I say surprisingly because, as lovely as all the readers were certainly going to be, it is always hard to predict what the feeling will be like - with 10 complete strangers, in a new format, and a new location. I’ve organised enough events to know the results are hard to predict.

Thankfully, it was seamless, fruitful and a lot of fun. Pierre and the other Huntsman staff were open and welcoming; the food from Casa Cruz was absolutely superb; and everyone enjoyed talking about menswear to a highly empathetic audience.

About its importance as a sign of how seriously one takes a particular event - and the company at that event.

About the type of clothing this normally results in (monotone, dark, playing with texture and light), and about how that clothing changes over time - as people’s idea of what is considered formal changes.

At times it felt rather like an AA meeting; you expected the next description to begin with “it’s been six weeks since my last bespoke purchase”.

But there was also a lot of love for clothing that came through - a personal, intimate enjoyment in what we wear, its stories and its qualities.

Edmund wore Scottish formalwear of kilt, sporran and coatee. He has no Scottish ancestry, and immediately declared as much. But his reverence for the clothing, his knowledge of its history and traditions, and the deeply personal pieces (in the official Texan tartan, studs in the Texan gemstone, knife made by a local Texan craftsman) made highlighting that seem ridiculous.

“It is not of me, but it has become me,” as Edmund put it, beautifully.

By the end of the evening, five hours had flown by, much had been consumed, and it seemed entirely natural to pose around the Huntsman shop in a ‘mannequin challenge’ (apparently it’s a social media thing; evidence is on the Huntsman Instagram account).

A wonderful evening all round. I’ll follow up with details on what everyone was wearing, and more resulting thoughts on modern formalwear.

Photography: Wayne Lennon

As mentioned in my original post about this reader competition, our aim was to explore the different forms formalwear can take today. 

Men will always have a need to dress up, in order to appear appropriately for a smarter, more important and more formal occasion. Often, those occasions will take place in the evening. 

But what constitutes more formal dress varies considerably today, largely between social and professional groups.

For some, nothing less than a dinner jacket will do; for others, the mere wearing of any jacket is enough.

(And of course it changes, much more slowly, over the years.)

We wanted to reflect that variety in the readers we selected to come to our dinner.

So I deliberately included a tuxedo and a velvet jacket, several suits, a piece of non-English formalwear (the Pakistani achkan) and a light-coloured woollen suit. The latter, worn by David, is by far the most formal thing he would ever wear.

Everyone might have a different spectrum, but they were all at the same end of it.

An inevitable result of this approach is that the dinner itself was not homogenous.

Hopefully my readers - beautiful nerds that they are - can forgive this touch of inconsistency in the name of a broader exercise. 

Thank you to all readers that submitted - over 100 of you.

I'm so sorry that only a few were able to come. I have to say I didn't anticipate how hard it would be to turn down so many people. 

If it's any consolation, the 10 that came had a great time, flew in from around the world (San Francisco, New York, Stockholm, Munich...) and made me promise to do it again, with different readers.

Other notes:

• I wanted a variety in approaches to style, including those that differ to my own. So there a windsor knots, handkerchief-less breast pockets and so on. 
• I also wanted variety in age and experience of tailoring. So there are RTW pieces here, made to measure and bespoke, from different parts of the globe.

1 Cheong Yong

Cheong, who came in from San Francisco, wore a double-breasted, dark blue dinner jacket made by Thomas Mahon at English Cut.

It was a relatively conservative choice, but with little personal touches: a batwing grosgrain bowtie, vintage shirt studs in light-grey mother of pearl with a tiny white pearl in the middle, and a vintage cufflink worn as a decoration for the buttonhole. 

The shirt, with marcella bib front, was made by WW Chan with slightly larger buttonholes to fit his preferred cufflinks, also vintage pearls.

2 Hristo Stefanov

Hristo, of Bulgarian origin but living and working in Germany, wore his favourite suit: a navy-blue mohair Solito two piece that he says must have been worn over 200 times. 

The dark colour of the suit and the mohair cloth gave it an evening feel, which was enhanced by the plain-white shirt (Emanuel Berg) and sheen of a blue/silver jacquard tie from E&G Cappelli. 

The flower in his buttonhole was picked up in London that day, and benefitted from small, largely unopened buds that were therefore less likely to wilt.

Vintage silver/onyx cufflinks, braces, black cordovan shoes from Alden.

3 Edmund Schenecker

As mentioned in our first post on this readers dinner, Edmund is a long-time, deep fan of Scottish culture and paid homage to the upcoming birthday of Robert Burns in his dress. 

The Prince Charlie coatee and waistcoat were made by tailor Chris Despos in Chicago in midnight-blue barathea, while the kilt was made by Kinloch Anderson in Edinburgh from the Bluebonnet Tartan of Texas.

The navy hose had garter flashings in the same tartan, and on the feet were Glyndebourne ghillie brogues from Edward Green.

The sporran is vintage, made in 1953. Based on the design it was likely made for an officer in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Regiment. Black mink with white-mink tassels in the traditional 'swinging six' configuration.

4 Oliver Gibson

Oliver wore his first bespoke suit: a light-grey double-breasted worsted suit from Whitcomb & Shaftesbury. 

He wore the same thing to his wedding, and it is my favourite wedding outfit: white shirt, Macclesfield tie (here, Tom Ford), white hank and black shoes. Beautiful A. Lange & Sohne on his wrist. 

5 Meekal Hashmi

Although born and bred in the UK, Meekal's Pakistani roots mean he often wears the traditional achkan to formal events, in black with white cotton trousers. 

This example was made by an old military tailor in Lahore.

The achkan and is generally worn in black on formal occasions and by government ministers, although interestingly, as with the suit, there are many different versions for different types of event. Those worn for weddings, for example, are much more colourful and flamboyant.

6 Ben Chew

Ben wore a mid-grey birdseye suit made for him in Hong Kong by WW Chan. 

Ben usually doesn't wear a pocket handkerchief on smart occasions and went without to the dinner.

As with most of the suits worn, it was accompanied by a white shirt, silk tie and black oxfords. 

7 Martin Tabasso

Martin, who came in from New York, echoed the formal ideas of dark monochrome seen elsewhere, but here in shades of brown. 

He has long been a fan of brown, and told us all of the first time he worked on a trading floor in London, where he was berated by the senior staff for his brown shoes. They didn't actually say 'no brown in town', but it was close. 

Martin's cashmere suit is from Kiton, with some grey shot through the brown to give it that shadowed, muted look.

The white tab-collar shirt was made in Turin by Gianfranco Rao and was worn with a simple 7-fold Kiton tie. The silk pocket handkerchief provides some light relief with a dash of colour and pattern.

8 Leslie Cuthbert

Leslie, a lawyer working in London, wore an Ede & Ravenscroft velvet jacket with some lovely frogging.

I particularly liked the way the turn-back cuff was worked up to the frogging on the sleeves (shown at top). 

Worn with a velvet waistcoat, blue bow tie and patent leather shoes. 

9 David Man

David's lightweight woollen suit was made by Choppin & Lodge, with a double-breasted waistcoat in the same material (an admitted weakness of several others at the table). 

Stripped back to its most formal combination with white spread-collar shirt, navy tie and white linen handkerchief. 

10 Nicolas Stromback

An ex-swimmer, Nicolas hasn't had bespoke made but loves the fit of Eidos made to measure.

(Quote of the evening: "It helps a lot with my back, the wings. Obviously, I work out." Leslie: "Perhaps just as obviously, I don't!")

As with much of the Eidos oeuvre, the cloth is unique to them and is a really interesting mix of blues and greys, in wool/cashmere. Black, too, in the check, which Nicolas reflected in his black tie with white shirt. 

