News
Entertainment
Science & Technology
Life
Culture & Art
Hobbies
News
Entertainment
Science & Technology
Culture & Art
Hobbies
Loden: The cloth, the coat, the history – Permanent Style
By Bernhard Roetzel. I was pretty convinced that Permanent Style readers wouldn’t need an explanation of the term ‘Loden’. Still, I wondered whether a very English retailer like Cordings felt the need to define the word, so I searched it their website. I found 27 products made of Loden there,...
The surprising influence of the Duffer of St George – Permanent Style
When I was growing up, the ‘Duffer’ of St George meant hoodies. You saw them on people like Jamie Oliver and David Beckham, and ripped off in every street market. It seemed to be the definition of an empty hype brand. But that was the tail end of the Duffer...
Pre-order open on Donegals and Indulgent cardigans – Permanent Style
The pre-order period starts today for two PS products: the Donegal raglan-sleeved overcoat and the 12-ply cashmere piece we call the Indulgent Shawl-Collar Cardigan. The point of doing a pre-order is that it enables us to offer more colours and more sizes. We couldn’t hold all of these in stock,...
The versatility of the camel coat – Permanent Style
The pre-order for the PS Donegal coats, including this one, will open on Monday. Details in an article then. Instinctively, you wouldn't think a camel-coloured coat (whether actual camelhair or not) would be that versatile. It's not the business standard navy or grey, or the more rural brown or green....
De Bonne Facture: More like themselves – Permanent Style
I’ve known the brand De Bonne Facture for a long time, seeing them at stockists like Trunk and No Man Walks Alone over the years, and chatting to the founder Déborah Neuberg over dinner or at Pitti. I’ve also admired their philosophy when it comes to materials and manufacturing. Most...
Dark Ivy – Permanent Style
A friend referred to this outfit as ‘dark Ivy’ recently, and I liked the idea. Traditional Ivy style has much to recommend it today, particularly the way it mixes sportswear and tailoring together. I set out the ways I like that attitude in this post a couple of years ago. ...
August Special coming to UK for first time (and Assisi drinks next week) – Permanent Style
The thing I was most excited about doing with our new PS Showroom (other than picking carpet colours, obviously) was helping brands come to London. Doing a pop-up is not cheap or easy, so helping someone do so affordably and with local advice is appreciated. We certainly appreciate it when...
A contrasting view: Mixing dark trousers with light tops – Permanent Style
By Manish Puri. When I started to wear more tailored clothing - and it won’t surprise you to learn that coincided with when I began to read PS regularly - it seemed to me that the epitome of elegance was the ability to mix darker jackets with lighter coloured trousers. ...
Meyrowitz, a workshop in the Thames – or, the best way to get glasses made for you – Permanent Style
There are quite a few islands in the Thames, once you get out beyond Hammersmith to the west. Most of them aren't used for much other than boat clubs, but Platt’s Eyott is a an exception. There's an industrial area with workshops and recording studios, boats moored around the perimeter....
Spring/Summer 25 on the Permanent Style shop – Permanent Style
Hello lovely readers, Here’s our regular update on what’s coming into the PS Shop over the next few months. There are one or two new things, but mostly restocks and new colours in the existing, popular pieces. Feel free to ask any and all questions in the comments below -...
Assisi double-breasted navy blazer: Review – Permanent Style
I’ve settled into a bit of a rhythm with Korean tailors Assisi now. I love their soft-but-elegant style, I trust their fit and execution, and I know their double-breasted in particular is something I wear the hell out of. So my next commission was a navy-cashmere double-breasted jacket. I’ve always...
Tommy & Giulio Caraceni bespoke tailoring: Review – Permanent Style
Last year, I wrote about how one of my favourite tailors in Milan - Ferdinando Caraceni - was closing. It was an interesting article about the challenges of running a bespoke tailor today, but sad for all the customers that had built up a relationship with F Caraceni over the...
