“I never see you wearing your monk strap shoes from Nunes Correa anymore...” read a rather sad recent comment on one of my blog posts. I felt a pang. It is true, I no longer wear my beautiful burgundy double-monks which I had purchased on a splendid holiday to Lisbon about four years ago. However, the reason for this is that I had finally acknowledged what I had really known all along, but attempted to ignore; they were simply too small … [Read more...]

It's difficult not to fall in love with a city like London during the autumn. The leaves that provided sun-dappled splendour in summer now crunch underfoot, scattered across the cobbles and tarmac like Nature's confetti. The majestic clotted-cream buildings reflect the late afternoon's strawberry pink light like some monumental meringue, and the cool October wind bites into the tanned skin of summer. It's also rather difficult not to fall in … [Read more...]

“You’ve written a lot of articles about morning dress!” a friend exclaimed to me recently, as he scrolled through my column on his phone. “Is it your favourite topic or something?” For reasons unknown, even to me, I do happen to write a great deal about my views on morning dress. For an ensemble that is used by fewer and fewer people on but a handful of occasions throughout the year, my persistence with the subject is certainly … [Read more...]

A dear friend recently asked me what I believed to be the difference between a suit jacket and a blazer. “I know what the literal difference is” he smiled “I just want to know what their uses are. I mean, can a suit jacket ever double as a blazer?” This is possibly one of the most important questions I have been asked. Chiefly because I have always advocated using clothing efficiently and flexibly; after all, we all have limited space … [Read more...]

The summer in London has been, until very recently, absolutely diabolical. So terrible that even the most patient of Londoners have been seen scowling at the skies, asking the question that rouses the happiest of us from a state of passive satisfaction to one of insistent curiosity; why? For it has been, in the words of Edmund Blackadder, “wetter than a haddock’s bathing costume.” The gulfstream, apparently, is to blame; sitting too far … [Read more...]