Carreducker at Gieves on St Crispin's Day

As requested, some shots of Deborah Carre making shoes in the window of Gieves & Hawkes last week, to celebrate St Crispin's Day. Brave gal, putting herself on display like that!

Orlebar Brown swimming shorts

I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that with casual items like T-shirts, polo shirts and shorts I like simple designs, clean lines and plain colours. I first became interested in Orlebar Brown because I wanted swimming shorts that met all of those criteria. I remained interested because of the technical and craft aspects of their shorts.

Most swimming shorts are made out of two identical panels of material, stitched together, with a one-piece waistband running around the top. You make them fit with a drawstring.

Orlebar Brown swim shorts have a four-piece waistband. This allows the pieces to be curved, ending up higher at the back and lower at the front. The main body of the short is also cut in two pieces at front and back (again allowing the shape to be different) and the back pieces are darted above the pocket, to help that fit above the rear.

This isn’t rocket science – it’s how any half-decent pair of trousers is made, bespoke or not. But few companies bother to do it with swimming shorts. The shape you can achieve with these panels also means the line of the leg can be better controlled.

“I’m over 40 now and rather more hesitant about taking my clothes off in public,” admits founder Adam Brown. “When I do, a short that fits like this through the back and rear, down into a clean leg line, is great because it’s more flattering. That applies to anyone, fat or thin, whatever age.”

You can see his point. The draw-string model, which tends to be rather shapeless and bunch all the cloth together around the waist, is hardly becoming.

Other nice aspects: the fly is constructed in the same multi-panel way, producing a short that you can wear to a café or restaurant without the risk of popping out; the side pockets are angled forward and contain good, deep bags; and there is a strap-and-buckle on each side to get the fit just right.

Having tried other products in the range, I can also attest to the T-shirts and the long-sleeved polo shirts. Both are cut to curve slightly downwards in the front and back hem, meaning they look good untucked but don’t bunch at the sides. It’s much more practical than the polo model with one long tail at the back and a short one at the front.

My only criticism of the polo shirt at the moment would be that the collar is a little short in the stand, and unstructured. This makes it too floppy to wear with a jacket. Adam tells me the next iteration of the shirt will change this though. Nice to know.

The swimming shorts are all made of a polyamide, like any short, but in an unbrushed version that gives them a nicer, cotton-like handle. They are all made – and the various pieces of cloth and hardware come from – various places around the EU, including France, Italy and Portugal.

To see aspects of the construction, have a look at the ‘Inside OB’ video here.

The satisfaction of darning a sweater

I was horrified to discover at the weekend that one of my Loro Piana Roadster sweaters had a moth hole in. Two, in fact. Despite the various moth products and regular airing. The experience, however, had an upside.

I believe in buying high-quality products, looking after them well and being rewarded with years of superior comfort and style. Little gives me greater satisfaction, therefore, than extending the life of something through my own efforts. With the Roadster, I managed to achieve a decent darning of both the holes. The surface is not perfect, but the small imperfection almost gives the sweater greater character – like subtle colour variation on shoe leather from years of sweat and rain.

This philosophy has much in common with the so-called English country house look. Usually applied to upholstery and other interior decoration, it revels in the natural ageing, untidiness and natural comfort of well-worn items, including clothes. Prince Charles’s patched Cleverley shoes and box of spare cloth at Anderson & Sheppard come to mind.

It is usually the beauty of leather that gets me: an aged watch strap, a battered but not dried out attaché, the patina of the aforementioned shoe. But wool and indeed some forms of cotton (like canvas) can become more beautiful with age. Cardboard too. For more on this theme, search on the blog for ‘How great things age’.

As to the darning, I will not discuss the technique in detail because it is best explained by video. There is a good one on YouTube here. But I will say that it is best to take your time, not overstitch (it can make the area too stiff) and make sure you keep the spare thread that often comes with good knitwear. The biscuit-coloured cashmere I had kept and used on my Roadster was an absolute pleasure to use, and I don’t think anything else would have had the same effect.

Happy St Crispin's Day

You knew it was St Crispin's Day right? Patron saint of shoemakers? Well, the English equivalent is St Hugh, but it doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

The day is being celebrated by Carreducker, or more specifically Deborah Carre, making shoes in the Vigo Street window of Gieves & Hawkes. It's a wonderful sight - all those slack-jawed yokels streaming past to Abercrombie (and there's going to be another on the other side of the Row!) gazing in astonishment at this person actually making stuff. Plus Deborah has a top hat on, which helps.