That shirt is Nicolas's first with Luca Avitabile. Burgundy/pink/cream Christian Kimber pocket square. 

11 Last but not least...

Easily spotted on the evening by the attentive readers, I was wearing my Chittleborough & Morgan twill suit, with a pale-blue shirt from Luca and a gold satin tie. 

As mentioned elsewhere, I do like satin in the evening but it looks a lot less garish with a blue background. 

Pocket square from Rampley & Co in dark greens and greys, with a white border. Pink-gold lapel chain from The Armoury. 

Photography: Wayne Lennon

Someone asked me the other day when I'm going to run out of things to write about. 

To be honest I have yet to have that problem - there's usually too much rather than too little.

But as one writes more (1612 posts and counting) it's nice to work on bigger projects that take more work, but derive greater satisfaction.

It's something I am able and can afford to do - and I intend to take advantage of that luxury. 

It was with this in mind that I embarked on the Guide to Cloth project with Scabal. 

So far there are six posts in this series, and it will grow consistently over the next few months, adding to and referencing itself, building up into a unique guide to the lovely fabrics we wear every day.

These posts needed a single home, rather than relying on search engines and category pages.

So today we launch the Guide to Cloth microsite - a host for all these articles as they grow and expand - as well as a link in the nav bar to direct people to this new resource. 

The page can be seen here. Watch it grow.

This is the corduroy suit I featured the fitting of last October - at the E. Marinella store in London. 

Although labelled as Marinella, it was made by Nunzio Pirozzi - a Neapolitan tailor with a wonderful moustache and a sterling reputation in Naples.

I've yet to find someone that doesn't have a kind word to say about him. 

Like many tailors around the world, the trousers were also made by someone else, under Nunzio's direction - in this case, our friend Marco Cerrato.

There were several issues with the suit, although the overall work and finishing was very good (again, something Pirozzi has a reputation for). 

The first issue was that the jacket was rather too tight - particularly for corduroy, which of course being cotton has no natural stretch. 

In fact, the images here are a good illustration of how hard it is to assess the fit of a jacket from photography.

Although the line through the waist looks clean and flattering, it is actually too close to the body to remain comfortable for long when buttoned. 

Although I wore the suit to Pitti this past January, I ended up doing so with the jacket open most of the time. 

The trousers too had issues, though they were in the common Neapolitan vein of getting the hard things right, but missing the easy ones. 

The waist was a couple of inches too big and had to be corrected locally. The fork was also marginally too tight (though this has softened down with wear). 

We had two fittings in London, and perhaps with a third fitting (common for a first order) these things would have been corrected. 

The sleevehead was also more pronounced than I had anticipated.

Despite being a spalla camicia construction, and very soft in the shoulder padding itself, there was a good deal of roping at the top of the sleevehead.

This creates a stronger impression around the shoulder and, for me, makes the jacket too formal to work with casual trousers such as jeans or chinos. 

Again, this was largely a result of the two fittings, at neither of which were the shoulders finished to the point that the style could clearly be discerned. My fault perhaps to not question it further. 

Again, this can and will be corrected.

Elsewhere the fit was very good - in the back, in the sleeve, in the line of the leg.

There is (again) the common issue with Italian tailors that they cannot source the matte-horn buttons English tailors use, and which I generally prefer.

But those too can be changed, and I may even grow to like these sportier versions. 

The waistband of the trousers is extended and broadened (to 5cm, the same as the turn-up) in the same style as my other Cerrato trousers. 

I wanted a corduroy suit because I love the idea of a casual, knockabout suit, and because I planned to wear jacket, trousers and suit separately (the 'three-way' suit, as I described it).

In this outfit I enjoyed wearing very casual pieces with the casual suit: a pale-blue denim shirt and a grey cashmere tie - the Viola Milano collaboration with Alexander Kraft I reviewed here. 

On the feet, my reliable Gaziano & Girling bespoke adelaides. (Another illustration of the perils of photography - look how big that toe looks!)

Since receiving the suit, I've been told that Marinella in London are no longer going to work with Pirozzi, which is a shame as it makes this suit rather less relevant to UK readers. 

But given the style of shorter jacket, broader lapels, slim waist and narrow trouser, Pirozzi is a genuinely different and more contemporary option for anyone visiting Naples.

Photography: Jamie Ferguson. Shot in Florence.

As requested by readers, here is the video coverage we took on the night at our Huntsman dinner a couple of weeks ago. 

The sound quality isn't perfect (our fault) but you can certainly hear the short explanation I gave at the beginning of the dinner covering my thoughts on evening wear. 

Thanks again to all at Huntsman, and to Wayne Lennon for the media work. 

As 'heritage' has become more popular in recent years, brands have increasingly emphasised their longevity, their history and their traditions. 

This has several issues.

Most obviously, the brands that push this hardest often have the least to shout about. They may well have been founded as a little workshop in Italy, but today there is little connection to the founders in terms of craftsmanship, philosophy or even design. 

A second, perhaps more subtle issue is that customers don't necessarily know what they want. 

They may think they want original designs, but in reality these are too antiquated. They latch onto 'Made in the UK' or 'Made in Italy' as signs of quality, even if they're not. And they're not really sure whether it matters who owns the company, whether they've always owned the company, where the owners are from, and so on. 

However, one thing that consistently maintains a connection between a brand and its history is an archive. 

This is something that again, brands have tried to build up in recent years - but Dunhill is one that has always maintained a strong historical collection, and it has consistently informed parts of the range - particularly that in Bourdon House. 

I've seen extracts of the Dunhill archive before, but just before Christmas I finally got around to touring the whole thing.

It has a fascinating range of pieces: not just clothing (tuxedos belonging to Frank Sinatra and Truman Capote), driving accessories and smoking paraphernalia, but also whisky, trophies, darts and boxing gloves. 

I picked out five of my favourite pieces to photograph and feature. 

First, shown above, is a lighter carved by Picasso with an image of his then girlfriend.

As an avid fan of 20th century art, this was in some ways the most exciting piece. It was the first Picasso I've ever handled and might well be the last.

Next, two vintage Namiki lacquer pens.

One of the crafts I enjoyed learning about in Japan last year was lacquer work - particularly its interaction with gold, described beautifully in Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's book, In Praise of Shadows. 

The collaboration between Dunhill and Namiki pens goes back to 1930 (to the point about heritage). 

Third, a driving coat (there had to be at least one piece of clothing).

Although still too large for me, it would have been worn with several layers underneath, in order to ward off the cold of driving an open car.

It would also have been worn by someone smaller, and therefore have been virtually floor length. 

Next is a horn-embedded clock.

One of the things I loved exploring when I was writing about Dunhill for my 2015 book Best of British was Alfred Dunhill's restless exploration of ways to combine clocks with other things. In make-up kits, in smoking kits, hidden away in lighters. The innovation was constant. 

Also, holding this thing feels like the most manly way to tell the time. Ever.

And last were a pair of driving goggles.

Not quite as inventive as Dunhill's famous 'bobby finders' (which had telescopic fixtures on each lens to allow drivers to see policemen further up the road) but still great to see, in their workmanship and how they have aged.

Photography: Jamie Ferguson @jkf_man

After several months of planning (and stress) I'm pleased to say that we finally announce the launch of the first Permanent Style pop-up shop. 

It will be held in a rather special location - numbers 34 and 35 Savile Row (shown above, the old Gary Anderson shop).

It's a big, double-front unit with room for plenty of stock and brands upstairs, and a bespoke fitting area downstairs. 

It will feature several of your favourite brands - focusing on those that are either only online or not in the UK, and that therefore you cannot normally see and feel in person.

