There was a point in my speech where I got a little emotional. 

I'd only sketched down some points on the back of an envelope, mostly thanking everyone from the brands, to the audience, to manager James Girdwood.

There was also a particular shout-out for Mantas Lesauskas from Honorific and Simone Mattioli from Umbria Verde (below) - who made the Permanent Style valet stand and our Finest Knitwear respectively, and had come to spend time in the shop and talk to people about their creations. 

But then I mentioned how proud I was the first time I saw the 'Permanent Style' sign above the door. And how long it seemed since I'd started a little style blog. 

And I believe there was a tiny catch in my voice. Because it genuinely means a lot, to me and to everyone involved in Permanent Style. 

So one more round of thanks - to everyone, to you all, to readers everywhere. 

Here are some pictures from our opening party, which was absolutely rammed, and tremendous fun. 

Thank you again. 

Details on the pop-up shop, which is open Tuesday to Saturday this week and next, here.

Photography: Jamie Ferguson @jkf_man

Shop update: Sartoria Solito and Luca Avitabile shirts will be in the shop today and tomorrow for a trunk show. 

They're pretty full already, but if you want to try and make an appointment, please contact l.a.shirtmaker@gmail.com or luigisolito@yahoo.it

I was keen to have a cloth company as one of the exhibitors in our Savile Row pop-up shop.

There's nothing like picking cloth from a full bolt, where you can drape it around yourself, get a real feel for the handle, or simply see how a check looks at scale. 

Fox Brothers were perfect, both because I could get another look at the vintage bolts I last saw back in 2011 (and made up into a green-flannel suit) and because the Merchant Fox has some finished products for non-bespoke customers as well. 

Those Merchant Fox products include a range of cloth caps, shown above.

There are three designs: flat cap, peaked flat cap, and eight-piece. They are all in Fox cloth, some pretty heavy, and range in price from £95-£110. My favourite is the dark-grey eight-piece tweed. 

There are also some blankets (£120-£210), and cloth-covered notebooks (£40-£45, shown below). 

The star of the show, however, has to be the cloth. 

This falls into two categories:

• 'limited editions', of which there is good availability but it won't be made forever - unlike the pieces in the permanent collection
• and vintage cloth, which is the odds and ends from decades of production, and of which there is no more than a few metres

In the images here, the limited-edition cloth is broadly the thicker bolts, while the vintage pieces are the thinner ones. 

I've picked out two of each as my favourites - pictured above. 

There is a deep-green overcoating with a large black herringbone pattern, weighing 680/710 grammes. It's quite unusual and has a real strength of colour, but is dark enough to be quite wearable. 

That's a limited edition, as is the tweed jacketing in a large Prince of Wales check (a British wool weighing 470/500 grammes).

As with many PoW checks, it will be the overcheck that will determine its appeal most - in this case in green and orange.

The two vintage bolts are a yellow-green herringbone jacketing - Shetland wool weighing 530/560 grammes - and a chalkstripe merino flannel, at 370/400 grammes. 

Both are lovely, the former for its blend of grassy colours, and the latter for its visual texture but smooth handle. 

The Fox Brothers team have a cutting table downstairs, and some lovely branded paper, so do come and have a length cut if you want. 

The cloth ranges from £82 to £92 per metre. 

The furniture in our pop-up shop, by the way, has been lent by the wonderful design and reclamation house Retrouvius in north London. 

If you don't know them already, their Kensal Green warehouse is well worth a visit.

Photography: Jamie Ferguson @jkf_man

On Thursday this week I will be chairing a talk at the Private White VC store on Duke Street, Mayfair. 

Featuring speakers from Edward Green, Inis Meain and Alice Made This alongside Private White, the talk will focus on the state of manufacturing today and what it means for modern British brands. 

Do pop along if you're in the area. It starts at 6:30pm. 

General Eyewear has historically been a source of vintage inspiration for glasses, supplying designer brands and costume designers.

But as it has starting selling its own products, the Camden house has become a strong source for English-made glasses - both ready-to-wear (from £350) and bespoke (from £450).

You would be forgiven for being put off by General Eyewear’s public face.

The website is deliberately basic, and both site and social media prioritise unusual, whimsical designs - as is perhaps inevitable for a vintage house known for the scope of its collection.

The location in Camden’s Stables Market is also rather off the beaten path.

But it’s worth the trip.

For as soon as one of the staff starts taking you through the collection, you realise there is the potential there to create anything - from the most conservative tortoiseshell panto to the most esoteric horn rims.

And in my experience of commissioning bespoke glasses, that guidance is crucial.  

For I would argue there is a smaller margin for error with glasses than with any other item of menswear. Literally a millimetre too wide, or the lugs a millimetre too low, and the effect can be significantly changed.

There is also the greatest danger of being too adventurous, or dandyish.

For while there is room in the wardrobe for rarely worn tailoring - an ivory-silk dinner jacket, or a super-heavy winter overcoat - few of us swap our glasses around to achieve particular ‘looks’. They have to be versatile.

So you need a knowledgeable guide, and it helps a lot if you can work from existing models. Just as with bespoke tailoring, this is the easiest way to control the risk.

General Eyewear started out as a vintage clothing company in 1997, under the name of Arckiv.

The owner, Fraser Laing, was passionate about both but quickly found there was more of a gap in the market for glasses (plus they were lighter to carry around).

At the turn of the millennium, there was a lot of focus on designer ranges of frames - and the likes of John Galliano or Alexander McQueen would come by looking for inspiration.

In 2008, the company moved into a bigger, more permanent space in Stables Market, and renamed itself General Eyewear (retaining ‘Arckiv’ for clothing).

(They made the frames for the two films below - 'Charlie & The Chocolate Factory' and 'The Theory of Everything')

As demand for vintage glasses grew, Fraser and the team started making their own versions of old frames, as well as bespoke.

Go into the shop today, and the new General Eyewear lines are almost indistinguishable from the old pieces stored away in drawers.

Because there is so much focus on design, the team rarely work in buffalo horn or other unusual materials. Acetate just has so much greater potential to be shaped and re-shaped.

(As I’ve found with my buffalo glasses from Bourgeat, which really need some changes to the arms and bridge, but cannot be adjusted that far.)

General Eyewear do, however, collect vintage acetates - and browsing through those can be as much fun as looking through vintage cloths.

Indeed in our pop-up store, Elliot from General Eyewear found it interesting how many parallels there were between their use of vintage acetates and Fox’s vintage cloths.

“And there were a lot of parallels with the artisans used by Codis Maya,” commented Elliot. “We both use small workshops or single, semi-retired makers around the UK, and none of them are training anyone. There’s no fresh blood coming in.”

General Eyewear are in the pop-up shop until Saturday, March 11th, with both ready-made stock and bespoke availability.

After that you can track them down in Camden.

Photography: Jamie Ferguson @jkf_man

Over the past 10 days I have generally prioritised writing about new brands in our Savile Row pop-up shop. 

But there are also new developments at makers you will be familiar with - Baudoin & Lange, Luca Faloni, Begg and the Hanger Project - and having these in the shop gives visitors a unique opportunity to see and try the product in person. 

Baudoin & Lange, for example, has introduced three new versions of its Sagan loafer: a tassel, a penny and a bow-tie. 

(The name, by the way, is supposed to have French pronunciation, and is therefore Bo-doin and Lornj - the latter to rhyme with 'Ange' (Angel) in French.)