James will be there tomorrow (though without the top hat). Well worth a look and a wave hello.

Gieves & Hawkes: The perfect travel blazer 3

Last week we had the second fitting on the Gieves & Hawkes travel blazer. Given that I’m a new customer and so we are creating a new pattern, both were basted fittings and the first looked much like this one, just with a poorer fit.

At this stage it’s coming along nicely. I was interested to see that the shoulder padding was not as great as that in my Huntsman jacket, but was still noticeably more than that employed by the likes of John Kent or Henry Poole – and neither of those is exactly known for soft tailoring.

The only points of alteration needed after this second fitting are a little stretching of the cloth across my relatively large shoulder blades, and a picking up of the right side. You can see that that side looks a little less clean than the other, both in the sleeve and forepart. Kathryn suggested narrowing the lapel from 3¼ inches to 3, but I think that would be too contemporary.

There are a number of options for the removable buttons and we still haven’t settled on which will work best. The method often used on white Marcella shirts or waistcoats (where you might want the option of buttons or studs) is to have a hole rather than a slit, poke the metal shank through and secure it with a special pin. The design is much like a hair pin.

The alternative on these shirts or waistcoats is to have all the buttons on a placket, which makes them that much harder to lose. This method will be employed on the cuffs of the Travel Blazer, but we’re not sure yet about the fronts. Whatever the fastening mechanism, they will certainly sit in a placket of their own on the inside of the jacket, to avoid catching on the shirt.

The button options will be brown horn or brass, the latter engraved with the shield of my Oxford college, Trinity. How the horn buttons, which won’t have a natural shank, will fit into the system is another piece in the puzzle.

The fresco trousers felt really lovely. I was surprised they didn’t feel rougher, given how coarse fresco can feel in a bunch, and they are only half lined in the front. We decided the narrow them from 17-inch bottoms, here, to 16s. The fronts will also be picked up slightly to try and give a cleaner finish – though this is always an up-hill struggle without pleats.

The next fitting, in two weeks, will be finished bar the buttonholes.

Previous post on cutting here. And the original project here.

Photography: Andy Barnham

Sunspel: The underwear project

The second brand to be tested as part of The Underwear Project is very British company Sunspel. (Previous post, on The White Briefs, can be seen here.)

Sunspel is the cheapest of the brands on offer. Their regular briefs are £24. The same model at The White Briefs is £28 and at Zimmerli more like £44. Nicholas Brooke, one of the owners of Sunspel, says much of the reason for this is historic: “Underwear used to just be made in the winter when there was no demand for the T-shirts that made up the majority of the business. It wasn’t intended to make profit, and it didn’t.”

Prices aren’t quite that low any more, but Nick clearly thinks they are very good value. The cotton used is long-staple Egyptian cotton. This is on a par with The White Briefs and the feel is similar. Although Zimmerli will be covered in greater detail in the next in this series, I can say that their cottons are noticeably softer – both the regular Royal Cotton and the Sea Island.

However, you certainly pay more for the Sea Island – the name is trade marked by the West Indian Sea Island Cotton Association (the cotton is no longer grown on the actual sea islands, off Georgia) and that monopoly increases the price. That’s why Turnbull & Asser offers sea island ‘quality’ cotton, for example.

Another difference between Sunspel and the others is that the cotton is two-ply. This makes it a touch thicker, but more durable. I can’t say I was aware of the thickness until Nick pointed it out – so it’s not that noticeable.

Sunspel is also proud of its tradition of innovation. It developed unique cellular cotton (below) on old lace machines in 1958, at the factory in Long Eaton, and this is still a best seller. Its regular cotton is a jersey knit that also makes its construction different to that of other companies. For example, I found the leg openings had greater stretch in them than those from The White Briefs, even though there is no elastane in the binding, unlike those from the Swedish company.

For Nick, material is important but cut is the most important aspect of good underwear: “It may sound silly but underwear is incredibly hard to cut well. The shape is very unforgiving; if any aspect reduces comfort, the customer notices immediately – particularly in a brief. We’ve been refining our cut for over 150 years and I really think that tells in the result.”

I tried both the regular knit cotton and the cellular. Although the latter has more stretch, at least horizontally, I found the former more comfortable. Both did very well on the wear test, being washed and worn five times each.

