Simone Righi, Frasi

It was nice to meet Simone Righi in Florence. I’ve been into Frasi, and Tie Your Tie as it was before, but not when he has been in the shop.

Simone rebranded his shop three years ago, leaving the Japanese group Tie Your Tie. The stock and service were always very much Simone’s own, however, and therefore little has changed. It offers a range of luxurious knitwear (Fedeli, Hawick), knitted ties (Mattabisch, Tie Your Tie) and jackets from the likes of Sartorio Napoli and Orazio Luciano. 

One thing Simone has expanded is the ‘bespoke’ service, in which he measures customers and has suits made up by one of three tailors – Kiton, Attolini and a Florentine tailor. There is one basted fitting, changes are sent back and then the final suit arrives. Simone is not a trained tailor, but he is certainly a perfectionist when it comes to fit – as you can see on any customer he is fitting, and of course on himself. (My favourite ever shotfrom The Sartorialist is of Simone.)

The shop is fun and worth a look in. The stock isn’t much of a draw, but the appeal has always been the man, the space and the community around it.    

Photos: Luke Carby

Begg launches first collection at Pitti

 

One person it was nice to catch up with in Florence was Ann Ryley, who used to be sales and marketing director at Drake’s but left last year to help Scottish company Begg launch its first collection.

Begg is an old name in Scottish weaving, growing up in the 1860s in Paisley and now based in Ayr. It is also one of the very best names, having always made scarves, stoles and blankets for some of the biggest luxury houses. 

It is known for its ripple-finish scarves, which require the wool to be brushed with teasles – the dried heads of plants that are widely grown in Italy (see Loro Piana visit here). But it has a big range of other finishes, involving pressing in no-longer-made paper, beating the wool up in boxes and putting it through particular washes. The old finishing machines are one of the finest things about the factory, and the Pitti stall proudly displayed pictures of them on the walls.

Begg’s first range under its own name has been designed by Angela Belle for womenswear and Michael Drake for men’s. As Begg has always traditionally focused on womenswear, Michael was important to the launch, although looking around the collection there are only little touches of the old Drake’s aesthetic. There is a blackwatch tartan, for instance, but no gingham checks or paisleys.

My favourite of the Begg scarves was a washed version you can see in cream at the top of this post. It gives the cashmere a spongy character and turns an otherwise fine, dressy cloth into something much more casual – better suited to the workwear side of the Pitti crowd.

Begg is also publicising its Nuance scarf, which fades very subtly from one colour to another. This is rather less to my taste, though it does demonstrate Begg’s technical ability, as other fades are normally done with dip-dying and are therefore nowhere near as subtle.

That Times article

Permanent Style picked by The Times

It seems to be raining recognition at the moment. Today The Times published a list of the top 15 men's style websites. Permanent Style was number one, with other recommendations including great sites such as Mr Porter, HypeBeast, StyleSalvage and Selectism.

Dylan Jones, who picked the five that included us, said "Simon Crompton is particularly strong on Savile Row, tailoring and the bespoke process".

Profile piece in How to Spend It, Spain

The Spanish version of How to Spend It, Fueria de Serie, interviewed me and did a photo shoot when I visited Jose Maria's Club Aristocrata last year. The piece came out today.

Unless your Spanish is a lot better than mine, you won't be able to read the interview. But the picture is nice.

Linen suit by Terry Haste; shirt by Turnbull & Asser; handkerchief by Rubinacci; shoes by Cleverley.   On the table my antique croc cigarette case, now used to carry my phone, and shagreen card case. Personalised Louis Vuitton Alzer on the ground.

My note board on Pinterest

There are many badly dressed people at Pitti. There are also people like Luca Rubinacci, Lino Ieluzzi, Ignatious Joseph and others - one-man brands - that benefitted hugely from being shot by Scott Schuman and need to be there to maintain that profile. 

But there is also no other place in the world where you get such a concentration of sartorially inspired clothing. There are only ever a handful of people whose looks I would adopt wholesale, but on the other hand almost everyone has some little thing I admire. I like the blue textures and how well they go with the mid-brown gloves in the picture above, for example.

I collect photos from Pitti, as well as from the Armoury and other blogs, on my Pinterest board. It is more for my own recollection that anything else - each has a little note on it to remind me of what I liked about the outfit. But readers might also find it interesting, so I mention it here. I only use one board, Permanent Style.