I'm not a massive fan of tassel loafers, as regular readers will know, but if they're going to work anywhere it is in a casual setting like Allan's Sagan's.

The bow-tie versions are more me (seems a touch more practical, less fancy), but my favourite of the three is the penny.

This has a beautiful, sinuous line to it, as the band runs back down the shoe and then curves to the sole. It's one more example of how Allan is elevating the classic Belgian-style loafer, lending it a little more thought and artistry. 

That extension of the band also has an interesting practical effect.

As it is calf, where the rest of the shoe is suede, it stabilises the foot, holding the instep in place while the joints and toes are free to move.

If you have particularly wide feet or issues with soft loafers like these, it might be worth opting for the penny on functional grounds as well as aesthetic ones.

When I wrote about Luca Faloni last year, it was largely to focus on his cashmere knitwear, which remains a great-value staple. 

But as the weather warms up, there is more focus on the linen side of his business.

There are three styles of linen shirt: collarless and buttoning all the way down ('versilia'), collarless and half-buttoning ('forte'), and with a paramontura collar ('portofino').  

Although I would normally have shirts made bespoke, the paramontura or single-piece collar is very attractive in its casual appearance (it is also known as the 'Loro Piana' collar as the brand used to be well-known for them) and the range of colours is fantastic.

In particular neutrals - white, grey, sand - and the blues - navy, light blue, chambray.

The Hanger Project has its range of both hangers and shoecare products on display in our pop-up shop. 

The hangers are largely for display, so that visitors can see the different woods, finishes and styles, and then order online.

Indeed, this is the focus - highlighting to British visitors that The Hanger Project now has a UK website and warehouse, and can therefore shop these items cheaper and quicker to us than before. 

There is, however, stock of the shoecare, including brushes and Saphir polish, in case anyone needs to fill up. 

Finally, next to The Hanger Project is Begg & Co, our favourite scarf maker. 

We haven't focused on Spring/Summer scarves so much here (particularly given the weather) but rather picked out a few of my favourites: the washed kishorns, the wispys in all their various hues, and the nuance style of multi-coloured scarf Begg is particularly known for. 

Readers will also recognise the small square scarf I designed with Begg, and our brass scarf rings. 

Details at all those links!

Photography: Jamie Ferguson @jkf_man

From today, our Finest Knitwear is available to buy in the online shop.

There was a lovely reception to it in the Savile Row pop-up, with dozens of readers coming in to try and to buy.

But I'm pleased to say that we still have both V-neck and crew-neck in all four sizes (S, M, L, XL) for other readers around the world. 

(As per usual, please state your desired style and size in the Order Notes.)

In terms of sizing, please refer to the measurements below. As with the Friday Polo, we highly recommend that you compare these measurements to knitwear you already have, rather than try to guess the size from other 'M' or 'L' sweaters from other brands. 

I should also say that, again like the Friday Polo, the fit is to a certain extent a matter of personal preference.

The knit/weave of both pieces means there is a lot more flexibility in the fit than with a dress shirt, for example, and is never going to be uncomfortable. How close you want it to fit is up to you. 

For those who are hearing about our newest collaboration - The Finest Menswear - for the first time, here is the background. 

The Finest Knitwear

The aim of this collaboration was to create the perfect knitwear for wearing under tailoring: a luxurious wardrobe staple (if that's not an oxymoron). 

We are calling it the Finest Knitwear because it uses one of the finest merino yarns you can buy (and the finest knitting gauge) and because it is the best knitwear of its type available anywhere.

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

It 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. 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 Finest Knitwear is 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.

Photography: Jamie Ferguson @jkf_man

The most recent issue of Robb Report UK included a couple of my pieces: a column singing the praises of good leather accessories, and a feature highlighting the Japanese artisans we visited last year. 

I have reproduced the column below. The detail on Japanese artisans can be largely seen in our previous articles on Japanese tailors and Japanese shoemakers. 

-

An old bag is the most beautiful thing we can own

My grandfather has an attaché case made by what is now Swaine Adeney.

It is in deep brown leather, with brass locks and feet, and has been meticulously maintained for 40 years. One stitching repair was required in that time, and one of the feet replaced, but other than that it has survived almost daily use unscathed.

In fact, more than that. Unlike almost every other item of clothing a man can own, it has got better with age.

The colour has deepened at the points it regularly touched the hands - around the corners, either side of the locks. The leather has a deep glow from many layers of saddle soap, rubbed in every few months to stop the leather drying out. And the brass has tarnished around the edges, only brought back to a high polish on its uppermost points.

It is a thing of beauty. And most significantly for me, it is a beauty that has been earned.

This kind of effect in leather cannot be bought; ‘antiqued’ effects always end up looking patchy and artificial. You could perhaps find a case second hand that had been just a lovingly looked after, but then the beauty would not be personal, would not reflect your work and time. On the lid of my grandfather’s case you can even see the direction he has swirled the saddle soap each time, using the same motion for four decades.

A few companies still make cases to this quality. Among them are Asprey and Dunhill in the UK, as well as Swaine Adeney. They use traditional bridle leather, stretch it over a wooden frame, and hand stitch the long edges.

Several others will make one in the manner if asked. But rarer, perhaps, is someone that is prepared to use the same bag for such a long period of their life, and look after it.

Does a bag reward such treatment more than anything else in the male wardrobe?

Shoes can certainly get better with age. The leather can be looked after in the same way, with the soft middle of the shoe moulding around the joints, and the stiff toe and heel building up layers of shining polish.

But even shoes wear out, after a few replacements of the sole. And nothing else really comes close.

A jacket’s canvas adapts to the wearer, but after that will simply fray or stain. The same goes for shirts and ties. There is a certain degagé elegance to a frayed shirt collar or sweater patched at the elbows. But neither is enriched in the way leather is from love and care.

I’d like to say I have learned from my grandfather’s example. But although I have a beautiful, hand-sewn briefcase that has been well looked after, I simply have too many bags for any of them to acquire the same patina. I’ve even been tempted into vintage pieces as a shortcut.

Still, I hold out hope. I understand the principle; I understand the value such a piece has. In a few years when my life and style settles down, perhaps I will revert to just one briefcase and one weekender for travel.

And a tote. You got to have a nice tote.

Images of Japan feature (with Jamie Ferguson's photography):

Last week, Agyesh Madan of Stòffa visited London for the first time, in a trunk show alongside Marcus Malmborg (Swedish agent for Eidos made-to-measure, among other things).

Eidos is more of a known entity, and we will cover the service more at a later date.

For the moment, I’d like to focus on the genuinely original styling, business approach and collection philosophy of Agyesh.

Key to the Stòffa collection is its versatility of style and colour.

The first thing you will notice (or will have noticed) is the suede jackets. Probably flight jacket or asymmetric jacket, most likely. In a dark brown, cream or light grey. And nonchalantly worn - complemented by a polo shirt, chino and perhaps leather bag.

The suede jacket is the most striking piece, and gets people most excited (including me). Particularly as it is made to measure, delivered within 3-4 weeks, and from what I have seen, fits very well when it is.

But there are in fact four designs of outerwear (a field jacket and an overcoat also) plus made-to-measure trousers, hats, ties, scarves and handkerchiefs - and the outerwear comes in a range of materials from linen to wool/silk.