Interestingly, I asked Nick why no one does underwear in grey, which is probably my favourite colour for it. Apparently grey marl cotton is at least 30% more expensive than white, and almost as big a mark-up on black. Rather than explain this to every customer, most companies that did grey would have to raise the price of all colours by 30%, which is hardly fair.

Most of the underwear is not made at the Sunspel headquarters (top), but in Portugal. The Long Eaton factory is largely reserved for T-shirts and other garments for the upper body, which make up the majority of Sunspel business.

I tried the T-shirts too, by the way, and can highly recommend them – though I have not done a similar comparison to any of the other makers. The texture of the Sunspel cottons, in particular, comes across better on a larger scale, as you might imagine. I sized up on the underwear (medium) and down on the T-shirts (small).

The next piece in this series will be on Zimmerli. At the end of the series I will write a more direct comparison of all manufacturers, including Hanro and Schiesser.

A Style is Born: Anderson & Sheppard

I was sent a copy of Anderson & Sheppard’s celebratory tome A Style is Born this week. It is a luxurious, boxed and hard-backed volume that has been over a year in the making.

The photography, most archive but current as well, is extensive. There is unlikely ever to be as complete a tribute to the customers that have formed the history of the tailoring house.

This is wonderful to be able to browse through; it feels like a widescreen tour of A&S tradition, such is the scale of reproduction. And the pages of cloth photography – three double spreads between each chapter – are even more generous.

This is primarily a book of illustrations, however. While it does contain a great history of Anderson & Sheppard, with unique historical points and anecdotes, the focus is on the customer portraits and historical shots.

Its own description is accurate in that regard: “an exuberantly overstuffed visual and historical companion to the in-shop bespoke experience”, “a rich, almost tactile immersion”.

As an A&S customer, having the book around and flicking through it makes me feel intensely proud to be part of that history. So in that aim it gloriously succeeds.

A Style is Born runs to almost 300 pages, is curated by Vanity Fair editors Graydon Carter and Cullen Murphy, and features photography by Jonathan Becker and Christopher Simon Sykes, as well as eight original watercolor paintings by illustrator Paul Cox. It is released on October 27 and will cost £50.

Wearing brown accessories, at Cesare Attolini

Once you become a devotee of the Italian formal tradition, and begin to wear a lot more browns in your outfit, it’s easy to go overboard. If shoes are usually brown and leather accessories always a shade of brown, a brown tie, jacket or trouser can become a dirge.

This is of course more of an issue with sports jackets than suits: with a nice grey pick-and-pick suit, the browns and tans all work well as accents. It is the brown windowpane-check jacket that is dangerous, or the tan linen.

I will write separately about the alternative colours for ties and handkerchiefs that work well with brown (think forest green and wine red). But I thought these pictures, taken at Cesare Attolini in Naples earlier in the year, show some interesting ways to wear shades of brown in accessories.

The combination at top highlights how cream works as an alternative to brown. It is soft enough to do little but establish background to the tie and any other brown accessories. Even in both the jacket and raincoat, you can imagine this working with dark brown lace-ups and a tan briefcase. The contrast created by the pop of the white handkerchief helps, of course.

The second combination, above, shows how effective a burn orange can be – it doesn’t feel out of place with brown, despite being so close in tone. Although the blue cotton suit is easy to work with, the same brown accessories mentioned earlier would harmonise with the tie rather than echo it.

I was very impressed with the quality of workmanship on the Attolini jackets, which have beautiful buttonholes and a hand-padded chest canvas. You can see the hand padding on the lapels below, betrayed by the prick stitches coming through.

Apologies for the quality of the pictures - they were taken through a window with an iPhone.

How to buy quality shoes

I contributed a fairly practical piece on buying good shoes to newspaper City AM a few weeks ago. Interested readers can find it here.

Bespoke shirts at Turnbull & Asser, City branch

I’ve always felt myself very fortunate to have my tailor within walking distance. Few men today, particularly in the US, have that privilege. But my shirtmaker was always a tube ride away; until now.

A few weeks ago Turnbull & Asser began offering bespoke from its City branch, on Old Broad Street. Andrew Courtney has moved from the bespoke premises on Bury Street to manage the store and launch bespoke there. As well as shirts it will soon do bespoke ties and other goods offered in the West End. The same range of cloths will be available in both branches and you can order in one branch and collect in another.