My headphones: Sennheiser Momentum

I do not drink cocktails. I have no interest in classic cars. I find bizarre the assumption that because I pursue refinement in clothing I will be interested in the best cigars, hotels or opera.

If I am to write a ‘lifestyle’ piece, therefore, this will be it. The beautifully made and beautifully sounding headphones I bought just before Christmas.   

I’ve had Sennheiser before. I listen to a lot of jazz and the range of sound necessitates a decent frequency response. In terms of quality, cheap headphones are a false economy.

But I’m not an electronics geek. I chose Sennheiser Momentum headphones because they use decent quality materials for the ear cups, the headband and so on – the non-technical stuff. Usually headphones that attempt to look more organic or old-fashioned make do with poor-quality materials.

The leather used for the Momentum headphones is vegetable-tanned, in Somerset. The stitching of it on the headband and ear cups is done by hand (ie sewing machine) rather than mass produced. The result is that the cups sit comfortably over the ears and derive their softness from the leather, rather than having a thin skin over a wad of foam. If you want an example of how it’s done badly, look at House of Marley.

The overall design is very classic, as is probably obvious from the picture. The brown leather, brushed steel and taupe-coloured exterior to the cup are a very subtle combination.

I’m not going to wear Beats headphones for the same reason I don’t wear an IWC Big Pilot’s Watch. Instead I choose these Momentums and my Portuguese. The aesthetic should be consistent; it just doesn't necessitate smoking or driving.

Hidetaka Fukaya, Il Micio

 

Hidetaka Fukaya, also known by his nickname Il Micio, is as much artist as artisan.

Shoemakers tend to divide into two groups: those that are primarily driven by the artistic side of their work and those that are motivated principally by the craft. Norman Vilata is an artist, as is Pierre Corthay; most English shoemakers fall into the second group, as does anyone who trained to bench-make shoes. Despite their slightly heavier construction than, say, Cleverley, Gaziano & Girling is the only English shoemaker I would put in the first category. Tony’s design aesthetic is truly original, even if the make owes much to Northampton.

Norman makes dirty shoes; Pierre makes shoes that melt; Hidetaka prefers wobbly or slanty shoes. The examples below are nothing more than art. Only someone driven by the artistic possibilities of his professions would create such expensive works of fantasy. Also in Hidetaka’s showroom, though not pictured, was a pair of shoes made in a leather that had been ‘marbled’ in the same way as traditional Florentine paper.

Tony has his own ideas for objets d’art. He also appreciates other arts in a similar way to Hidetaka.

But to give the basics. Hidetaka is Japanese but has lived in Florence for 15 years. He has a small showroom and an office on one side of Via dei Federighi and a workshop on the other. Three other Japanese work for him. His bespoke shoes start at €3000 and he makes around 50-60 pairs a year. He trained under Alessandro Stella in Sienna and the vast majority of his clients are from outside Italy.

“I came to Florence because it is the centre of bespoke shoemaking in Italy. It is also a centre for many other crafts, which is inspiring,” he says.

Strictly speaking, Il Micio is Hidetaka’s bespoke brand. He makes ready-to-wear shoes, to the same quality as bespoke, for Tomorrowland and Tie Your Tie in Japan under the brand Hidetaka Fukaya. He only travels to Japan for bespoke appointments, but is considering adding Singapore.

(RTW shoes from such Florentine craftsmen are worth keeping an eye out for, given their quality; Stefano Bemer is an example. Benchmade shoes are only cheaper to make if you already have the machinery.)

Hidetaka’s shoes are, as you might expect, slim, sharp and finely worked in the details. He likes monks, slip-ons and balmorals. On the wall of his workshop is a sheet of sketches for bespoke commissions. He also likes designing original leather goods. 

I am not yet an Il Micio client and therefore cannot speak to the fit of his shoes. But my good friend Wei Koh, founder of The Rake, extols their virtues. And he should know. 

As I leave, I ask about the two vintage bicycles leant against one wall of the workshop. It turns out Hidetaka is a keen cyclist and has ridden L’Eroica three times. Suddenly I begin to spot the references around the room, such as the three riders drafting each other across the top of the strip light. I knew we had something in common.  

Emanuele Maffeis shirts

 

This is the first in a series of posts about producers I met in Pitti and Florence more generally.