What makes the Stòffa collection seem so versatile, therefore, is not a narrow, tightly edited range but holistic design.

The trousers can be worn with any of the four outerwear pieces, and merely change the look from semi-formal (with a dark coat) to more casual (paler, asymmetric jacket).

The felt rabbit or beaver fedoras pair well with any of the looks. And the scarves (in four sizes, and a dozen or so colours) equally.

This versatility is something that Agyesh portrays particularly well on his Instagram account. (Examples below.)

Perhaps the most important aspect of this cohesive design is a simplicity of line, with subtle changes of proportion.

The flight jacket is clean and refined, with only slightly oversized hip pockets and collar.

The coat (below) shows genius of line, with angled side seams, oversized pocket openings and two off-centre buttons (one just below the ribs, the other at the collar) creating shape out of otherwise entirely unstructured cloth. 

In fact, if I could change one thing in the outerwear it would be to remove the side fasteners on the asymmetric jacket, in aid of making it as clean as the other pieces.

The mutually complementary colours Agyesh picks are perhaps the most interesting topic of all. But also the area that admits of least analysis.

Agyesh himself says it is largely instinctive, something reflected in his references to abstract artists such as Cy Twombly and Joan Miro.

And some of his most interesting Instagram posts are those that suggest parallels between natural colours and those found in the clothing.

In practice, I find many of his colours - the pale sand, the muted taupe - appeal more than more commercial versions of those colours, often because they are paler and less showy. It also gives a more neutral ground for pops of bright green or turquoise.

But it can go the other way. The brown suede, for example, is a touch paler than most mainstream suede jackets, and I would tend to prefer something darker.  

There is also a slight danger with the more monochrome Stòffa outfits (cream and pale grey, for example) of appearing more fashion-y than most Permanent Style readers would like. And in paler colours, perhaps more feminine. (Combinations below, left and right respectively.)

But that can always be adjusted with the addition of dark-brown or navy, and is mitigated by the simple, classic nature of the pieces.

Stòffa has an interesting business model, operating entirely out of trunk shows without any wholesale or retail (other than the odd collab, eg with Drake’s on hats).

Agyesh travels to New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Stockholm and now London, several times a year.

It’s a punishing schedule - he did 41 shows last year - but it enables him to escape wholesale or physical retail, and to offer a speedy made-to-measure service.

He aims to be in each city every 5-6 weeks, with time in between to complete any orders and deliver them at the next visit. The next visit to London will be April 21-23.

That model also leads to some attractive pricing for made to measure:

• Suede and wool outerwear from $1400 to $2200.
• Cotton and linen outerwear from $800 to $1500.
• Trousers from $275 to $450.

There is much else we could go into here, from Agyesh’s approach to product development, to his 800+ days of public product testing on the hats, to his policy on responsible sourcing.

But we’ll leave that to another post - after the April trunk show, when I should have something to review, having commissioned a navy-suede flight jacket when we met last week.

I will just say in passing that while the hats, trousers and accessories are lovely, they are perhaps less original and interesting than the made-to-measure outerwear, and so I’ll generally focus on the latter.

Details again for the next show:

April 21-23

10am - 8pm

Contact form at stoffa.co/appointments

Below: Marcus in Eidos tailoring, and a Stoffa scarf

Photography: Jamie Ferguson @jkf_man

I've always rather liked domestic fixes to knitwear.

Darning holes, removing pilling, slimming bodies: I've consistently practiced and written about them all over the years. (Posts at those links). 

But being introduced to Love Cashmere up in Hawick, Scotland last year changed all that. Their service for repairing, washing and altering was so good (and such great value) that it undermined any argument for doing it at home. 

In October I wrote about giving them two cashmere sweaters to repair, and mentioned that they also slimmed down the fit in the waist at the same time. 

For £29, the results were fantastic, so I subsequently asked them to try another service on another two pieces: this time, stretching. 

Now I had tried stretching knitwear at home also (post, back in 2014). The method is pretty simple: wool stretches particularly when wet, so you spray the piece to make it damp, then stretch the sleeves of body and hold it for a few minutes. 

But there were several issues.

It was hard to stretch the body without distorting its shape; the results were mixed, with some knitwear not stretching at all; and even when it worked, it was hard to achieve more than half an inch consistently. 

This wasn't really surprising. The amount knitwear will stretch depends on several things, primarily the fibre (cashmere, merino etc), the elasticity of the yarn, and the way the garment is knitted (tightness, or structure such as cables). 

Anything with silk, linen or cotton in it, in particular, will hardly stretch at all. It's why those fibres are often used to give a garment greater stability.

Distortion in the shape of the piece is best controlled with variously sized racks - which is what Love Cashmere uses. It's called boarding.

You can see the racks above. They come in a range of sizes, and one from a larger size can be inserted into a smaller piece to stretch it.

If you want to add greater length to the body or sleeves, weighted paddles can be used to hold the piece in place (below). 

Generally the garments will be left on the rack for around an hour. They are then dried and - the crucial bit - put back on the rack to steam them. 

It is this steam pressing that has the greatest chance of locking in the new shape, particularly in terms of the stitches. The steam relaxes them initially, and then cool air is pulled through to set their new size and shape.

Without the pressing (shown below), the stitches relax over time (a few hours/days). This will always happen to an extent (even after steaming), but it should be minimal.

It was this last point which was the biggest issue with my domestic, amateur attempts. 

Even with all this work, most garments cannot be stretched by more than an inch in the sleeve or body length.

But anyone that has bought a lovely sweater in the wrong size (as I have, more than once) will know that an extra inch can be the difference between wearable and unwearable. 

Needless to say, Love Cashmere's results were good. I gave them a cashmere hoodie from Al Bazar and a cashmere half-zip top from Simone Abbarchi. Both gained half-an-inch to an inch on sleeves and body. 

If you want to alter knitwear, stretching is not the best option.

Much better to buy something that is a little too big in the waist, for example, and have it taken in. Knitwear is akin to outerwear like suede and leather in that respect.

But if the aim is rescuing a beautiful piece - as it was with my first piece around moth holes and pilling - £29 is definitely worth the money. 

1 R. Culturi

There are many brands launching ties or handkerchiefs online these days, given it’s an easy area to try and express something new - and the lack of sizing makes it relatively easy to sell online.

One that was shown to me recently with an interesting approach was R. Culturi. They work with a range of artists to commission original pieces, which are then printed onto silk accessories.

The pieces are relatively well-made, with hand-rolled edges to the handkerchiefs, for example. And there is a more interesting design and colour selection than you get with most collections.

The downside is that the complexity of the illustrations means they use digital printing rather than screen printing. (The latter usually involves five or fewer colours, which is why most classic hanks have relatively simple designs.)

Digital printing can have a problem with penetrating all the way through the silk. R. Culturi work hard to improve this, often testing dozens of different options, but this work does mean designs aren’t quite as sharp as they would be with simpler designs.

Personally, I prefer the simpler and more graphic designs of classic makers. But I also understand people that are on the other side of this trade-off, and like the more painterly or complex patterns.

I tried the copper mandala tie (which is an interesting shade of dusty pink) and the Tides pocket square.

2 Mes Chaussettes Rouges and Bresciani

The French sock retailer Mes Chaussettes Rouges have long expanded beyond red socks, but they also added Bresciani underwear and T-shirts to their range last year - and more recently, hard-wearing socks and compression socks.