Andrew will handle all the measuring. He has been at T&A for 15 years and certainly has the experience. In fact, he is also a master butcher and a tie cutter. Having been made redundant from the butchery trade 15 years ago, he plumped for tie cutting as an alternative craft. His father worked in textiles so he had some familiarity with it. From tie cutting he moved to stock management at Bury Street, and has been with T&A bespoke ever since.

The City branch of Turnbull & Asser has been open more than two years now, but its passing trade has suffered from the fact that panes of glass started falling out of the new office block next door. The mountains of scaffolding that were required to make repairs to the offices have rather shrouded T&A – even if the scaffolding panels are attractively painted to look like box hedge.

I do hope having bespoke leads to increased business on Old Broad Street. The branches of TM Lewin, Charles Tyrhitt et al are so ubiquitous in the area that a business man could forgivably confuse Turnbull & Asser with one of them. Which of course it is not; not by a long shot.

The window displays have been changed to include sewing machines and photography of the Gloucester factory, some taken by Andy Barnham during our visit two years ago. And there is to be a bespoke event shortly, where customers will be able to see both shirt and tie making in the store. Let’s hope these all help educate the City masses.

The window dressing of Hackett

One of the main reasons that I (and I assume most other men) read blogs is to get inspiration for things to wear. Or to buy in order to wear. I know I should write more posts on the former. Ideally, every shop window should provide such inspiration on combinations. But they don’t.

There are notable exceptions, including Ralph Lauren, Boggi and boutiques like Trunk or Drake’s. But in my opinion the most stylish window dressing of any brand in London belongs to Hackett.

Hackett windows rarely shout. Ralph Lauren is more likely to do that, with preppy primary colours and glamorous evening wear; but it also occasionally misses the mark. Hackett provides quiet, consistent inspiration. Men of the City take note.

For this post I have deliberately chosen a very simple display. These outfits, currently gracing the windows of the Jermyn Street branch of Hackett, contain no colour. But by taking this out of the equation, and trying to come up with six tonal combinations that highlight pattern and texture, they succeed all the more powerfully.

Throughout there is sufficient variation in the scale of patterns to avoid clashing. The fact the shirts are white also helps to separate them. Interest is achieved through texture – the ties vary from woven pin-dot silk to satin to cashmere. It’s not complex, but it is simple and elegant. And that’s where all men should start.

Even Hackett doesn’t get it right every time, and I have deliberately left out one combination that I felt didn’t work. It involved a chalk stripe waistcoat with trousers of the same colour but no pattern. Striped garments as separates are hard to work at the best of times. When the colour or tone of one piece is pretty much identical to that sitting next to it, the effect is of looking like you have worn the wrong trousers.

The others are unqualified successes. I advise any man wandering down Jermyn Street, Sloane Street, Regent Street, Bishopsgate or anywhere else that Hackett has branches to look up and, briefly, take note.

I believe the modern title is visual merchandiser. To whoever holds that title at Hackett, well done.

Photography: Andy Barnham

The philosophy of dress as expression

My father in law recently reminded me, on reading elements of my book Le Snob: Tailoring, about the philosophy of RG Collingwood and male dress as expression, where clothes are a replacement for the body.

Here's a quotation:

"Dress is a kind of language; but when it is rigidly uniform the only emotions which it can express are emotions common to those who wear it. The habit of wearing it focuses the attention of the wearer on emotions of the kind, and at once generates and expresses a permanent 'set' or habit of consciously feeling in the corresponding way. Rupert Brooke noticed that Americans 'walk better than we; more freely with a taking swing and almost with grace. How much of this is due to living in a democracy, and how much to wearing no braces, it is difficult to determine'.

"Dropping a uniform carries with it a curious breach in the emotional habit. The consciousness of sharing uniform dress with a circle of others is thus a consciousness of emotional solidarity with them; and this, on its negative side, takes a form of emotional hostility towards persons outside the circle. To illustrate this from the history of parties and classes is superfluous."

Silk evening shirts at Emma Willis

Wing-collar shirts are flimsy things unless made in the detachable, collar-stud traditional manner. When attached to the shirt, the collar is inevitably too low and lacks the stiffness of the starched original. Precious few shirtmakers make a good detachable collar today anyway.

So your options are a plain turndown collar on a shirt with a pleated or piqué cotton front. Some glamour can come from studs, but it is rarely worth investing in these until you’ve got to the age that black tie events rarely lead to you being disreputably drunk in the small hours of the morning. I would make two alternative suggestions: silk and ivory.