Announcing: The Permanent Style Showroom – Permanent Style
So this is pretty exciting. We've just completed on our first physical space for Permanent Style - a showroom and office on Harley Street, a couple of blocks from Oxford Circus. The plan is that this will have two functions: an office for me, Lucas and the increasing number of...
The Permanent Style awards 2025: Results – Permanent Style
Three weeks ago, we ran our annual Permanent Style awards where you, lovely readers, voted for your favourite brands and favourite things. There were over 400 responses - on the article and on social - and I’ve produced some of the results below. The category I was most interested in...
The three-way suit: Breaking up a suit into jacket and trousers – Permanent Style
There are certain articles that arise from readers asking about a topic again and again. Or rather from the fact that when they ask, I don’t have an obvious place to point them to, so I have to repeat the same advice. This is one of these articles. Suits are...
Bespoke mohair suit from J Mueser: Review – Permanent Style
I commissioned this suit from J Mueser in New York last year - in black mohair, using the bespoke service they offer alongside the normal (and more commonly used) made-to-measure. The idea was to explore different ways of using mohair, given all its performance virtues (sharp, strong, breathable) discussed in...
Assisi coming to London for the first time – Permanent Style
Assisi, the Korean tailors I have enjoyed using so much over the past year, have announced they are coming to London for the first time. They will be here at the end of February, from Friday February 28th to Sunday March 2nd. The location is yet to be confirmed, but...
The different kinds of sale – Permanent Style
We're doing our first ever sale on the PS Shop today. I thought it would make a good subject for a post as well, as I find the psychology and perception of sales interesting. People that are into crafted clothing (such as myself) are naturally sceptical of sales. There are...
Reader profile: Bent – Permanent Style
Outfit 1: Green cord suit Suit: Schaap tailors, green 700g Holland & Sherry cord Jumper: De Bonne Facture Shirt: J Press Tie: Drake’s Shoes: Alden cordovan, modified last Socks: Frans Boone Watch: 1960s IWC Hi Bent. How would you describe what you do? I’d say I find it hard to...
Paul’s Permanent Style watches – Permanent Style
By Paul Croughton Not so long ago, Simon and I were discussing watches – specifically what would make a ‘Permanent Style watch’. As both a PS reader of well over a decade and a watch enthusiast and collector, I saw this as a welcome, if dangerous, opportunity to get sucked...
Removing the white stitch on a new coat – Permanent Style
I am not, by nature, a confrontational person. But there is something clothing-related that forces me to confront strangers, and in fact in some ways to criticise them. It hasn’t always gone well. Some brands use white basting thread to sew a small tacking ‘X’ on the vents of their...
Awards 2025: Who’s your favourite menswear brand right now? – Permanent Style
The Permanent Style Awards are back. We had a bit of a hiatus last year for ‘Dry January’ but I wanted to do the annual awards again, with some of the most popular categories from previous iterations, plus a couple of new ones. So I would like to know -...
Michael Browne ‘Body coat’: Style breakdown – Permanent Style
Last year we did a series of articles analysing four of my overcoats from different traditions: Sartoria Ciardi, Cifonelli, Liverano and Edward Sexton. They were discussed, measured and picked apart in the ‘Style Breakdown’ format that also formed the basis of the book Bespoke Style. There was one, however,...
Packing for travelling between seasons: cold then hot – Permanent Style
When I travelled to Thailand last month, I had a slightly different packing challenge to usual: in London it was eight degrees (celsius) with cold drizzle; in Bangkok it was 30 degrees and balmy. Now I wouldn’t be outside in the UK that long on the way to the airport,...
A Neapolitan ‘caban’ coat, from Luca Museo – Permanent Style
What is a ‘caban’ coat? Well, it's meant different things at different points in time, but it has a particular meaning as a sartorial version of a pea coat in Naples. The caban was originally something European sailors called a coat they saw being worn by Barbary pirates (or corsairs)....
Suits and shirts: A sliding scale of formality – Permanent Style
We haven’t done one of these in a while, but a reader requested one in a comment on the ‘How to pick shirt fabric’ article, and it reminded me how useful people find the sliding scales. The idea is we break down two categories of clothing in terms of how...