The Bresciani pieces are lovely - a beautiful cotton, beautifully finished.

The T-shirts are primarily designed as underwear, but aren’t too transparent to wear on their own, and a have a nice semi-slim cut.

The only design point that feels a little underwear-like (and old-fashioned perhaps) is the slightly longer sleeves. But then I often roll these up.

The underwear is also lovely, but I’d recommend the loose boxer shorts ahead of the briefs or boxer-briefs. The cotton is not a jersey and has not elastane in it, so I found the latter style a bit in need of stretch.

As for the hard-wearing and compression socks, I tried a pair each of these and found them surprisingly comfortable and even luxurious in feel, despite the high level of synthetic content.

I wouldn’t wear them regularly, as they would make my feet too hot, but for those that travel and like compression socks, they are a cut above. And the super-durable socks will be best for those that do a lot of walking or otherwise wear their hose pretty hard.

3 Private White T-shirts

These posts are largely about new brands, or significant additions from brands we’ve featured already. The T-shirts from Private White VC fall into the latter category.

Last Autumn/Winter, PWVC did a small run of merino T-shirts in grey, navy, a great copper and a few other colours. They sold out pretty quickly - with several customers buying the whole range, as tends to happen when men find a basic they love.

Merino is not for all-year-round - cotton will always be that touch more comfortable and familiar. But it performs fantastically in colder weather; I’ve often wished I could wear my Rapha base layers more as T-shirts.

This season PWVC has followed up the merino range with cotton-jersey pieces in short and long sleeve, and the same colours as the merino plus some new marls.  

4 Pochette Square

Pochette Square are a handkerchief company I reviewed several years ago - September 2011, in fact.

They contacted me recently saying that piece got a lot of play on search engines, but they had improved their product since and would I review them once more.

I’m always happy to do this, as brands change their approach and designs over time - and nothing is better than seeing a young brand learn and improve, resolving into a much stronger product.

Unfortunately, my major points had not been addressed. The hanks were still too small to stay up in most pockets (13 inches on the side) and most were not hand-rolled.

However, they have introduced a greater variation in designs - more in the area between classic and showy - such as the grey linen and some subtle map designs.

And for both ties and hanks, they have a big range and very good prices - for those not so bothered by the digital printing or hand rolling.

5 The Morning Company

Lastly, I recently tried the accessories from The Morning Company.

They do a small range of shaving products in wood and horn, but with some interesting, slightly more modern designs compared to the traditional menswear outfitters.

The wooden razor, for example, is handmade in France from a lovely rosewood, but with a metal line running down the middle and a stand that is both attractive and practical (above).

I tried one and have replaced my old, horn handle.

The toothbrushes, unfortunately, don’t work quite as well as the replaceable heads have to be bought from The Morning Company, and a pretty basic. The horn combs are also a lot more standard.  

Many thanks to everyone for the response to The Finest Knitwear since it went on sale, and to the continuing popularity of the Friday Polos. 

Stock is running short, with just 28 pieces left and crewneck the most popular style.

The style/size combinations now sold out are Small Crewneck, Small V-neck and Large Crewneck.

All others are still available. 

On the Friday Polos, we have 38 pieces left from this most recent - and much larger - run.

Brown and navy have generally been the most popular, but while these continue to sell quickly, it is Medium Navy, Large Navy, Large Grey and Large Green that are now sold out. 

There will further batches of both knitwear and polos, but not until the Autumn. 

As per usual, orders should be made through the Shop page. Please specify your size, style and/or colour in the Order Notes.

Thanks

Photos here: Jamie Ferguson @jkf_man

Finding the right material for odd trousers - those worn with sports jackets rather than suits - is not easy. 

The kind of smooth, worsted cloths you're used to wearing as part of a suit are too sleek and formal. Many cottons, particularly garment-washed chinos, are too casual. 

The most popular alternative is flannel. In grey, it is a menswear classic and very versatile in its formality. 

But it has disadvantages - specifically, that it is too thick to wear for much of the year and is terrible at holding its shape: it bags quickly and is awful when wet. 

I have a lot of grey flannels - in fact, five pairs in various shades and weights. (And in the warmer months I wear a lot of high-twist trousers like Fresco and Crispaire.) 

But I am increasingly turning towards cavalry twill, as a very versatile and functional alternative. 

And I would certainly put it above the various other wool twills, like gabardine, serge, covert etc. 

Among wool trousers, twills (those with a diagonal stripe running across the material) are particularly good for holding their shape and draping well.  

But usually the first twill a tailor will offer is a gabardine. 

This is the more traditional choice for an odd trouser, being more formal. But its formality and sheen make it less useful in a modern environment, when you might want to wear it with everything from a button-down popeline to a cowboy shirt (as pictured here). 

Cavalry twill is less shiny, largely because of the double-twill weave that defines it - if you look closely at the surface, you can see two lines running down in parallel, rather than the single twill found on gabardine, serge, covert etc.

This also makes it more robust. (It was originally created for military riding trousers and breeches, hence the name.)

Part of cavalry twill's strength and durability is also reflected in the angle of that diagonal line. 

To make a twill line run more steeply - more vertically down the cloth, rather than across it - you put more warp ends in relative to the weft. Of the wool twills, serge usually has an equal balance of warp and weft, gabardine has more warp ends, and cavalry twill has the most of all.

(They do all vary, however, and are usually best defined by other things - such as the tightness of weave with gabardine and the double twill with cavalry twill. More detail on weaves in general can be found on our 'Weaves and Designs' post, part of the Guide to Cloth.)

The trousers, by the way, were made by Richard James as part of a three-part commission last year that also included a mid-brown cashmere jacket (yet to be covered) and Harris tweed waistcoat (which I covered here).

Both the fit and the make of the trousers was superb. Beautiful straight line, snug fit at the waist, and lovely pick stitching - around the fly, for instance. 

Savile Row tailors are not highlighted enough for the quality of their trouser work, largely because they will often be more expensive than Neapolitan specialists like Cerrato or Ambrosi.

But the work is just as good, just often focused more on things like a precisely fitted lining to the band, rather than dozens of tack stitches. 

The cloth of the trousers is the Holland & Sherry cav twill I highlighted on my favourite cloths from them, last year. 

The jacket is my Escorial-cloth piece from Solito, seen in review here. 

The shoes are my old Edward Green Oundles. 

The cowboy denim shirt is from Scye via No Man Walks Alone.

And the red-donegal beanie - which provides a nice pop of colour - is from Cappellificio Biellese (or CB1935 for short). 

Photography: Jamie Ferguson @jkf_man

On Thursday April 6th, we will be launching our latest book at Fenwick of Bond Street department store in London. 

The book, put together over the past six months, is called 'Permanent Style presents: The Style Guide'. 

It is constructed as a series of street-style shots, largely taken by Jamie Ferguson, featuring some of the most stylish people in the menswear industry. 

But unlike most other style books, it is deliberately written to focus on practical analysis of every image, picking up why the outfit works in terms of texture, colour or cut. 

I've always disliked street-style compilations that are simply a series of pretty images - that often look good because of the location, or the individual, not necessarily the clothes. 

So here I go through ideas of formality, colour combinations and mixing up sartorial and more casual clothing.

(You can enlarge the images by clicking on them, if you want to read the text.)