This struck me during a conversation with Emma Willis recently. The shirtmaker has come a long way since she set up on Jermyn Street and brought some much-needed feminine glamour to the industry. The shop still has a distinct sensuality, a feeling of being swathed in Sea Island cotton and shod in cashmere stockings. But the company has moved on to establish its own shirtmaking facilities in Gloucester, and Emma tells lovely tales about the seamstresses there.

That conversation came round to black tie and a ivory silk shirt that was hanging prominently in the store. Now, this is not the silk of your 1980s imagination. It is not satin and certainly not sateen. It is sand-washed silk, which has a soft and textured handle. The shirt itself has a flat-turning bib front in silk pique and little mother of pearl buttons on a removable band so the shirt can be worn with studs (if you're old and sober enough).

And its ivory is a distinct off-white. Some traditionally minded men swear by cream or ivory shirts as an alternative to white. So much kinder on the complexion. I’ve never bought that: for me, pure white has the necessary crispness of corporate business, something cream never can.

But with black tie – particularly, perhaps, with my brown and black velvet jacket from Timothy Everest – it has an attractive air of old-world decadence. Its tone stands out immediately from the cheap, flimsy white collars around it. The contrast is not dissimilar to that between black and midnight blue in the tux itself.

One final piece of advice from Emma to conclude: if you’re going to have a pleated front, look for sufficient overlap of the pleats; a cheap, machine-made front will have larger gaps between each one, and quickly make the shirt look cheap. Good ones are sewn on individually by hand.

Welcome Hugo Jacomet, Parisian gentleman

At last, after many rounds of correspondence by email, Hugo and I had a chance to meet at Anderson & Sheppard last week. Hugo was over in London for a couple of days, touring the Savile Row houses for the purposes of his own excellent blog Parisian Gentleman.

Contrary to appearances, Hugo and I are not preparing to engage in a passionate embrace. We are merely inspecting the make of our two suits - his from Cifonelli and mine Anderson & Sheppard. Indeed, he was wearing Corthay and myself Cleverley shoes: it was full Anglo-French warfare.

Good to see you Hugo, and we look forward to reading about your adventures on the blog.

Photography, the inestimable Andy Barnham

Cycling bags

A few months ago I was asked by a reader what cycle bag I used. I apologise for not answering sooner. The reason was partly forgetfulness and partly the fact that I knew Rapha was coming out with its full range of bags soon, and I couldn’t write about bike bags more than once.

Now, I use a bridle leather one from Bill Amberg – the Double Truffle. It is a beautiful bag but hopelessly heavy; any longer than my 20-minute commute and it would give me shooting pains. I also saw the Brooks leather bags recently, on visit to their factory up in Smethwick (they aren’t made there of course, though I’m glad to say they are now made in the UK). They are much lighter and more practical.

But by far the most practical bags are those from Rapha, particularly now the range has expanded to include a weekender-sized race bag with slots for road shoes and – at the other end of the serious cycling spectrum – a simple tote for popping into town (above). Other pieces include two sizes of shoulder bag and a really funky little saddle bag that rolls up and fastens with an adapted toe strap in the Rapha signature white leather.

All are made in a black Cordura nylon, which is very hardy while remaining lightweight. The tricky problem Rapha has of making high-viz gear in black is overcome with a series of subtle reflective dots on the side panels. Rather like Guy Hills’ Dashing Tweeds, these really don’t shine until hit by direct light.

Apparently two pieces where weight is less of a concern – the race bag and the wash bag – will at some point come in a lovely thick black leather. Speaking of leather, I had an interesting chat with founder Simon Mottram about new Rapha cycling shoes, which are leather yet very lightweight by virtue of using yak leather. It’s just as thin as kangaroo, says Simon, but harder wearing. I kind of wish they were still made of kangaroo.

I’m pleased to see that the rest of the Rapha Autumn/Winter collection expands the range of merino wool that has been so feted here on Permanent Style, to include more base layers, tops and underwear. Apparently the merino padded boxers were so popular that Rapha decided to make some without the padding – an interesting overlap with The Underwear Project perhaps?

Elsewhere my recommendations for the stylish cyclist about town are the hooded jersey and the beautifully cut long-sleeve polo shirt, which now features cycling-inspired paisley on the collar – a considerable improvement on last season’s pink gingham.