Maffeis is part of a family of companies around Bergamo, in northern Italy. Another is Bresciani socks, which of course I’ve visited and written about before. Both companies were founded after the war and are now run by the second generation – Massimiliano Bresciani, who was launching his new underwear at Pitti, and Paulo Maffeis. Both founders are still around and have a particular role in quality control at the factories.

Maffeis employs around 32 people, all making shirts to a range of qualities. Every shirt is hand cut, but the amount of hand stitching varies. That amount is largely chosen by the shop that chooses to stock the shirts – Maffeis is sold in many stores in Belgium, Holland, France and Italy under its own brand, and by several UK brands under their label.

Customers that opt for made to measure in these stores can also pick the amount of hand stitching they want. You can just have hand-sewn buttonholes, what I would call the functional hand stitching (collar, sleevehead) or everything. The price will range from about £200 to £300 with that choice of handwork.

The amount of detail offered to made-to-measure customers is huge. There is no strict bespoke service, with an individual pattern, but things like the collar stand are stated in centimetres and can be adjusted to any height. Like many Italian bespoke shirts, the collar stand is also set to be smaller at the back and larger at the front, to stop the front of the collar from collapsing.

Two little innovations caught my eye too. One was a small section of rougher cotton in the middle of the collar (above) which is intended to stop the tie from slipping and was invented by the founder, Emanuele. Another is the Maffeis boxer shorts (below), which incorporate a small cotton lining at the front to provide a little of the support you get with a brief. I don’t wear boxers, but this solves one of my problems with doing so.

Maffeis makes great shirts and some nice knitted products - it recently rescued a local knitting company from bankruptcy and now offers cashmere shirt-jackets. 

Wallets: reader question

 

 

Dear Mr Simon,

Let me first say that I always admire your passion and insight into gentlemen's garments. I am a fan of Permanent Style and I have been hooked on it for years.
 

I have one long-standing question: what kind of wallet should I carry with my suit? Which do you think is better - having a card case and bill case separately or a card-and-bill case combined? Of course, there are some alternatives like money clips. And then, which pocket to store it in?

I know that some tailors close suit pockets up for two reasons - to prevent wearers from putting items in and then to prevent the suit from being out of shape because of the first reason.

Because of that, one side of my brain is saying to me that I should buy a combined one to reduce my items to carry but the other side is saying that if I do so, it might be a lump and ruin my suit silhouette. I am sort of snookered. haha

These questions might sound rather trivial but I would be grateful if you could share your ideas about them with me.

I look forward to your reply.

Taku

-

Hi Taku,

The key to carrying any kind of wallet is to keep it as slim as possible, so be very restrictive with what you carry you with you – the minimum number of cards, only the most recent receipts etc.

I find the best style is then a long wallet, sometimes called a coat or jacket wallet. It minimises the amount of overlap of your cards, so the wallet is as thin as possible (see picture above). If you restrict yourself to four or five cards, you can even just use every other slot.

The other side of the wallet carries your bills and receipts. I know people have to carry far more notes in other countries than in the UK (we get stuck with coins), but they shouldn’t thicken that other side too much.

Ideally, your wallet should still not be in your jacket pocket. It should be in a briefcase or whatever bag you carry with you. Certainly that’s where chunkier items like your keys should go, and you should avoid it altogether with lightweight suits.

But if it does have to go in your jacket, put it in the in-breast pocket and balance the other side with something – I have an iPhone 5, and that’s light and thin enough to work. (It wasn’t really excuse enough to upgrade from the iPhone 4, but then I like gadgets.) Keep your jacket done up too – that helps a lot with supporting the jacket and its contents.

It is also helpful if your tailor cuts the in-breast pocket slightly higher than in a normal, off-the-peg suit. It means that the wallet will slightly fill out your chest, rather than your chest and waist. Of all the tailors I’ve tried, only Anderson & Sheppard and those that trained at A&S do this as standard. Perhaps it’s having that bit of drape to play with.

I hope that's helpful. The image at top is an Asprey coat wallet.

Simon

Stefano Bemer shoes back on track

 

As many of you will know, master shoemaker Stefano Bemer sadly passed away last year. Since then his Florence workshop has been in something of a mess, with bureaucracy and financial problems holding back the reorganisation of the company.

