taste, such as gloves edged with a silk that would match your tie, or stitching in contrasting colours. It’s often the way at trade shows – the most eye-catching things are needed to grab attention but they’re not what people buy. Bresciani always has keyboards or Shakespeare stanzas on its socks.


The peccary and capybara models – the king and queen of glove materials – were beautiful though, capybara (carpincho) best in a deep green and a thick, cashmere-lined version. Best of all was a chunky, knitted cashmere glove lined with more cashmere. It made your hands sweat just standing there.

There is a list of stockists on the Merola website and A Suitable Wardrobe also carries a good range.



The first BTBA annual Dinner

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Thursday was the first Festival Dinner for the new Bespoke Tailors Benevolent Association. The new incarnation of the MTBA dinner, it was notable for two things: the brevity of the speeches, much to everyone’s relief, and the guest speaker Adrian (AA) Gill.

I’m sure many British readers will know Adrian’s writing, and he’s been a customer of Anderson & Sheppard for quite some time. But most of the tailors present didn’t know the name, and they were a little surprised by the speech, which didn’t shy away from poking fun at Savile Row.

The tailors should be congratulated, he began, for the gentleman’s suit was the one unequivocal thing England had given the world and continued to lead in ever since. If a dictator anywhere in the world really wants to look the business, really wants to look like a bastard, then he comes to Savile Row. “The Row has dressed more bastards than anyone else. Together it’s probably done more to put back the cause of human rights than any other group in the world,” he said.

The Huntsman table found this particularly funny, leaning over to colleagues to highlight one customer or another. The next line didn’t go down quite so well though. “You should pat yourselves on the back. Or if you’re in a Huntsman suit, get someone else to do it for you,” Adrian said, miming the actions of man extremely constrained in his movements.

Most of the anecdotes concerned Adrian’s time working in a men’s shop. The selling techniques there included taking any jacket that was a little too small out to the ‘shoulder stretcher’. This was not the modern piece of machinery it was portrayed as, but rather “just putting your knee into the shoulder of the jacket, and pulling on the other side until you heard the lining crack”.

The best anecdote, however, was one relayed to him by a Savile Row tailor with an Indian customer who never wore any underwear. “We used to draw lots as to which one had to go in there and do the fitting,” said the tailor. “Retaking the inside-leg measurement was a delicate matter.”

“In the end I bit the bullet and went in one time. He was standing there in his shirttails and I said ‘Sir, may I just say that that is an extremely fine penis’. He became a very good customer; we’re still dressing his grandchildren.”
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