And an interesting technical item is the Polartec Pro Team Jacket in yellow (or Chartreuse). Apparently the duller, non-fluorescent colour is actually picked up by the eye better than fluorescent yellow, and the softshell material is a lot nicer and more malleable than your standard commuting jacket.

Permanent Style on Finnish menswear blog

Thanks to Ville Raivio for featuring Permanent Style in his Finnish menswear site Keikari over the weekend. That link will take you to the site, but it's all in Finnish so unless you happen to speak the language, the interview will not be readable. I thought I'd reproduce in English, therefore, one question  that Ville asked right at the end:

Many of my readers are young or have only recently opted for a more formal style. What tips would you give to someone who has only recently become interested in classic style?

1 Invest in quality. It’s very frustrating when you start but as good things last longer, your wardrobe accelerates as you get older rather than standing still. It’s also satisfying to know you are pushing against the global greed of replacement and waste.

2 Try to have suits, at least jackets, cut for you. Don’t worry too much about the quality of the make, but hand cutting makes the biggest difference. And spend more on shoes.

3 Start by dressing simply. As personal as style might be, every style icon in history has agreed on several things. And one of them is that dressing with well-informed discretion is the base to any personal aesthetic.

4 You have to wear clothes to feel comfortable in them. Hats are a classic example. No one feels comfortable the first time they wear one, because nobody else is doing so. But the third day you wear it, it will feel natural. And practical.

Gieves & Hawkes: The perfect travel blazer 2

The most interesting aspect of watching the cutting for the Perfect Travel Blazer this week was, oddly, not the blazer but the trousers we are making to go with it. These are in a mid-grey, 9/10 ounce fresco from J&J Minnis.

Fresco is such a great travel cloth, its weave and treatment meaning it creases very little but is suitable for temperatures from temperate to roasting. We decided against it for jacket, because that very sharpness would make the blazer less versatile. But in trousers this is less of an issue. Mid-grey fresco trousers will transfer nicely from formal blazer to casual knitwear.

As to the cutting, Kathryn Sargent (Gieves head cutter) took a small slice out of the pattern around the knee area, to shape better on my apparently slightly bowed legs (top). I haven’t seen this done before, so I’ll be interested in how it turns out. You can tell if you have bowed legs, by the way, by looking in the mirror and putting your feet together – it’s one thing a tailor is looking for when they measure you in this position.

I’ve long learnt that the important thing on trousers for me is getting enough of a scoop into my lower back – it’s what comes of having a relatively large ‘seat’ and a small waist. Toby Luper and Hemingway Tailors in particular seems to have mastered this. Kathryn will increase the back rise slightly: it’s normally 1½ inches; she will raise it to around 2.

One design detail on the trousers is the fob pocket – the small one below the waistband on the front that can be used for change. I usually find this too tight, narrow and deep to be accessed easily. Albam is the one British ready-to-wear brand that seems to get it right. So Kathryn is going to cut it slightly shallower than normal, at 2½ inches deep.

The cloth for the blazer is being cut out here by Richard Lawson, Kathryn’s apprentice. Richard often does the cutting after Kathryn has developed the pattern. He has been working with Kathryn for three years now, and is just starting to develop his own client book. Unusually, he started at Gieves 18 months before that, on the retail side.

Before that Richard had studied to be an engineer, and he thinks there are some similarities between that and tailoring – at least at the level of turning two-dimensional drawings into three-dimensional structures.

First post, on the design of the Perfect Travel Blazer, here.

EB Meyrowitz: Handmade glasses

EB Meyrowitz always used to sparkle from across the Royal Arcade, as I sat in Cleverley’s chatting to George or Teemu. The serried rows of horn and acetate frames, all in beautiful brown variations, watched by a little jazz band on top of the cupboard.

But I never made the time to go in. That, it is now clear, was an oversight. In the end, the catalyst was not George Glasgow (who I now know is a loyal customer) but John Durnin, now CEO of Gieves & Hawkes and another customer. He introduced Meyrowitz into the new Gieves set up as one of his artisans, alongside Carreducker, Bentleys, Bill Amberg and others.

EB Meyrowitz is run by three lovely sisters. But they don’t want to be the focus of a piece such as this, and too right. The focus should be the glasses. These are all handmade, in a range of workshops from England to Germany, Morocco to India. Made to measure glasses, which make up about 40% of the business, are all made in England.