You'll find a lot of Permanent Style themes going on: the Italian Background, the sliding scale of formality, trousers for grey jackets, dressing for a modern office, and so on. 

In fact, it is in many ways a summary of the most important style advice produced on PS, over the past decade. 

If Best of British was about history, and The Finest Menswear in the World was about quality, this is about style - what makes it, what drives it, and how to reproduce it.

The book was supported by Anderson & Sheppard, Begg & Co, Edward Green and Vitale Barberis Canonico. 

We worked with them to create a special photo shoot in the back, where I put together outfits with the same practical, accessible style theme as the rest, but concentrating around their pieces. 

I'll feature some sample content here over the next few weeks.

There will be an opportunity for readers to buy dedicated copies online, and I'll list stores around the world that will be stocking it. 

But Fenwick of Bond Street has exclusive availability for the first week, so do come along to the event and get a copy signed in person, by myself and Jamie.

The details of the event are:

• Thursday April 6th, from 6:30pm
• Fenwick of Bond Street, Lower Ground Floor, 63 New Bond Street, London W1A 3BS
• RSVP to: BondStreetRSVP@fenwick.co.uk

Thank you to you for your interest – and thank you to every one of the hundreds of thousands of readers of Permanent Style. For 10 years you have made it what it is, and I am truly grateful.

Of all the tailors we visited in Japan last year, Ciccio was the one I was excited about seeing.

I'd seen and tried on examples of his work on friends, and more importantly heard good things about his attitude to style and working with customers.

We met him at his new atelier - a large space down a semi-residential street, with lots of light streaming in at the windows. The kind of building you'd expect at tailor to pick if they had the choice.

Ciccio - Noriyuki Ueki - has become the best known of a new wave of Japanese tailors that have gone to Italy in the past 20 years, trained, and come back.

Like many of them, his style is soft, Neapolitan, but with a Japanese focus on details and execution.

"It's always the small things that get me excited," he told me. "Like the smooth run of a jacket's shoulder up into the neck.

"It's not hard to get the basic things right - the size of a lapel, the run down through the waist - but these little points are what set apart good tailoring for me."

Ueki started his career at Japanese ready-to-wear suit factory Ring Jacket, as did many of his peers in this new generation.

He joined in 2000 and was there for 5 years, before travelling to Naples to look for an apprenticeship.

"I wanted to go to Naples because I was impressed by the softness of the tailoring I had seen come back to Japan," he says. "And I knew that Ono-san (Sartoria Anglofilo) had gone."

Like most other Japanese, he knew little about Naples, but turned up and hoped for the best.

Ueki ended up at Sartoria Dalcuore, where he worked for 18 months, and then moved to Sartoria Pascariello, where he stayed for another two years.

He gained the nickname 'Ciccio' while in Italy.

A shortening of the name 'Francesco', it had been the name of several respected tailors in the past, and was given to him partly as a recognition of the quality of his work.

When Ueki returned to Japan, he was the in-house tailor for Japanese brand Tie Your Tie for a long time, renting a space upstairs from the shop.

But after seven years, he felt he had enough business to set out on his own. He found this workshop in May 2015, and now occupies it with four other cutters and coatmakers.

"Business has been good, steady," he says - with the first suggestion of a smile on a face that is otherwise still, and attentive. "We make 9 or 10 suits a month, and there has been some nice press."

Ueki now travels in Asia, to Seoul and to The Armoury in Hong Kong, as well as elsewhere in Japan.

He makes a lot of sports jackets - something that is obvious from the rack of fittings waiting along one side of the shop.

"That seems to have happened recently," he says. "We had some lovely Kiton jacketings that we were offering for a while, but also jackets are just more suited to modern men at work - even in formal Japan."

It's also fair to say that Ciccio attracts a young clientele, often guys that are clued up both on the nature of bespoke and the traditions of Naples.

"I have to say, I am optimistic about the bespoke trade in Japan. I'm 38, and there are a lot of tailors my age who are pushing the industry forward," he says.

"The only issue is that there is a big gap between us and the previous generation, who are all in their seventies."

Interestingly, Japan was about 10 years ahead of Europe in its tailoring revival: the young tailors coming through on Savile Row are largely younger than Ueki, and old guard often in their sixties.

"Japan also had an issue with men retiring early - at 60 - and then not needing suits anymore," adds Ueki. "That led to a lot of old tailors losing their clients."

Although Ueki doesn't want the Ciccio name to live on after him, he is concerned with providing a strong foundation for tailoring in Japan.

"I'm trying to train young people where I can, but because there are so few tailors who are 40-60 years old, there aren't many that are enough to take on a large staff," he says.

"The biggest difficulty is paying apprentices a decent wage when you're still small."

Sartoria Ciccio charges 580,000 yen as a starting price for a suit, and there isn't a long waiting list.

First fittings take place 2-3 months after the order, with a second fitting around a month later.

Ciccio works with shoemaker Hidetaka Fukaya (known as Il Micio), a Japanese artisan living in Florence. His shoes are on display in the sartoria - shown below.

Photography: Jamie Ferguson @jkf_man

Many thanks to Masaichi Hasegawa of Gaziano and Girling and Jason Yen of Gaziano and Girling/Camps de Luca for their help with the trip

Good things are happening in London at the moment. 

There was our pop-up shop, of course; the new Drake's shop looks amazing (do visit if you haven't already); and an increasing number of artisans are coming to London. 

The latest development in this stellar line-up is the Super Trunk Show for shoes, which has been held previously in Stockholm but is now coming to London. 

Organised by Jesper from Shoegazing.se and Justin from The Shoe Snob, it aims to bring together a large number of shoe brands not necessarily accessible in London - together with some events like a shoe-polishing competition. 

I have also been asked to chair a discussion in the evening between a few invited speakers: Tony Gaziano, Sarah Nelson of A Fine Pair of Shoes, and Chris Tan of Crockett & Jones. 

We will be discussing the state of the high-end shoe industry - consumer awareness, emerging trends, and issues like currency and leather supply that we are rarely aware of as customers. 

The trunk show is being held on Saturday, May 13th, from 11am to 8pm in The Music Room, 26 South Molton Lane, Mayfair.

Admission will also be available from 10am-11am for those that register in advance, using supertrunkvip@gmail.com

The brands on display will be:

• Barbanera
• Carlos Santos/Skoaktiebolaget
• Caulaincourt
• Hiro Yanagimachi
• J. FitzPatrick
• Norman Vilalta
• Ramon Cuberta
• Stefano Bemer
• Vass
• Yanko/Skolyx
• And one new store to be announced closer to the date.

There will also be displays from Saphir (shoe care), Fred & Matt (overshoes) and Oppermann London (leather bags and accessories).

If you want more information on the makers, their styles and prices, I recommend reading Justin's run-down of them all here. 

See you there.

Some images from the Swedish event:

Two weeks ago, I chaired a discussion in the Private White VC shop in Mayfair around the topic of British manufacturing.

It turned out to be one of the most enjoyable such talks I’ve ever done.

The speakers were great, with both young and old; style, product and make-focused; and an audience that contributed as much as the speakers themselves.

I've transcribed the highlights here. I hope you find it interesting.

Simon: Good evening everyone. Today we’re going to be talking about British manufacturing - something that has come into vogue in the past 10 years, but I think it’s fair to say is rarely analysed in detail.