Some of our favourite tailors and shoemakers will hold their trunk shows during the period, adding to the focus on craft and bespoke. And there will be a Permanent Style area featuring our polo shirts, books, accessories, plus a couple of new launches.

The shop will be open from February 24th to March 11th - two weeks with three weekends.

For those not in London, start planning your travel now. And if you can make it to the opening party, which will be on Friday February 24th, all the better. 

Thanks to one and all (particularly the reader that suggested something like this only yesterday!) for your continuous support. You make it happen.

Permanent Style has never been about the numbers. 

It is about a highly engaged, (scarily) loyal, knowledgeable group of readers that want to dress well and understand quality clothing. 

But it's always nice to see that group grow. So I thought readers would like to know that last month we had our biggest ever - 482,000 pageviews across the site. 

It is truly humbling when people comment - or tell me in person - how valuable Permanent Style has been to them over the years. 

There will always be sites that are bigger than PS, but there will never be any that are quite the same. 

Thank you everyone. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible on Savile Row on February 24th. 

Image: An outtake for the photo shoot for our upcoming book, shot by Jamie Ferguson. 

Wearing donegal roll-neck and flannels by Anderson & Sheppard, boots by Edward Green and scarf by Begg x Permanent Style

Our ever-popular Friday Polos are back, in the four colours of navy, brown, green and light grey. 

You can buy them on the shop page here.

Please don't forget to include the size you want and the colour(s) in the notes section. 

We dropped white this time around, as it was consistently the least popular of the colours - and it allows us to do a full run of brown, which was so popular last time. 

Shipping will begin on Wednesday this week. We've extended stock again, so these should last a few weeks (hopefully into the tenure of our Savile Row pop-up shop).

I continue to find my Friday Polos useful for bridging the gap between casual and formal.

Most often, they are worn with a sports jacket and trousers, as pictured here.

(I'm wearing my Dalcoure brown-donegal jacket and Caliendo cream-Pardessus trousers.)

But they also get a lot of use without a jacket. With a tailored pair of cotton trousers, for instance, they can do very well at the weekend, perhaps with a pair of loafers and a light coat.

In the images I am wearing our light-grey colour, with Tommaso Melani, Tommaso Capozzoli and Filippo Parri of Stefano Bemer wearing the other colours.  

Tommaso Melani (in the navy polo) is wearing his particularly casually, with the cuffs turned back. 

Our old friend Capozzoli favours the brown, which goes particularly nicely with his green tweed jacket. 

And Filippo wears his green with grey worsted. 

For anyone that's not familiar with the Friday Polos, including their design, handmade-in-Naples origin, and of course sizing, please see this last post here. 

And here is the standard product information again.

• Four colours available: Navy, Green, Brown and Grey
• Four sizes: Small, Medium, Large and Extra-large
• Shipping by FedEx, from Naples
• Deliberately sold at a below-retail price to readers
• Buy from the shop page here

Product details

• Mid-weight Caccioppoli pique-cotton fabric, good for nine months of the year (in England!)
• Hand cut and partly hand sewn, all in an atelier in Naples that makes for several big designer brands
• Cutting and work overseen by Luca Avitabile, bespoke shirtmaker
• Mother of pearl buttons
• Stand collar, like a shirt, to help it sit under tailored jackets
• Long tail and front, like a shirt, as the polo is designed to be worn tucked in
• Will not shrink when washed, but should expand slightly in the waist. Do wash cool and line dry

Photos taken by Jamie Ferguson, at Gilli in Florence. 

I have visited LeatherFoot in Toronto, Canada twice in the past year, and each time the aspect I have liked most is the on-site tailoring workshop.

So few shops have crafts on-site, even though it gives them a direct connection to the artisan. Indeed, few apart from Brio in Beijing have even an adjustments tailor (which is just plain efficient).

At LeatherFoot, bespoke feels integral to the shop because it is in the same building. Customers can see and visit the tailor, Signor Francesco, and it enables LeatherFoot’s founder, Ideyi Chuku, to support the craft in a very concrete way.

A regular customer of bespoke, Ideyi stumbled across Signor when he saw a display piece in a Toronto window.

That led to a commission, and a relationship that enabled him to move the tailor into his newly expanded LeatherFoot emporium last year.

(Signor’s full name is Francesco Pecoraro. The ‘Signor’ handle began when he set up on his own in Toronto in 1972. The designer he used thought ‘Francesco Sr.’ looked cool on the sign, and it stuck.)

Signor began training as a tailor when he was 11. The seventh son in the family, it had the potential to be a solid career, and he worked for six years for various tailors in Palermo, Italy, before moving to Milan at 17.

There he worked for Gaetano Paterniti, a well-known tailor in the city who made for the AC Milan football team, among others. Signor ended up marrying Paterniti’s daughter; the house itself got into trouble in the late 1960s, and eventually closed.

Signor and his wife moved to Canada when he was in his 30s, despite speaking little English, and he initially worked for tailoring shops before creating his own shop in 1972.

In the following decades Signor largely stuck to his bespoke principles as other tailors increasingly added fusing to their suits, and cut from more standard patterns. He became one of the last true bespoke tailors in Canada.

That experience of working on his own, without an experienced bespoke clientele, has influenced some of Signor’s style and practices.

It has made him particularly flexible on speed, for example.

I had a jacket made (a DB in the same brown donegal as my Dalcuore) which Signor finished without a fitting.

There was some miscommunication there - I would have preferred at least one fitting -  but when I returned to Toronto to try the finished jacket, Signor made several alterations to fit and length in less than an hour, in order to give it to me to take away.

It has also given him a full toolbox of handmade details - which are often easier selling points for those not used to the subtleties of bespoke.

You can see those in the various images here: lap seams, inset fabric, Milanese buttonholes, and box pleats with hand-sewn sprat’s heads.

He also has the experience to work with a very broad range of materials, such as silks and denim.

Some of these details will attract bespoke customers looking for something unusual (and they are certainly well-executed).

Others may be a little over the top - and if there is anything I would say doesn’t appeal to me, it is these style aspects of Signor’s work. I’m undecided on the lapel line on the DBs, for example, which has a little belly to start with, before straightening and actually curving subtly outwards at the point.

These are subjective points of course, and can also be changed. But I have always recommended buying into a tailor’s style - one you can see, and try on - rather than trying to create something different.

I’ll post pictures in a few weeks of the final jacket. The fit was good, if not perfect - but then it is based on the experience of having almost one fitting, rather than the normal minimum of two.

I’ve been meaning to write about Signor for a while, but was spurred to do so this week as readers in New York will have the opportunity to see him when he comes to the city on February 13th.

Signor will be hosted in the Saint Crispin’s showroom (130 W. 57th Street, Suite 11A, New York) from Feb 13th to 15th, along with Marol shirts.

Contact is through email info@francescosr.com or events@leatherfoot.com - or telephone +1 (212) 804-8255.

Signor plans to return 2-3 weeks later for fittings, and then again once more, another 2-3 weeks after that. So delivery in around 8-10 weeks.

Prices for two-piece suits start at $6200, sport coats $5000 and trousers $1200 (tax included).

All details, as ever, are on the Permanent Style trunk show calendar.

Details on the finished pieces shown here:

1. Black tails: Zegna, 9oz Trofeo600, 85% wool/15%silk
2. Dinner jacket: Zegna 8oz, 80% wool/20%silk, black on black houndstooth pattern  
3. Grey herringbone suit: Scabal, 13oz worsted wool
4. Brown windowpane and blue windowpane jackets: both  Zegna, 95%wool/5%cashmere, 10oz
5. Jeans: Ariston, cashmere denim indigo, 90%cotton, 8%cashmere, 2%elastene
6. Brown Herringbone hunting jacket: Dream Tweed by Loro Piana, 4ply superfine 120 wool
7. Charcoal grey ‘soprabito’, fall/spring coat: Scabal, 13oz cavalry twill

Following last week's announcement of our pop-up shop on Savile Row - under the banner 'Permanent Style presents' - here are some details of the shop and the brands. 