Fortunately, I can announce that new investment has been found and a transitional arrangement that had the company in Stefano’s wife’s name will end in February. The staff are being paid their back wages and everything is once more on track.

The investor is Scuola del Cuoio, a fellow Florentine craft company that makes leather bags and other products. The Stefano Bemer company will move into new premises in their church, with three floors accommodating the workshop, office and a new shoemaking school.

Masako, one of the three staff at Stefano Bemer (all Japanese) will be the key last maker and do fittings, as well as travel to Japan for trunk shows there - something she has already done in the past.

This is also the 30^th anniversary of Stefano founding the company, so expect some festivities later in the year.

It’s great to hear that such a wonderful outfit will continue, and that shoes such as the beautiful one at top will continue to be made.

One more

This one from High Snobiety, brother to Selectism. I find it interesting how much more casual a hat looks if the brim is just turned down at the back.

And another

One more photo from Pitti Uomo this week. Trying to use a shawl (Loro Piana) and hat (Lock) to keep off the rain. Above from Tommy Ton, below from JCR

Papped at Pitti

My question is, why do they credit Luca in these pictures but not me? Is he more famous or something?

Photo above by Tommy Ton at GQ, below by Nam from Grazia.

Cashmere/corduroy suit from Anderson & Sheppard, shirt from Satriano Cinque, cashmere tie from Drake's, handkerchief from Cravate Royale.

Outerwear at Pitti Uomo 2013

The greatest pleasure at Pitti, of course, is discovering new things. But there are fewer than you might think. The majority of what’s on show is ready-to-wear suits, shirts and jackets, and if you have those made bespoke then they are relegated to inspiration in cloth, or perhaps ensemble.

Instead, you find yourself concentrating on accessories, and outerwear. Schneiders, for example, is an Austrian outerwear company that sells largely in Austria, Germany and Italy. The cloak shown above was exquisite – made in a heavy flannel, with deer-antler buttons and beautifully cut slits for the hands, backed on the inside with almond-coloured suede.

Sealup was another strong outerwear brand, based in Italy and making a great range of coats from the fur-lined and luxurious to simple, laser-cut mackintoshes. Sealup have been around for a long time, but there are so few shops in London selling this kind of brand (other than Trunk), that we never see them. The UK may be great for tailoring and its own menswear traditions, but for foreign brands the citizens of Berlin or Vienna might actually be better off. 

And a final note on trousers. There is such a fantastic range here, from colours of flannel that you would never find in a tailoring bunch to chinos in washes that soften but don’t distort. All we see is Incotex, and great as they are, it would be good to have a little more choice.   

I can’t endorse the paisley above, but it is on a double-faced flannel, which in itself is impressive, and you get an idea of the range.

Huntsman sold to Roubi L'Roubi

Interesting news, that Huntsman has been sold to women's couturier Roubi L'Roubi (pictured above with Huntsman general manager Peter Smith and head cutter Pat Murphy, left and right).

Roubi will be the new creative director and has already said he wants to give Huntsman more of a leaning towards women's tailoring, and look to refocus the ready-to-wear and made-to-measure services as well. He bought the company from the previous shareholders with his business partner Pierre Lagrange, pictured below.

I've met Roubi before, at the Golden Shears 2011 competition. He was very nice and seemed to have a genuine passion for bespoke tailoring (which not all judges necessarily have). Let's hope it only means good things for Huntsman.

Pitti Uomo 2012

It's Pitti time again, and there's the usual mix of the well-dressed and the overdressed.

I'll leave it up to you to decide which camp I fall into.

One thing's for certain, there are more photographers than ever this year.

On me: double-breasted Lesser flannel suit, Anderson & Sheppard; boots, Edward Green Top Drawer; polo neck, Trunk; doctor's bag, Alfred Dunhill. 

The state of tailoring in India: Raghavendra Rathore

During my visit to India I met Raghavendra Rathore, a member of the Jodhpur royal family and a designer who worked with Donna Karen, Oscar de la Renta and Bill Blass in New York before returning to India to set up his own label. He presented two fashion shows during the celebrations, with the menswear show inspired by polo, as much of his clothing is. He is credited with reviving the popularity of jodhpurs and bandhgala (Nehru) jackets, both in India and abroad. He is also passionate about tailoring and reinvigorating traditional clothing crafts in India.