The first thing I would like to get is some sort of perspective on the Made in Britain trend. Because while it’s certainly seen all around us, few people relate it to previous trends along the same lines. And I certainly haven’t been writing long enough to be able to give that myself.

Tarlach, how have you seen attitudes to the location of your manufacturing change over the years?

Tarlach de Blácam, Inis Meain [above]: Well, I guess I can provide some kind of perspective on this, being more long-in-the-tooth than some of the other speakers.

Inis Meain is a little island off the west coast of Ireland. That’s Ireland by the way - so not British manufacturing!

Simon: Ah yes, apologies about that.

Tarlach: That’s fine - I originally went to Inis Meain as a student of celtic languages, and I can tell you ‘Britain’ has long been a word for all the islands of this archipelago, so no harm done!

When I first went to Inis Meain in the mid-1970s, there was no running water, no electricity, and everything came ashore by canoe. I went there to write, but ended up setting up a knitwear factory - primarily to make use of the fantastic local skills there.

When we first started to sell, it was for export, and we came to London and worked with an agent here. He loved the product, but it was hard to sell. He always said, if only I could stick a ‘Made in Italy’ label on it, it would all go. Being made in Ireland wasn’t much of a draw at the time.

The transformation that has taken place in the past 5-10 years, among young people who want to know more about quality and provenance, is breathtaking. It’s fantastic. When we started selling back in the 1970s and 1980s there was nothing like that, and I do think it's unprecedented.

I take my hat off to all the young people in the room here. Now we need to train them to use their hands, to learn real skills, rather than these stupid industries where people sit in front of a computer from morning to night.

[Applause]

James Eden, Private White VC [above]: Well of course, I was one of those stupid people working in front of a computer screen all day, but I took a rather different route to the industry. I started working with Stolly - Mike Stoll, our factory manager there in the front row. If you don’t know Stolly you really need to, because he’s a legend.

When I was growing up, I only knew British manufacturing as a busted flush, in a terrible state, and frankly I still think it’s in that state today.

The only way we’ve been able to survive as a manufacturer is by creating our own brand. Without that, we would never have been able to continue. The private label business [making for other brands] is very very hard by comparison.

Today I think you need your own brand to create the interest, the price point, the desire, to support a factory and all of the staff we want to train and push forward.

Simon: Euan, how have you seen the Northampton shoe business change? Edward Green has always made mostly for itself, but how have other factories in the area evolved that did private-label work?

Euan Denholm, Edward Green [above]: I think many have realised how much you need your own brand.

Apparently there were 505 shoe factories around Northampton at the turn of the 20th century. They were all making bulk, mostly for the British market. Now only the high end is left, mostly in niches, mostly for export, and you need a brand to support that.

You’ve seen factories transition from private label to their own brand - as the Church cousins have done with Cheaney, for example. And the factories that are left are going in that direction as well.

Simon: Nick, how have you seen British industry evolve over your career? You must have a different perspective, coming more from the design side of many brands.

Nick Ashley, Private White VC [above]: The family company saw a lot change, yes.

For those that don’t know, my mother was Laura Ashley [English clothing and furnishings brand]. She and my father started out in Wales in the 1950s producing fabrics, and everything was made in the UK back then.

They ended up with thousands of people across several factories. Eventually they had to close, but I think that actually if we still had those factories today, even with the focus on British manufacturing, they wouldn’t be profitable.

It’s just too expensive to produce here, and once you have those costs, what you end up with is a luxury product. We came to that realisation with Private White.

But to answer your question, I’ve certainly seen things change in attitude to manufacture. When I left Laura Ashley I set up my own menswear brand, in 1992. And back then it was all about brand - that was all anyone cared about. Now people are far more aware of provenance and sustainability.

Simon: I find it interesting that everyone is saying there must be this link between manufacturing and brand for the former to survive. Because most people still associate the word ‘brand’ with big designer brands, almost as the antithesis of quality and craft.

Alice, what’s your view on this, because you have the unique perspective of working both with lots of different British factories, and more on the industrial side.

Alice Walsh, Alice Made This [above]: Yes, and my background was in furniture design. We found there that there was a big wave of people going out to China, to Vietnam, and then gradually coming back as British manufacturing started to reform, to start to think about how it could channel materials or processes to do something beyond just the machine parts it had done traditionally .

It made them more open, which is great for a brand like ours when we go to them and ask for unusual pieces. And they've proven that UK production can actually be more cost-effective, once you factor in travel, building relationships and so on.

Simon: How widespread a trend is that? We often hear news items about brands bringing manufacturing back to the UK. But is that the rule now, or the exception?

James: In the apparel industry, there isn’t much that’s real. There’s a lot of green-washing and a lot of smoke and mirrors.

I don’t see anything significant coming back to the UK. It’s a very long-term decision to start making here again, and people aren’t prepared to do that. To be honest I don’t see it ever happening in the future either.

Alice: As a brand, it must be a lot easier for you all, because you’ve always made here, you can philosophy into your brand from the start. It must be much harder for someone like LVMH to pull everything back from overseas, to suddenly try and change people’s perceptions.

Audience member: What do you all feel about Patrick Grant’s community clothing project? That’s much more mid-market than your brands, but has some interesting new ideas - such as trying to use traditional slow periods at factories.

James: I think it’s very admirable. Anyone that wants to make in the UK, and is open and transparent about it, should be applauded. My only question is whether it’s possible to create any scale and therefore longevity with that approach.

Nick: They’ve got a saying in Wales: sales are vanity, profits are sanity.

[Laughs]

Alice: One of the things I think is really valuable in projects like Patrick’s is the public awareness it creates. Although a lot of people are aware of provenance and quality now, it’s still the minority. It's good to push this out into the mainstream.

Simon: Absolutely. It’s so hard to know how broad a trend this is. Lovely as it is to write for an engaged audience on Permanent Style, and to talk to a great audience like we have here, it can also be a bit of an echo chamber where everyone agrees with everyone else.

Tarlach: It’s interesting how Italy has been able to retain far more of its manufacturing, as far as I’m aware, and certainly remain more powerful in marketing and so on. Part of the reason must be that the Italian government helps support factories there through slow times.

Simon: Factories there have certainly been more socially and community-minded over the years, which has helped them a lot. But there are just as many manufacturers there setting up their own brands too - like Marol shirts, or Bresciani socks. They face the same pressures.

Audience member: Why are we so aware of so many Italian brands then, compared to British ones? Why have they survived so much better?

Simon: It’s a complicated picture. To a certain extent, they haven’t. It’s only the top end of the apparel market that has really survived.

But also, what counts as an ‘Italian’ brand is rather different, as the government deliberately makes it easy to put a ‘Made in Italy’ label on a garment. Only a very small proportion of the work has to be done in Italy, the rest can all be done in Romania. Whether that’s a healthy approach for a government to take is another question.

Mike Stoll, Private White VC (from the audience): All most people want is a short cut - a quick indicator that one thing is better than another, which might be a label or might be a British flag.

James: Even then, let’s be clear - most people don’t care about quality. They want to buy five maxi-dresses on a Friday, wear six on a Saturday and return seven on a Sunday!

[Laughs]

Audience member: There’s a contrast there with womenswear. It must be so much easier in menswear to produce quality clothing, when men buy less and have styles that stick around longer.

My father used to say: $120 shoes last twice as long as $60 shoes, but $250 shoes last forever. The prices are a little out of date, but the principle’s right.