Campbell’s of Beauly: Keeping Scottish tradition alive – Permanent Style
If someone were to tell you that there was an old tweed shop in the Scottish Highlands, Campbell’s of Beauly is exactly what you’d picture. An old stone building, worn wooden shelves, stacked with dozens of bolts. There are similar piles of tweed caps, shetland jumpers and brightly checked blankets....
La Bowtique made-to-measure: Review – Permanent Style
By Manish Puri. The first dinner suit I ever purchased was from the online vintage shop Savvy Row: a nineties bespoke Anderson & Sheppard double-breasted. And, after some alterations - which, out of a sense of custodianship of the suit, I chose to have done at A&S - I turned...
Merry Christmas 2024! – Permanent Style
Thank you everyone - readers, friends, customers, contributors - for a wonderful 2024. It's been quite a year, with more people than ever before reading PS, and The Casual Style Guide being such a success. Trust me though, there's more exciting things coming in 2025. Have a fantastic holiday, and...
Be a patron – Permanent Style
A friend of mine has been into menswear since he was a teenager. He obsessed over three-piece suits with collared waistcoats, dreamt of visiting Savile Row, and for years sought out second-hand bespoke online. He briefly worked in menswear, and began to access these kinds of makers. He made the...
The menswear and culture of Bangkok – Permanent Style
I was in Thailand last week, holding an event at the shop Decorum, and I have to say I was impressed with the local menswear culture. I’ve travelled a fair bit round east Asia, but not much in the south-east – just Singapore many years ago. Frankly I didn’t associate...
Ralph Fitzgerald: The Chrysler Tailor – Permanent Style
By Manish Puri. For my money it’s the most beautiful building in New York. And yet, despite being lucky enough to have been to the Big Apple on more than a dozen occasions, I’ve never actually been inside the Chrysler. But today, after leaving Grand Central via the correct exit...
Learning lessons: Light-grey overcoat and horsebit loafers – Permanent Style
I had this overcoat made earlier in the year by Sartoria Ciardi from Naples, but have only had a chance to wear it consistently the past few months. The cloth is CT17 from Fox - a 20/21oz wool in their overcoatings bunch. I was confident of the style, as it...
Métier: A fashion bag brand, but with quality and functionality – Permanent Style
There are a few reasons why I think the bag brand Métier might appeal to PS readers. Let me set them out in typically geeky PS-style. First, they don’t have any branding. The prices might be fashion-brand prices, but there’s no big name stamped on the outside - the identity...
Bryceland’s made-to-order chambray shirt: Review – Permanent Style
Made-to-order services are useful with workwear shirts, where bespoke makers can rarely replicate the construction or the materials. We covered one such service recently, from The Anthology, and today we’re reviewing another, from Bryceland’s. I should say, by the way, that in that Anthology review I didn’t mean to directly...
August Special: Innovative, rugged boots and loafers – Permanent Style
August Special is a new shoe brand - they launched online back in May - and it’s an interesting proposition I think. Comfortable versions of traditional shoes that have more style than most in that combination, and rugged styles that are actually made in a refined way. The reason the...
Christmas Gift Guide 2024 – Permanent Style
This is always fun. Each year the gift guide is an opportunity for me to mention non-menswear, or at least menswear-adjacent, products and brands. And given PS readers are fussy (perhaps we should we say discerning?), it also necessitates unusual or at least mildly surprising choices. This year those choices...
What Frasier could teach us about dressing today – Permanent Style
Every evening, our family goes to the living room after dinner and watches an episode of a sitcom together. My wife, me, and my two eldest daughters all on the sofa. It’s lovely family time and now such a tradition that no evening feels complete without it. It’s been going...
The case for the ‘stimulating’ shirt – Permanent Style
By Lucas Nicholson. Whilst nattering away to Simon as I usually do on one of our days working together, I mentioned I had a revelation recently. In my past life at Drake’s, I always favoured slightly eccentric tailoring (cream cord suit anyone?). But I’ve recently found my tailoring commissions have...