I also include an invitation, above, to any readers to come to the opening party on February 24th.

It should be fun, with a new Permanent Style collaboration also launching on the day. If you could RSVP, to make sure we cater correctly, that would be very helpful. 

So, to the brands. 

Our guiding aim at the start was to bring in products that Permanent Style readers would appreciate - but cannot currently see in London. 

That's why we approached Baudoin & Lange, for example.

Allan Baudoin is making simply the best Belgian-style slippers anywhere at the moment, but as he doesn't have a shop, people can't appreciate that for themselves.

Shoes are also particularly tricky as you really want to try them on for size. Now you will be able to. 

Luca Faloni I invited with a similar aim in mind.

As I have written about previously, I love his cashmere knitwear - which feels like a wardrobe staple, but is also the finest quality out there (on a par with Loro Piana).

And the fit is great, but again something you'd want to try in person.

He will also have some his shirts, particularly in brushed cotton. 

The Armoury, I think readers in London will agree, is a shop we dearly wish we had here.

And so we invited them to send over some of their product, particularly focusing on trousers (love the chinos and denim), bags (Frank Clegg and Ortus) and some other distinctive Armoury pieces, like their lapel chains. 

Including The Armoury worked well, because Drake's had asked to have a section - as their shop will be closed for refurbishment during most of our tenure - and the two brands could be managed by the same staff. 

So we will effectively be the Drake's shop for a couple of weeks.

I have picked some of my favourites to include, focusing particularly on tailoring and summer-print ties. 

Fox Brothers was next, both as an online retailer in Merchant Fox (another online store without any retail) and as in Fox cloth, of which there will be a selection curated by me, for readers to select cuts of.

There are two brands here that readers won't know very well, Codis Maya and General Eyewear, but which fit into something of the same mould. 

Codis Maya is a British maker of some of the finest enamel cufflinks, but is rarely presented under its own name.

General Eyewear, meanwhile, is a bespoke and vintage glasses company based in Camden. Both have coverage coming up on Permanent Style.

Added to these were Begg & Co - who have wholesalers around London but no dedicated retail, or a focus on the scarves I wear and have featured. 

And The Hanger Project. Kirby Allison now has a UK site and warehouse distributing his hangers, garment care and shoe care, but no retail presence. 

Which leaves just two, more personal exhibitors. 

J. Girdwood is a new brand being launched later in the year by my friend and ex-Drake's man James Girdwood. It will offer a range of clothing and accessories, and James will also be the day-to-day manager of the Permanent Style shop. This couldn't have happened without him.

In that guise, he will look after the Permanent Style section too, when I cannot be there. As mentioned previously, we will have our books and polo shirts, plus a couple of new launches. 

Then there are the trunk shows. 

Four are currently confirmed:

• Stefano Bemer shoes on the opening two days, Friday February 24th and Saturday 25th
• Lavabre Cadet gloves the following Tuesday and Wednesday, February 28th and March 1st
• Luca Avitabile and Luigi Solito on the middle weekend, Thursday March 2nd to Saturday March 4th
• And Sartoria Formosa, for their UK debut, from Thursday March 9th to Saturday 11th

It's going to be quite a ride. Please do come along and support all of us.

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 for brands and for private customers.

I’ve wanted to find a place to alter leather and suede garments for a while.

If you like (and, in reality, get used to) bespoke tailoring, you become increasingly frustrated at not being able to achieve anything like the same fit in leather.

Of course, the beautiful suede jacket Cifonelli made me last year is one way to get a perfect fit, but that is expensive, time-consuming and - for anything other than a simple sports-jacket shape - difficult to design.

For whatever the perils of bespoke tailoring, suits are pretty easy to commission as a customer. There are relatively few variables, and there are clear traditions and rules around most of them.

Leather jackets, on the other hand, are much harder.

A collar can be many different widths, heights and shapes; the body can be skin-tight or have a lot of excess; design details like zips and pockets fundamentally alter the look.

And a bad leather jacket is just awful. Nothing else will make a man look more dated, sad or unfashionable.

I went through the difficulty of this process with the leather jacket Davide Taub made me at Gieves & Hawkes.

I still really like the result, but there are a few things I would definitely change if I could, and I also realise how many other things could have gone wrong.

Far safer, then, to buy ready-to-wear. Let Ralph Lauren, Seraphin or Nigel Cabourn design the jacket for you.

They may still get it wrong, but at least you can see the finished garment before you buy it, try it on and consider its style.

The only issue is fit. A ready-made garment is made to fit an average customer, and few people are average.

So the solution: buy a ready-made jacket and have it altered somewhere.

The problem is there are very few workshops that can do this. Davide worked with one for my leather jacket, but they are outside London and often don’t have capacity.

Cromford, it turns out, are central, lovely to work with and also very good.

The workshop dates back to 1971.

Run by Alan Sprooles and Peter Goodall, it made bespoke jackets for everyone - rock stars, film stars and even the Queen.

It also made and continues to make for several designer brands, including Mulberry and Margaret Howell.

Pauline Harris (above) had worked at General Leather for 20 years when Alan and Peter retired in 2015, and she took it over together with Katherine and (as of last month) a new apprentice.

They re-branded as Cromford Leather, and created a new line of ready-made leather and suede pieces to replace the (frankly, rather 70s) collection of Alan and Peter's.

The new collection has some nice pieces in it, although none I really love - as mentioned earlier, this is hard thing to analyse and dissect.

Shown above are three pieces - the De Niro suede jacket (£1200), Douglas flight jacket (£2800) and Eastwood Leather coat (£1850).

The alteration work Pauline and Katherine have done for me, however, is fantastic, and I’m sure I’ll use them to make a bespoke jacket at some point.

(Below - bespoke piece made for Brad Pitt in the film Allied.)

The first alteration project I gave them was a Loro Piana jacket I picked up at Bicester Village years ago.

The quality is lovely, and is cashmere-lined, but the fit was never quite right. Collapsing at the top of the back (with my sloping shoulders) and a touch too big in the waist.

It also always looked a little too rustic, largely because of its large, shapeless patch pockets.

Pauline lowered the shoulders for me (by taking off the sleeves), which made the back much cleaner (and as a side effect, created a smaller armhole).

She slimmed the waist, using both the side seams and putting two extra seams in the back. And she took off the patch pockets, cutting them down so they were flush with the jacket.

Overall, the effect was great. It made a piece I never really wore into something I want to wear every day. And we’ve already moved onto the next piece - a Seraphin bomber. The two jobs cost £250 and £300 respectively.

I’ll post more, and far better, photographs on the next post on them.

One last point: altering a jacket like this is not easy. For most things you essentially have to take the entire jacket apart and re-make it.

That’s simpler than with bespoke tailoring, but it does take a lot of time and there are limitations.

For example, there is rarely any inlay in a jacket, so it’s much easier to take in than take out. Best to buy a jacket that’s a little too big and reduce it than the other way around.

Also, jackets are often washed to create certain effects, and these would not be reproduced on new seams. Plus if you remove anything (like my jacket flaps) it will likely leave a mark.

Do go and talk to Cromford about anything you want done, but don’t expect the same kind of potential as with tailoring.

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 go through, it seemed more effective to focus on bespoke shoes.

The bespoke set is both more consistent and reflects many of themes in the wider collection.

As with the first post, the focus here is on style and building up a functional, versatile wardrobe - rather than comparing the makers.