Alice: I think men really enjoy making educated choices. They like the feeling that they know about the product and can talk about it.

Simon: I remember someone saying to me years ago that men’s number one desire with clothing was not to look stupid - that’s why they rarely wear unusual things, and take the piss out of their friends when they do.

But their number two desire is to feel they’ve made an intelligent choice. Whether it’s because the piece is fashionable, or well made, or rare. It’s that desire to be sitting at the bar and have someone compliment your jacket, and you say ‘Well, let me tell you about this jacket…’ and have a great story to tell. 

One thing I think is often not well covered is the day-to-day benefits of making locally. Of making it easier to oversee production, to check quality, to refine design.

Is that something you can reflect on, James?

James: Well first of all, nothing we do at Private White is easy. Trust me. But we also don’t have much to compare to, because so much of our supply chain is in Manchester. Our mills, our weavers, our spinners are all based in local counties. We don’t know any different.

Nick: There’s a new cotton spinner opened up in Manchester as well - the first one to bring it back to the city. Cottonopolis rising from the ashes.

Tarlach: It can’t come soon enough. I met our linen supplier in Paris last week and he said when he started there were 14 linen spinners in Europe. Now there are two. That whole northern Europe linen industry that stretches from Ireland, through northern France to the Netherlands, is now sending its raw material to China to be spun.

If I thought I had enough time left, I’d say I’d like to bring all of that back to Europe. To create such energy with craft and people working with their hands, that all the traditional, specialist industries came back here.

Alice: It must be a big issue that all young people feel they have to get a degree these days - as you did, Tarlach. Rather than training, rather than an apprenticeship. 

We work with one place that is the last maker of the hardware for military uniforms in the UK. Their master worker is 75 and he just can’t retire. There’s no one to replace him.

Simon: I’m conscious we’re running a little short of time. Do we have any more questions from the audience?

Audience member: Do the speakers foresee a time when British goods could become more affordable? I work at a bespoke tailor, but my flat in Tooting is too expensive, and I can’t afford any of these things, much as I might appreciate them.

Nick: It will always depend on the costs of what goes into it.

Bespoke tailoring is always going to be expensive, because it’s so labour intensive. But you could have a fully automated shirt process, based in the UK, that would be a lot cheaper because the whole thing was made by machine.

Euan: And if you want handmade, Goodyear-welted shoes, you’ll have to save up I’m afraid!

Audience member: How have you all coped in becoming not just brands, but retailers as well? Is that a harder jump?

James: In many ways yes - you can see it around you now. We’ve had to open our own shops, to be fully vertically integrated.

Tarlach: It’s getting harder all the time - department stores today are little more than landlords. And there is so little training for staff. The only exception for me is Barney’s in New York.

Alice: Independent retailers probably have it hardest of all; harder than most of the brands here. As brands we can do so much more than we used to be able to - tell our own stories through social media and so on. Independents end up competing with everyone, and trying to do most of it face to face.

Simon: The cost of retail is something that even highly engaged consumers have a problem with. Everyone says they support independent shops, but they baulk at rent being part of the cost of what they’re buying.

Audience member: What one thing would each of the panellists like to see the British government doing to support British manufacturing?

James: Training and apprenticeships.

Euan: Negotiating Brexit to avoid hitting us all with new tariffs to trade.

Tarlach: Tariffs too, the prospect of that is pretty frightening.

Simon: I was trying so hard to avoid talking about Brexit. We’ve failed right at the end…

Euan: Also, stopping people putting British tags, flags, or labels suggesting something is made in Britain when it isn’t. It should mean something.

Nick: Absolutely, in the same way as organic food - that requires a Soil Association stamp.

Mike: A Union Jack on a motorcycle jacket, perhaps… Owned in Italy, made in Morocco. That can’t be right.

Simon: Ok, we’ll leave it there before we get into any legal issues! Thank you so much everyone for coming, and to Private White VC for hosting us.

I was wearing:

• Bespoke denim double-breasted jacket by Cifonelli (more on that soon)
• Brushed-cotton blue shirt by Simone Abbarchi
• Grey Crispaire trousers by The Disguisery

When I first heard about and tried Cohérence outerwear last year, I wasn't sure it would be for me. 

I tend to favour outerwear that flatters the figure and creates a straight-cut silhouette. So long in the body, slim at the waist and high in the collar. Proportions largely drawn from traditional tailoring. 

And I tend to prefer natural materials in rainwear, so cotton garbardine or Ventile rather than synthetics. 

However, since seeing Cohérence more - and in particular stocking it in our pop-up shop last month - I've come to love some of the models.

I also think it's worth everyone understanding where the brand is coming from, as it is a genuinely original voice in a market often dominated by very traditional Macs and trench coats. 

Cohérence is the brain-child of Kentaro Nakagomi, an industry veteran whose career was largely spent designing for a European brand, and managing European production. 

He wanted to create a range of outerwear both because it is such a dramatic (and therefore satisfying) item in a man's wardrobe, and because he thought if it was well-made enough it could complement even bespoke tailoring. (Being a customer of both Japanese and Florentine bespoke.)

"You'll see some small details that come from tailoring around the coats," Nakagomi says. "For example, the armholes tend to be smaller than on most modern outerwear, to create freedom of movement in the same way a bespoke tailor tries to."

His designs all begin inspiration with images of artists, musicians and film stars of the first half of the twentieth century: Camus, Tzara, Matissse, Duchamp, Le Corbusier. 

Nakagomi uses specific images of the stars wearing pieces of outerwear, and then refines them with the use of a physical archive. As a result, the models are all named after those men. 

"Just copying old styles is not impressive, but each piece has some points of inspiration from vintage clothing," he says.

"I always work closely with the fabric development, for example, and try to add texture and weight even to synthetic fabrics - in order to give them more of a vintage feel."

The models vary greatly - from short, loose jackets to long, fitted trench coats. But they all have two things in common: a love of volume and a lovely attention to detail. 

So even if the trench coat is designed to be cinched at the waist (model 'Al', after Albert Camus, shown above), it has generous volume below the waist, opening into a full skirt.

This is something few modern brands feel confident enough to do, feeling everyone wants things neat, slim and short. 

The unbelted models such as the 'Corb' (after Le Corbusier), have the same rounded, raglan sleeves as the belted, and are virtually A-line, from the arms downwards. 

"Volume is something else I pick up on from vintage clothing consistently," Nakagomi says. "It feels generous and expressive."

Examples of attention to detail are the tabs that narrow a sleeve at the wrist, which are delicately arrowhead-shaped, with beautiful subtle horn buttons; or the blackened metal hardware Nakagomi uses, instead of the cheap and more common faux-leather. 

There are nice cutting points too. For example, some of the raglan sleeves are cut in two pieces to enable them to be slightly shaped through the point of the shoulder.

This means you can wear a jacket with some shoulder padding underneath, without the sleevehead poking up and creating an odd kink in the raglan above it. 

The raincoats are largely made in a synthetic jersey - which, while I like less than cottons, has a nice twill that lends it some surface interest, and some practical stretch. 

(I should also mention that The Armoury has trunk shows coming up in Hong Kong and New York where the different models can all be made in different materials. Details at the bottom of this post.)

In the images here, taken at Pitti Uomo in the winter - where I met and interviewed Nakagomi-san - you can see a few of the models, as well as the texture of many of the materials. 