Tell me about your bespoke suits and the state of tailoring in India

Our suits are the most expensive bespoke in India, but they are still nowhere near the quality of Savile Row tailors. We have to cut many corners to get them down to a price people are willing to pay here. So there is fusing in the chest, for example.

Our four tailors in Jodhpur all know how to make suits by hand, but they have to work with these cheaper and quicker means to cater to demand. We make suits in around two weeks. We have fittings, but there isn't the understanding of bespoke yet to justify greater time and expense.

I saw Tom Ford opened a shop recently in Delhi. He must think there is some appetite for very expensive suiting?

Yes, that was an encouraging sign. The next stage is to communicate the craft involved in bespoke and get people to understand the value of hand work. At the moment, if people see hand stitching on the outside of a jacket they think it is a mistake, or evidence of an alteration.

How are you going to communicate that in a place as vast as India?

Communication is relatively easy, if you can access the mass media. My costume work with Bollywood star Amitabh Bachan, for example, made jodhpurs very fashionable. The plan at the moment is to make personalised clothing more popular by selling custom wallets, buttons and other things. The buttons on our bandhgala jackets, for example, are interchangeable [using the same method as on my travel blazer] and we can have gold or silver versions made with individuals' initials on them.

I am also working with the government to encourage local design and craft. We had a competition recently where we went through 15,000 submissions - and that had already been edited down - from people hoping to work in the industry. In one session a young man said he wanted to show us his work outside, in the sunlight. We all filed out and he had laid out his whole portfolio on the ground, drawn on leaves in the old way. The work was stunning. The challenge is to translate that raw talent into a commercial environment.

Are you optimistic about the future of tailoring here?

Absolutely. In the next two or three years I hope to switch all my production to fully bespoke, canvassed suits. The knowledge is still here, it's just a question of awakening it. We are at the dawn of custom tailoring in India.

Bandhgalas with baggy trousers

Those trousers again, but on the marching band

 

Jodhpur making

One thing it is easy to get in Jodhpur is jodhpurs. There is a service in the Umaid Bahwan Palace, where we stayed. The nature of jodhpurs - their skin-tight bottom half and interconnection of three panels around the knee - means they should be made bespoke. Readymade versions use a lot of lycra.

We visited the workshop where the Palace's orders are sent. It consists of a cutter, six men on sewing machines and five women on the floor, finishing embroidery and snipping off loose threads. Some jodhpurs are still made entirely by hand, but the cost and time means that most people go for machine stitching: that costs Rs3000 ($63) and takes two days; hand sewing costs Rs5000 ($104) and takes a week.

Indian designer Raghavendra Rathore has done a lot of research into how jodhpurs were originally made. His work led to the creation of a pattern that he distributes freely to makers and heritage centres around India. "It's important that the panel on the inside of the knee, which rubs against the horse, is cut on the bias," he told me. "It is supposed to shrink with the sweat of the rider, curving the leg of the jodhpur. If it's not cut on the bias, the shrinkage is in the wrong direction."

Jodhpur-making is a cottage industry. The workshop sends out its sewing work to 16,475 women in the surrounding villages (though most of those are doing embroidery). A bus goes out each Monday and visits a selection of them, dropping off and picking up work. Most are visited at least once a month.

Women's jodhpurs have buttons on the calves to fasten them

Jodhpur is proud of its polo and clothing tradition. The local government has helped support the cottage-industry system with tax breaks, and in an interview the Majarajah, Gaj Singh II, told me of the history of jodhpurs and the bandhgala jacket, which was originally designed for polo players to wear after matches. (His Highness has his clothes tailor made in Jodhpur and has only ever bought off-the-rack from Europe. "I'm not much of a shopper," he said.)

Jodhpurs were given their name by American pilots who were based at the local air force base. They wore the breeches for playing polo and for general wear - though, unlike the locals, usually with braces. When the pilots were stationed elsewhere they tried to have similar things made, referring to them as 'jodhpurs', but with little luck.

"I know they had some made in Japan, for example, but the Japanese versions used a heavy drill cotton or cord," said Rathore. "The jodhpurs used a lightweight cotton, which was necessary because of the heat but also washable, which was good because the pilots had no laundry service."

I didn't have any jodhpurs made. I don't think I would ever wear them, and that's a fate my plus-fours already suffer from.