Cleverley dark-brown oxfords

November 2010

www.permanentstyle.com/2010/11/bespoke-shoes-at-cleverley-12-the-compendium.html

The first thing to note about my commissioning of bespoke shoes is that it is boring. Or to put it in a positive light - practical and consistent. 

My first pair, from Cleverley, is a case in point.

The colour is very-dark brown. The kind of brown that goes with every suit from charcoal to tan. For anyone buying a pair of formal shoes, I highly recommend it.

I also recommend oxfords as a starting point if you wear formal clothing at all. It is more formal than a derby and goes with anything up to chinos and jeans. 

Having said that, the shape of the Cleverleys - with their 'Anthony Cleverley' elongated toe, makes them more formal than most oxfords, and I wouldn't wear them with most casual trousers as a result. 

Cleverley black imitation-brogues

July 2011

www.permanentstyle.com/2012/01/cleverley-imitation-brogues-final-pair.html

The second pair were black. This also felt practical, although as you will note down the list, they became my only pair of black bespoke shoes. 

Although black is great to have for the most formal or conservative of occasions - a lawyer's office, an evening event - shades of brown are always more useful outside of that. 

Brown is also more interesting to polish. A touch of black to the toe, perhaps even around the heel, and it can gain a lovely range of tones. Black, by contrast, is rather dull - all you can do is make it shiny. 

Which is one reason why British shoemakers have never been great at colour and patination. 

Gaziano & Girling seamless light-brown loafers

June 2013

www.permanentstyle.com/2013/10/the-divergent-styles-of-cleverley-and-gaziano-girling.html

The collection so far lacked anything resembling a casual shoe, and so my next commission was a loafer.

And, in terms of shades of brown, we could call this a light brown (not tan). Inappropriate with a navy or charcoal suit in terms of its colour - and most suits in terms of its style - but excellent with everything else.

Together with the next on the list, this has become my most useful shoe.

The only thing it lacks is a casualness that would have come from a more rounded toe and less elongated shape.

This is worth noting closely, as it applies to suits just as much as shoes - the more stylised, elongated, drawn out the shape of a piece of clothing, the less it is suited to casual wear.

That's why pretty much any Alden shoe will be more casual than a G&G shoe. 

Gaziano & Girling mid-brown adelaides

March 2014

www.permanentstyle.com/2014/03/gaziano-girling-bespoke-adelaides.html

These adelaide oxfords ('adelaide' refers to the line of the section around the laces) were originally made in tan by mistake. 

They were meant to be mid-brown. Somewhere between the dark-brown Cleverleys and the light-brown loafers, and for me the most useful colour of all. 

When I travel, as an illustration, I will always take one pair of dark-brown shoes and one pair of mid-brown, no matter what else there is. That covers most eventualities. 

(And it's usually three pairs as a minimum - you should obviously rotate every day if you can, and if one starts to cause you pain for some unknown reason, you don't want to be left with just one pair...)

The adelaides were patinated by G&G for me - to turn them from tan into this mid-brown - and to give some nice variation of colour in the toe and heel.

They have become probably my favourite pair of shoes.

Stefano Bemer tan oxfords

July 2014

www.permanentstyle.com/2014/07/stefano-bemer-final-bespoke-shoes.html

OK, so now it was time for tan. All other shades of brown had been covered. (They are slightly lighter than photographs suggest.)

Again, it was an oxford, to maximise its versatility with most of what I wear (suits and sports jackets/trousers most of the week - certainly all the working week).

And it had a slightly thicker sole than, for example, the Cleverleys, to help it be that little bit more casual. That also tends to be the Stefano Bemer style. 

I have to say, I love tan shoes and I can completely understand why so many guys want to wear them with navy suits, with grey suits, with everything. There is a lovely richness to the colour and they are great to play with polish on. 

But the rule of thumb that a shoe should be darker than the trouser it is worn with remains a good guide. Certainly, tan with navy is too far.

Tim Little tan chelsea boots

October 2014

www.permanentstyle.com/2014/12/tim-little-bespoke-chelsea-boots.html

Interestingly, as with the Neapolitan jackets wardrobe piece, there would appear to be few mistakes in this series of commissions. 

But these tan boots certainly fall into that category.

The appeal of tan had a role to play, and there is always something attractive about the amount of leather involved in a boot as opposed to a plain shoe. I also had a teenage association with chelsea boots. 

But these have not seen much wear.

I rarely wear boots during the week, as they will become too hot in an air-conditioned office. And at the weekend I tend to prefer a suede shoe, a split-toe shoe or my Common Projects. 

There is also, I have to say, something about a chelsea boot that I find I don't like in practice. It is to do with that same uninterrupted volume of leather at the bottom of a trouser leg, which has a touch of the dandy about it.

I will have them patinated to a dark brown at some point, however, and see if that appeals more. 

Cleverley Russian-reindeer double monks

December 2014

www.permanentstyle.com/2014/12/cleverley-russian-reindeer-double-monks.html

If there is an overarching theme to this post, it is of realising - again and again - the virtues of being boring. 

For me, this applies to shoes in particular because I generally prefer to experiment with tailoring rather than shirts, shoes or accessories.

My shirts are largely pale-blue, my ties mostly dark, and my shoes dark brown. It makes it a lot easier to wear toabacco linen or green flannel. 

So here, with these beautiful Russian-reindeer double monks, I should have gone with an oxford. 

I do like monk-front shoes. My first ever pair of good shoes was a single-monk Oundle from Edward Green, and I am very fond of them. 

These Cleverleys were also beautifully executed, with the antiqued brass buckles and hatchgrain of the Russian reindeer. 

But they would have been more frequently worn, and taken travelling, if they had been oxfords like my Stefano Bemers.

Santoni dark-brown derbys

July 2015

www.permanentstyle.com/2015/03/bespoke-santoni-shoes-fatto-a-mano-su-misura.html

The next commission, at Santoni, learnt from that lesson. 

Although derbys (the first bespoke pair) the colour was that super-versatile mid-brown of my G&Gs and they have proved very useful as a result. 

The high shine and patina makes them a little less casual, but the derby construction is arguably more important. Great with dark-green cotton trousers, as shown. 

Foster & Son dark-brown oxfords

April 2016

www.permanentstyle.com/2016/04/foster-son-bespoke-shoes-review.html

Readers will be familiar with the issues I had with my Foster's in terms of the finish - which was patinated to a dark brown but quickly came off. 

The mid-brown it was replaced with was much better in terms of consistency, but lacked the variation in colour, largely as a result of it being an aniline leather. 

It is a conservative oxford in other respects, although also not the best fitting of the bespoke shoes I have had, and so they are used largely as a back up.

(Having said that there is plenty of toe space, which is the area I most commonly get pain if I'm on my feet all day. So they can be useful for travelling.)

Saint Crispin's croc wingtips

May 2016

www.permanentstyle.com/2016/05/saint-crispins-shoes-review.html

Picking this design as my first pair of Saint Crispin's was a good compromise. 

Although they are best described as a mid-brown, it is a rather greyed brown that is a little unusual (one of the benefits of Saint Crispin's dyeing their own uncoloured leathers). 

And of course there is the crocodile around the laces. Altogether it makes for a shoe that is just about as unusual as I can wear with most things. 

I should mention that I also keep three or four pairs in the office, as I cycle to work most days and change when I arrive.

This is another reason for versatility - and the SCs just about qualify for inclusion. 

Stefano Bemer tobacco-suede oxfords

July 2016

www.permanentstyle.com/2016/07/the-best-fit-yet-stefano-bemer-tobacco-suede-oxfords.html

Suede! The one material clearly missing from my bespoke collection thus far. 

In the past year I have found I wear suits less during the week, and more of those Neapolitan jackets. This has created a focus on more casual shoes, such as suede, and less on long-toe Cleverleys.