Meyrowitz designs all the frames itself. The made-to-measure service then involves adapting those designs and frames to a customer, and varying little aspects of the construction or the materials. “I used to do bespoke designs for customers,” says Sheel Davison-Lungley, the manager of the store. “But it was impossible to match the picture that people had of how their face would look. Men are often quite delusional about their faces.”

The ready-to-wear frames are all altered as well, in terms of changing the angle and shape of the arms, often from the hinge. Meyrowitz is meticulous with this, taking a series of measurements to get the balance of the frame correct. Anyone who has experience of tailoring won’t be surprised to hear that men usually have one ear lower than another, and one eye lower. Where the frame is made to sit is a judgment based on making it look natural, and fit to these personal idiosyncrasies.

Interestingly, Sheel says that most ready-to-wear glasses on the high street fall down on basic areas of fit, often having arms that are too short and bridges that are too small. The small bridge will make glasses sit too high on the nose. The short arms, on the other hand, are rather like the too-large suits sold by high-street brands: fewer people notice if a suit is too big than too small, and fewer people notice if the arms on a pair of glasses are too short – they may be less comfortable but they will stay on the nose, unlike with arms that are too long.

Being handmade, as in cut down and finished by hand, should also make them more comfortable. This is most noticeable in the bridge, where the edges are noticeably rounded and smoothed. Machine-made glasses tend to work in single planes, with each perhaps smoothed but no transition from one to another.You can see something of that in the pair above.

It’s been an interesting area to learn about.

Prices start at £450 for acetate, £700 and up for made to measure. Horn is £900 and £1600 respectively.

Photography: Andy Barnham

Fashion shows are vulgar

As it is the season for fashion shows, I though a little quotation from Hardy Amies might be appropriate:

"Clothes are meant for private living; clothes that produce excitement and applause give the press things to write about but shock the man of taste."

The Englishman's Suit, Hardy Amies, 1994

How to wear a neckerscarf

As the days begin to grow colder, one of the most tactile pleasures is wearing a neckerchief or neckerscarf.

I’ve never taken to wearing an ascot in an open shirt collar, much as I agree with the rationale of retaining some silk at the neck; perhaps there are just too many negative associations. But I do like wearing a silk or silk mix scarf with a crewneck sweater. This can be any size and shape, as long as it is not too big, but my favourites are 90cm and 70cm squares from the likes of Hermès and Arnys.

Now I’m not going to spend several instructional paragraphs explaining how to knot the scarves. Other sites do that far better with diagrams and even video (and I will link to them where appropriate). What I am going to do is relay my personal experience and advice. The condensed lessons of several years of experimentation should hopefully be of some use.

Three ways of tying the scarf are shown here: the simple tie knot, the square knot and the basic Ascot. With a square piece of cloth, all begin with folding in two opposing corners and then repeating from the same sides, until you have a long strip to work with.

The square knot, shown at top, and just above before tucking it into the sweater, produces a satisfyingly clean finish not dissimilar to the bow tie (as the technique is similar). However, the knot is rather large and – with a scarf this size – can sit a little awkwardly above or below the neckline. The finish is neater with a smaller piece of silk, say a large handkerchief.

Unlike the two other options, the square knot’s loose ends flow sideways and not down. An alternative, therefore, is to secure those two ends behind the neck with a simple knot (or a neck ring) - above. Good for a particularly cold day but perhaps a little bulky.

The second option is the simple tie knot (also known as the oriental knot, or a slip knot). Unlike a four in hand, this involves one less layer of silk by virtue of starting with the underside of the tie uppermost. I wouldn’t recommend it for a normal tie – too little body – but it can be useful for a scarf where reducing the silk in the knot is a priority.

This option produces a triangular knot, which is less bulky that the square knot. Although some may dislike it aesthetically, it is functional and folds easily under the neckline.

It is also secure, which is the major advantage over the next option – the Ascot knot. This is the familiar method for tying any scarf, pulling the end of a straightforward knot up and away from the chin, before spreading it to create a broad front blade.

Because there is no real knot here, more of a fold, the front is soft and folds under easily. However, any vigorous activity can dislodge it (including picking up and putting down my one-year-old, which I do too many times a day to count), which is doubtless why it works best in the open neck of a shirt or with a woollen full scarf. I’d recommend it as dressy option, but you could end up retying it several times during the day.

Go and wear a neckerscarf to keep out the chill.