Above is the 'Henri', for example, named after Matisse.

It's a slouchy, shawl-collared jacket with some nice details, although not really for me (probably because of those tailoring prejudices).

Better and far more interesting is the Mutt, shown below. (Named after the signature Marcel Duchamp put on his infamous urinal.)

This has an ingenious but very complicated internal-external belting mechanism, which finishes with two buckles on the outside at the front. 

You can see the Cohérence proportions, particularly in the skirt, quite clearly from this image. 

The Armoury are developing an exclusive version of this for Autumn/Winter 2017 with a simplified belting mechanism - which I'm keen to see. 

Of the rest of the models, I like the length and details of the trench coat (Al) but not in the synthetic jersey - more likely a cotton gabardine.

And the 'Sid', which was developed again exclusively for The Armoury, is a nice simple fly-fronted coat (shown below.)

The Armoury has stock of three models: Al, Sid and Antoine (a short, double-breasted jacket based off the leather flight jacket worn by Antoine de Saint-Exupèry).

They range from $1,275 to $1,750.

These can be seen on the newly launched Armoury website - as well as silk-fur liner that can button into any of the Cohérence garments ($500; a nice, practical aspect of the brand). 

Perhaps more importantly, they also have samples of almost all the other models, and are offering made-to-order during upcoming trunk shows with no increase in price.

(A nice point, given the made-in-Japan pieces are pretty expensive already). Delivery is early October.

The trunk shows are:

• New York: Today and tomorrow, Friday March 31st and Saturday April 1st
• Hong Kong: Friday April 7th to Saturday April 8th (Landmark branch)

Details at those links. 

Other useful links:

• The full collection on Coherence's website (look at both Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter collections)
• The Armoury's interview with Nakagomi-san

All photography except 'Sid' image: Jamie Ferguson @jkf_man

Update on the launch of 'The Style Guide':

• The Style Guide, the new book by myself and photographer Jamie Ferguson, will launch next Thursday at Fenwick of Bond Street, from 6:30pm.
  • If you would like to come, please RSVP to BondStreetRSVP@Fenwick.co.uk
• There will also be a US launch event at The Armoury, in New York.
  • Thursday April 20th. Details to follow. 
• And it looks like we will feature in the bi-annual Crafted event at Bergdorf Goodman in New York.
  • Saturday, April 22nd. Come and say hello any time for that
• The book will be sent out next week to a further 32 stockists around the world next week
  • Available to buy from them from April 13th. Full list to come 
• It will be available for readers to buy online that week also
  • Purchasing will be through the Permanent Style shop

Today, we present an extract from the first section of the book, which looks at the style and practicalities around wearing sports jackets.

Happy texture

Yuta Mitsumoto

• A symphony of blues and texture here.
• Note that although the jacket, shirt and tie are all of a similarly casual texture, they remain effectively separated from each other by differences in shade and pattern.
• The soft, textured look fits with the bearded and tousled styling.

Spot the check

Neil Watson

In a similar way to Stoffa (covered recently here), I loved the aesthetic of P Johnson tailoring before I ever got to see any in person.

We are all - in our various ways - battling to show how useful, beautiful and relevant tailoring can be to the current generation.

P Johnson, the brand and the style, are fighting this good fight.

The colours are very natural: creams and tans, beige linens and slate-green cottons. 

The make is soft, casual: paired with collared knitwear as much as a shirt.

And it all has a relaxed elegance that you feel - indeed, the brand’s following shows - helps its relevance for that new generation.

It’s a great aesthetic. So what’s the product like?

The tailoring is all made-to-measure - there is deliberately (currently) nothing available ready-to-wear.

Appointments are made for the various showrooms (London and New York, plus four in Australia).

There are sample garments to see and try on; there are further sample garments to be measured in; and then pieces are made for delivery in 6 weeks.

There is quite a lot of flexibility with the fit, although most style points are fairly fixed (only two real options with the width of the lapel, for example).

The style is also quite ‘contemporary’ - shorter jackets, narrower trousers and so on.

Not to any extreme - there is a clear knowledge of the benefits of traditional tailoring - but there’s also a desire to serve a broad range of customers, including the more fashion-focused.

“We have some guys who come in wanting extremely short jackets - women’s length, really - and we spend time educating them on why a jacket is a certain length. But still, they want something that is going to feel current,” says UK fitter James Johnson.

Of course, made to measure means you can theoretically have any length you want.

But the designs and the models are set to certain proportions. If you lengthen the jacket too much - more than 3cm, say - a lot of other things have to change, and the risk of it going wrong increases substantially.

I’ll go into more detail on this in my next post, where I’ll review the jacket and trousers I had made.

Interestingly, P Johnson jackets have three options for a jacket’s structure - its chest canvas and shoulder padding - shown above.

These range from just a couple of pieces of small cotton canvas (black, far right) to a double layer of full-length camel and horsehair and a decent shoulder pad (far left).

However, even the heaviest structure is only equivalent to Neapolitan tailoring in the bespoke world. There is nothing close to British structure.

The tailoring is nearly all made in Italy now, in a factory that the brand co-owns.

“That’s not necessarily what we would have chosen, but it has given us much more control and consistency,” says Patrick Johnson (pictured above).

It had been made in different parts of the world historically, but as the company grew Patrick realised the benefit of being able to manage and control more.

James Johnson (who trained in Andrew Ramroop’s Savile Row Academy) now travels out to Italy regularly to oversee production.

Patrick started his career at Emmett in London, helping to develop a tailoring range there.

When he moved back to Australia, he spent set up his own brand by buying a load of cloth and then spending months on the road, meeting individual clients around the country.

Eventually he opened a showroom in Melbourne, which he and his wife lived above. And then when they opened one in Sydney, they lived above that one too.

“We funded the whole thing with cash,” Patrick says. “No loans, no investors - we wanted to do everything ourselves. It means things have grown slowly, but also organically.”

Patrick originally planned to open a London showroom before New York, but the New York opportunity came along first.

Even now, the London space is only a temporary one - they’re moving around the corner in Soho to a permanent location next month.

“We’ve had to adapt the colour palette slightly for London,” says Patrick. “The creams and tans work better in Australia - and even New York and London are different in terms of their light.”

So in the London store there are more greys and navy, but often with a distinctive view on the cloth - lots of high-twist wools in the formal suiting, for example.

I had a denim-linen jacket made with the mid-weight structural option, and a pair of cream cotton trousers. Full review at the end of the month.

The starting prices for P Johnson in the UK are:

• Suit: £1200
• Jacket: £960
• Trousers: £265
• Shirts: £145

For discussion of the sweater worn over the shoulders (using Patrick as an example) see post here. 

I am wearing: 

• Oatmeal cashmere jacket by Elia Caliendo
• Green flannel trousers by Elia Caliendo
• Burnt orange wool tie by Church's
• Denim shirt by Luca Avitabile

In-store photography: Jamie Ferguson @jkf_man. All other other photography: P. Johnson

Sanforised cotton car-coat. Worn with a navy merino knit and Japanese 360-gramme cotton trousers.

Unconstructed 360 gramme cotton suit, with low-angle gorge and wide-notch lapel. Worn with a merino Milano knit collared cardigan.

Unconstructed 300 gramme indigo double-breasted linen suit. Worn with brushed-cotton shirt and wool-silk grenadine tie.