Controversially for me, I went with a light-brown tobacco suede rather than dark brown, and they have had less wear as a result.

But they were beautifully made - as I reported at the time, my best fit yet - and are a pleasure to have in the collection. 

Indeed, there is a point here about wardrobe building that we haven't touched on yet.

When you're investing in clothing for the first time, it makes sense to start conservative.

It's hard to do (I splurged on a pair of calf/suede Corthays as my first very expensive shoe!) but is more rewarding. Start with something you know you'll get a lot of use out of, and build up.

Tobacco-suede shoes are a much more sensible buy as your eighth pair of shoes than as your first. 

Saint Crispin's brown-suede chukka boots

December 2016

www.permanentstyle.com/2016/12/saint-crispins-relasting-boots-and-us-activities.html

Finally, most recently, my chukka boots from Saint Crispin's. I'm including SC in this list of bespoke, by the way, as both pairs involved an amended last and a hand-sewn welt. 

These boots have proven a very good choice.

My feet don't get as hot - not being a full-height boot - and they are dark and smart enough to be worn in the office with some outfits. 

In fact, in some ways these chukkas are a perfect illustration of my preferred, always subtle, style.

They are, at first glance, merely a dark-brown boot, and if worn at the weekend with chinos or jeans, get few second glances.

But the curved shape of the quarters, the two-lace fastening, and of course the hand-cut waist that curves in beautifully underneath, elevate it in a very subtle way.

Rather like the best bespoke tailoring, most people would say they thought they looked great, but would struggle to put their finger on why.

There are other bespoke shoes in the works, of course, which pushes this collection out more prospectively. 

Continuing the suede theme, there are some brown-suede slip-ons being made at G&G (above). Norman Vilalta and I have been working on a boot project that has taken (a very enjoyable) five sessions in two years. And I have just commissioned a pair from Stivaleria Savoia in Milan. 

They are dark-brown oxfords.

Photography: Jamie Ferguson, Horst Friedrichs, Luke Carby, Jack Lawson and myself. 

Creare - to create

Sentire - to feel 

For Japanese tailor Satoki Kawai, these are the two most important things about making a piece of clothing - and are the reason his tailoring house combines the two in its portmanteau of a name, 'Sartoria Cresent'.

Satoki featured in our Young Tailors Symposium last year, and I followed up in January to explore his training and bespoke education.

The most interesting aspect of it was the way he compares working at Colombo and A Caraceni in Milan. 

Although Satoki worked briefly at a suiting factory in Japan, and then with a Japanese tailor in Milan, his apprenticeship really started when he joined Sartoria Colombo in 2006. 

"I really liked working there, Mr Colombo was such a lovely man and a great teacher," Satoki recalls.

"He was quite severe when it came to quality, but that generated a lot of respect. He was an old-fashioned artisan, with a huge range of experience."

Satoki arrived there as a coatmaker, but slowly learned cutting with some lessons here and there. He only left in 2011 when the sartoria closed. 

"Later that year I moved to A. Caraceni, and it was such a different atmosphere," he says. "They were very conscious of their history, so that it ran through and controlled everything."

Caraceni was also a much bigger house, which required greater management and meant there was less direct connection to the customer.

Satoki was a coatmaker only, so had to learn cutting in his spare time from the third-ranking cutter. 

In terms of style, Caraceni was also more traditionally Milanese. "It is a very masculine style, with a square, extended shoulder, and big sleeve and chest," says Satoki.

Colombo had a definite Milanese influence, but softer in the shoulder, narrower in the sleeve and closer in the chest.

After two years, Satoki followed the cutter he was training with and moved outside of the atelier - although still working exclusively for Caraceni.

"That gave me more freedom to work on my own style," says Satoki. "Which, perhaps along with creare and sentire, is best described as modest. It does not shout."

Satoki's jackets still have the fairly square shoulder of Milanese tailoring (which readers will have seen on my Ferdinando Caraceni pieces) but it is less extended (widened beyond the end of the shoulder bone). 

There is no roping, which again de-emphasises the shoulder, and has relatively wide lapels - with a little bit of belly. 

There is a little bit of a swell to the chest (again, fairly traditionally Milanese) and relatively closed fronts for an Italian jacket (the curve of the two sides below the fastened button). 

"I also like the gorge line [where the lapel and collar meet] to slope upwards into the neck. It feels more natural to me," Satoki says. 

We are talking largely in terms of Italian styles - for Satoki agrees that there isn't really any Japanese 'style' to impart.

What Japanese influence there is comes from an attention to detail and a work ethic. (As discussed in our piece on Japanese tailors in Japan.)

"I really respect Italian culture, so I don't want to abandon that. I want to learn it, perfect it, and be able to pass it on," Satoki says.

To that end, he is teaching an Italian woman most afternoons - and it was important that she was Italian.

"I'm not sure I want to live in Italy forever. I know Kotaro [Sartoria Corcos] says he will, but I assume I will go back eventually," Satoki says.

"However, I can't do so until I've taught someone local - until I've passed on what I was taught.

I am wearing my tan-linen suit from Dege & Skinner - details here. 

Photography: Jamie Ferguson @jkf_man

In the realm of classic menswear, silk is usually restricted to discussions of ties and handkerchiefs.

There is the occasional silk facing, and silk-mix jacketing, but it rarely features alone in clothing. 

It was fascinating while in Japan last year, therefore, to understand a bit more about the use of silk in traditional Japanese dress.

We even, by pure fortune and coincidence, got to see a demonstration of silk farming. 

Although the fitting and tailoring is important in making a traditional kimono, the real focus is cloth. 

The craft is all about harvesting the best silks, dying with natural processes and dyes around the country, and then different small-scale weaving techniques intended to get different shapes as well as effects.

Motoji, in the Ginza region of Tokyo, is one of the most famous kimono houses in the country.

It uses only silk farmed in Japan (around 1% 0f the global production) and uses tailors based in and around the city. 

(The majority of silk today comes from China, followed by Brazil, and most kimono tailoring is outsourced to China or Vietnam.) 

Traditional kimono silks have details of the cloth printed on notes at the end of them.

At Motoji, there is a particular emphasis on naming the weaver of the silk. 

"Putting the name on the cloth elevates the importance of the weaver," says Keita Motoji (pictured above), the son of founder Komei Motoji.

"It makes them famous, at least in our world, and they will often come to the shop to have a photograph taken next to the cloth with their name on it."

That level of recognition also helps encourage weavers to take up the trade, and keep in going across generations.

And, as elsewhere in the world, there is a growth in the recognition of craft - even in Japan, which has always maintained a greater tradition around handmade product. 

The cloth above was accompanied by a leaflet about how it was dyed - in the north of Japan around Hokkaido, because the water that washes the dye out of the flower has to be particularly cold and fresh. 

In fact, the flowers are picked in the summer when they bloom, but are only used in the dying in winter - and even then, the work is done between 4pm and dawn, so the water is particularly cold. 

One of the things that Keita is doing to increase awareness in Japan is hosting demonstrations of silk farming.

This was going on while we there, with thousands of silk cocoons suspended in racks from the ceiling.

Schoolchildren were playing with the silk worms, and showing them to the public passing by. 

Around 3000 cocoons are required for one metre of cloth - all male cocoons, as they have longer fibres. 

"When I was younger I hated the shop, and kimonos," says Keita. "All I wanted was western clothes." 

"But over time I got to love it, and now I'm passionate about trying to spread awareness of it around Japan."

Although I didn't have a kimono made myself (I simply wouldn't wear it) I did go through the process of being measured, which was interesting.

The fit of the kimono is all about drape. Although we talk about drape a little in tailoring, little of it really goes from the shoulders.

The work of the tailor is much important to how the cloth sits, at least in the top half of the body.

But with a kimono, everything is about how the cloth is held and tied in different places in order to help it drape in different ways.

And different materials - light and heavy silks, linens, cottons (usually for summer yukata) - drape in very different ways.

So as mentioned earlier, that selection of cloth is crucial.   

The key thing with the measurements being taken here, then, was balance. 

If the shoulder seam sat precisely along the middle of my shoulders, the cloth must hang dead straight at the bottom hem, parallel to the floor. 

There was equal precision around where the cloth hung at the wrists, and the angle of the front edge into the belt. 

Even with nothing but cloth to work with - or perhaps, because of that - the measuring was as precise as any bespoke suit. 

Photography: Jamie Ferguson @jkf_man

Prices at Motoji from £1600 for a cotton yukata into the tens of thousands for precious or rare silks.

Thanks to Masaichi Hasegawa of Gaziano and Girling and Jason Yen of Gaziano and Girling/Camps de Luca for their extensive help with the trip. 

Although some Permanent Style collaborations have been rather esoteric (purple slippers anyone?), the most satisfying have always been those that go on to become wardrobe staples.

Our next - available exclusively in the Savile Row pop-up shop from Friday - aims to be just that.

We are calling it The Finest Knitwear.

Fine in one sense, in that it uses one of the finest merino yarns as well as the finest knitting gauge.

And fine in the other, in that it is the best knitwear of its type available anywhere.

It is a luxurious and highly practical piece of clothing, and yet - primarily as a result of our low costs - only £190 (ex-VAT).

The Finest Knitwear comes in one colour - navy - but two styles: crewneck and V-neck.

Navy is by far the most versatile colour for knitwear with tailoring, given it goes with pretty much every other colour, and itself.

However, I know there are guys that swear by both crewnecks and V-necks, and so we produced both.

For me, the crew is a little more casual. But both work under tailoring.

The design

A piece of fine-gauge navy knitwear might seem like a simple thing to design, but there are so many beautifully subtle ways it can be improved.

The crewneck, for example, has an ever-so-slightly larger collar, in order to give a shirt a little room to spread out around the neck.

The V-neck, similarly, has a slightly lower opening than normal, to flatter the wearer and better reflect the line of a jacket’s lapels.

As with other Permanent Style collaborations, both designs are cut relatively slim, to avoid any bulk under tailoring.

And while we haven’t altered the body length or the sleeve length, we have lengthened the ribbing on each - to 7cm from 6cm.

Interestingly, this makes the cuff of the sweater look a little dressier, which is a nice thing with tailoring. 

And increasing the ribbing at the bottom has the effect of raising the body of sweater slightly -  reflecting the general aim in tailoring of lengthening the leg relative to the body.

The material

The Finest Knitwear is deliberately made in merino, and not cashmere (or a cashmere/silk mix).

Cashmere is lovely, but the finer it is knitted, the more likely it is to pill and to lose its shape.

Fine merino, on the other hand, approaches cashmere in its feel but pills less, holds its shape, wears better and looks sharper.

After several iterations, we opted for Loro Piana Wish, a 15-micron two-ply merino.

The gauge

We decided to make our knitwear with a factory called Umbria Verde in Italy, which makes for Ralph Lauren Purple Label, Brioni and Hermes.

Simone Mattioli, the owner of Umbria Verde, will be in the shop Friday and Saturday, to talk to anyone that wants to about the product.

I’ll write about his factory in a separate post, but it was founded in the 1960s when his father bought up several old English cotton-knitting machines, and began adapting them to deal with finer gauges.

Today it specialises in ‘superfines’, using an adapted knitting bed to knit at 37 gauge (the number of needles to the inch). Smedley’s fine knit, by comparison, is 30 gauge.

This makes the knitwear fine, but not particularly delicate - certainly compared to cashmere.

It fits under any jacket, no matter how slim you like them cut. And it provides a notable layer of warmth without being too heavy.

For me the Finest Knitwear is perfect for travelling, particularly given it folds up small and is so lightweight (150g).

And I find I wear it around the office a lot - when the air conditioning can mean it is often warm, but I don’t want to be in just a shirt.

The make

Just as with the merino and the knitting, we asked the factory to pull out all the stops when it came to making up the knitwear.

There are many of these tiny, almost unnoticeable yet (for me) highly pleasurable details. I’ll restrain myself and pick just three.

First, note the join between the body and the sleeve.

This is almost twice as wide as on a piece of Smedley knitwear (for example) and as a result, thinner and flatter.

As with the same seam on a bespoke shirt, having the seam flatter (and indeed, curved) makes it more comfortable.

Second, look at the shoulder point inside the garment (above), where the shoulder and two sides of the sleeve meet.

On most knitwear there is a hard little knot here, where the yarn is folded back on itself. With ours, the point is flattened out and re-stitched, so the knot is removed.

And thirdly, the back of the ‘V’ on the V-neck.

It’s hard to show this in a photograph, as it is really an absence rather than a presence.

On a normal piece of knitwear, there would be hard little seam here between the two side of the V. With ours, it is knitted as one piece, so there is no seam.

The practical details

The Finest Knitwear is only available in the ‘Permanent Style presents’ pop-up shop on Savile Row for the next two weeks.

After that date, it will be available to all readers through the online shop.

Both designs are priced at £190 (ex-VAT) - great value for knitwear of this quality, which luxury brands would have at over £300.

I think that’s it.

This collaboration has been a long time coming, but I’m fantastically pleased to have it out there. There is no finer knitwear, for me, available anywhere; and certainly nothing at this value for money.

See you all in the shop.

Photography: Jamie Ferguson @jkf_man

Other items worn:

• Richard James bespoke cashmere jacket in Joshua Ellis cloth
• Anderson & Sheppard bespoke grey flannel trousers
• Light-grey bespoke cavalry twill trousers by Cerrato
• All shirts by Luca Avitabile

(Left to right: Elliot of General Eyewear, DaShira of The Hanger Project, Will and Amy of Fox Brothers, Richard of The Armoury, myself, James Girdwood (back), Lia of Codis Maya (front), Beatrice of Luca Faloni, Tommaso Capozzoli of Stefano Bemer, Luca Faloni, Bo and Allan of Baudoin & Lange) 

You know how you wake up at 4am, with thoughts of bag sizes, invitations and lease contracts running round your head?

And then, how the extremely unhelpful thought occurs: What if no one comes?

What if I’m just standing there in an empty shop, with seven brand owners staring at me, for 12 days?

And that terrifying thought stops you getting back to sleep. And the same happens the next night. And the next.

Opening a shop, even for just two weeks, has been one of the most stressful things I’ve ever done.

And I didn’t even do most of the work: that credit goes to shop manager James Girdwood, who I’m surprised has had any sleep.

But today is the day.

Today we are open, and we are stocked with what has to be one of the most lovely collections of sartorial menswear anywhere.

Please come and see us. Then we can both finally get some sleep.

A few notices and updates for anyone planning to come along:

• Following interest from readers, we will plan to be open until 7pm on Thursday. Frankly, given the trunk shows going on every Thursday, it may even be later.
• Please note, however, that we are not open on Sunday or Monday. The brands, their staff and we need some time off.
• Permanent Style will have available a full range of Friday Polos, our new Finest Knitwear, all four books of mine, and two very special pieces available to order. More on the last two next week.
• Drake’s on Clifford Street have had their refurbishment delayed a week, so they will still be open the first week of our pop-up. But we have some exclusive styles still, and are bringing in more Armoury stock.
• During the fortnight’s tenure of the shop we will be running a raffle, with prizes from the brands in the shop. Just make sure to sign up when you come.

The reaction to the pop-up shop so far has been wonderful: hundreds of people through the door every day, both highly engaged, loyal readers and strollers-by interested in something so different on Savile Row. 

The first two days have been a whirlwind, and we're now off until Tuesday, to begin all over again. I look forward to seeing everyone there.

(The Finest Knitwear is also over half gone, so do come in and get some if you have a chance...)

I mentioned that we would be featuring two other very special Permanent Style collaborations in the pop-up store.

The first is a valet stand designed by myself and Honorific founder Mantas Lesauskas. 

Mantas makes these stands partly in his home country of Lithuania and partly in London. They are hand-cut, turned and finished, with Mantas working every aspect of them himself. 

He uses various different hardwoods and metals, but this is my favourite combination: black American walnut and polished brass. 

The wood is oiled but kept with a relatively matte finish, while the brass is not antiqued but left with its natural shine.

I've seen various different combinations, and particularly like this contrast. 

Mantas usually makes valet stands in a relatively traditional design - Anderson & Sheppard have some beautiful ones in the Haberdashery.

This design places the jacket hanger and trouser hanger around the same height, to enable the user to take off both at the end of the day and leave them there. 

It's very useful for that purpose - but not so useful for seeing what the pieces, together with shoes and tie, look like together. 

So Mantas and I came up with a new design, where the jacket hanger is raised and the trouser hanger lowered. 

The latter's height means that the trousers fall just above the top of the shoes. And the former's position means that the jacket sits around the tie, which hangs from its own slot in the head. 

With those four in place, you can see exactly how an outfit might look for the next day. Even a shirt can be hung underneath the jacket, and its tails tucked away. 

The valet stands are all made to order, and you can have various different woods and metals - as mentioned. One friend is already looking at one in a chrome. 

This version costs £3,300. A lot of money, but certainly what a wardrobe of bespoke suits costing more than that deserve. 

You can see the stand itself in our pop-up shop, at 34-35 Savile Row.

And I will be featuring it as a way to demonstrate different outfits in coming weeks, so you can see how the proportions work. 

The other collaboration I mentioned, by the way, is my version of a Private White VC ventile raincoat. My perfect mac, basically. 

That too is on display in the pop-up shop, but doesn't officially launch until next week (March 9th, when we will have a small talk in the Private White shop). 

Pop-up Shop update: Lavabre Cadet gloves are in the shop today and tomorrow (Tuesday and Wednesday) for a trunk show. 

And on Wednesday, Neapolitan tailor Elia Caliendo will also be in the shop for a one-day show.

Please do come along, and feel free to contact the makers themselves or us at info@permanentstyle.co.uk to make an appointment.

Two of the brands in our pop-up shop that readers won’t be familiar with are Codis Maya and General Eyewear.

I’ll cover both during the tenure of the shop, so readers understand who they are before going in - beginning today with Codis Maya.

Codis Maya was founded by jewellery designer Roshini Aluwihare in 1987, and has become one of the UK’s best-known makers of high-end cufflinks - particularly involving vitreous enamel.

Unfortunately, most things called enamel today are not the real thing - they are plastic resin, rather than the melted glass that makes up vitreous enamel.

The difference is immediately obvious if you ever compare the two side-by-side.

Vitreous enamel can accommodate a lot more detail in its designs, and has far greater strength of colour. Hold it alongside plastic, and vitreous virtually glows, while plastic seems dull and flat.

Vitreous enamel is largely used for high-end jewellery and decorative pieces, often bespoke - by French houses like Lalique and Fabergé.

It is rare to have it used at any scale; the only other British brand doing it is Deakin & Francis.

One of the drivers behind Roshini's launch of the business was to bring this beautiful process to a wider audience.

Roshini runs Codis Maya today with her daughter, Lia, and I highly recommend talking to them in the shop if you get a chance. They are both highly knowledgeable and highly entertaining.

Roshini originally started Codis Maya as a brand, with its own sales, but after a few years broadened out into third-party work.

Today this work for other brands takes up about half of their time - and historically has included Asprey, Dior and Louis Vuitton.

As well as enamel cufflinks, they do lovely lapel pins and links in various metals, stones, horn and mother of pearl. You can see most of the range on their site.

Codis Maya don’t own their own workshops, but work with 12 different shops and workers around the UK (as is the case with most jewellery makers).

There is a broad range of craft stories you can get buried in as a result - from the original designs, to stamping, to the painting with enamel.

My favourite is probably die carving, however, as this is both one of the most artistic processes and still quite heavy duty.

For the basic outlines of a design - and anything that is symmetrical - the workshop scales up Codis's designs (above) to six times their size, and then uses a pantograph (below) to go over the shape whilst a small steel tool mirrors it at a smaller scale onto a hardened steel rod (the die). 

Once the outer shapes are in place, they add in details using steel cutters to directly engrave into the die (again, below).

This is delicate work, but can create some really fine details on the designs - such as on the pins below.  

The last thing to mention is that Codis Maya do a good made-to-order business, taking their existing designs and remaking links in any combination of colours for an extra £35.

They have a range of the colour options in the shop, which are worth looking at in person if you can.

Shop photography: Jamie Ferguson. Other photographs: Codis Maya.

Full details on the 'Permanent Style presents' pop-up shop on Savile Row here.

For many reasons - personal, business, product, sheer beauty of execution - I’ve long been a fan of The Armoury.

They were therefore one brand I was particularly excited to get into our Savile Row pop-up shop.

However, the things I wanted to feature weren’t perhaps the most obvious.

Yes, there are some Frank Clegg bags (totes and garment carriers that use a hardy and waterproof sun-umbrella canvas alongside the leather).

Yes, there are the instantly recognisable Armoury lapel chains (in a variety of designs and finishes).

And yes, there is an actual Ortus folio case - in deep-brown calf with green stitching.

But I wanted to get in the trousers. More specifically, the chinos and the jeans.

I picked up a pair of Armoury chinos in New York over a year ago, and they have quickly become my favourite casual trousers.

Made in Hong Kong from a sturdy cotton twill, they wear in beautifully (akin to denim) and are now incredibly comfortable.

They have a high rise and a relatively wide leg - for me, to wear with knitwear and trainers therefore, not a jacket and dress shoes.

And they are in the shop in tan, green and navy.

The jeans are a little more complicated. Also made in Hong Kong, from Japanese denim, there are two styles: the ‘bar tack’ and ‘sixties’ styles.

The former (shown above) is a once-washed denim, has a straight leg, and sits just above the hips. Named after the crossed bar tacks on the top corners of its back pockets, it is perhaps a more conventional modern jean.

It also comes in a white denim.

The ‘sixties’ style is more unusual, and more me. It is made in a raw denim and has a high rise - which is much more useful with tailoring - and a slightly wider leg.

That leg, though, is still relatively narrow and it’s the jean I would pick to wear with a soft-shouldered jacket.

Which segues into… the range of soft to very-soft navy jackets in the store that, frankly, would fit the lifestyle of any man, no matter how formal or casual.

There are three Drake’s jackets - a navy hopsack jacket, a navy tweed jacket and a navy jersey - and then the Armoury Teba jacket, which is the most casual of the lot (above - and known as 'The City Hunter').

A full range, from smart to sweater.

The City Hunter, by the way, is a real upgrade on a normal Teba jacket, blending the style with Japanese fabric and construction. 

The wool/cashmere mix has a luxurious feel with ample stretch from the jersey knit. And it uses a 'seamless' technique to join parts (such as the shoulder) where the body presses against the garment, removing any extra thickness that would normally be created by the seam.

These are the last few the Armoury has, but more are coming (in the navy and an olive colour) in May. I'd also recommend sizing down - I wear a 46 (size 36 chest) in it. 

Photography: Jamie Ferguson @jkf_man