Nothing softens the look of a leather jacket like suede. A plush, napped leather can be a good way to tone down the utilitarian origins of a bomber jacket or cafe racer – making them friendlier versions of their rugged counterparts. Want to wear a leather A-2 without looking like you’ve just stepped off the set of Top Gun? Or a double rider without people mistaking you for a Hells Angel? Get them in suede. 

The material can be particularly nice in the warmer months since it absorbs light. That gives the jacket a softer, more sophisticated appearance on a bright day than some of your smoother, shinier leathers. Plus, much like suede shoes, you can use them to add texture. A suede jacket lends visual interest to a plainer t-shirt or henley, but it also won’t clash with a patterned shirt. In the colder seasons, you can team one with a speckled Donegal sweater or cabled Aran for a texture-on-texture look. 

I recently picked up this suede five-zip from Maison Margiela (on sale at the moment at SSENSE). The design has been with the company for over ten years now, making it one of the more enduring non-traditional styles. It has long, diagonal zips across the chest – giving it an edge – although it’s still easy enough to wear with slim jeans or wool trousers. Pictured above: my Margiela jacket with a Barena henley, pair of 3sixteen jeans, and some Saint Laurent sneakers (the quality of the sneakers is admittedly terrible, especially for the price. Readers would be better off with Common Projects Achilles mid-tops in white). 

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One of the nice things about working with Steed is that they’re able to produce a single-piece back. Traditional patternmaking dictates that a center seam has to be put into the back of suit jackets and sport coats (if you pick one up, I’m sure you’ll see it). Much like darts, that seam is used to add shape – which is important since your spine naturally curves from the nape of your neck down to the small of your back, and then out again towards your seat. 

The problem is that the seam disrupts patterns. It’s unavoidable, really. If you think of how a pattern runs on a fabric (usually like a straight grid), it will naturally look off once it curves at certain parts. You’ll notice this most easily on pinstripes, where the spacing between the stripes is widest at the shoulder blades, before they curve in and touch at your waist. 

Steed solves this by getting all the shaping out of the side seams. So, without that center seam, your back has a smooth, uninterrupted pattern. 

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Summer calls for a different kind of necktie – one that’s brighter in color and lighter in weight than its cold weather relations. Mogadors, linens, and slubby silks are often the choices this time of year. Mogadors are favored for their vibrant colors, whereas linen, tussah, and shantung are used for their texture (see Mark Cho for inspiration). 

There are also Panama silks, which are woven in a way that’s similar to Panama hats (two wefts up, two down). Unfortunately, much like ancient madder silks, the texture here is hard to appreciate in photos. You really have to handle them in person to get the appeal, but so goes the travails of shopping online. 

When you do get a chance to feel them, however, you instantly understand why they pair so well with cotton and linen jackets. “It’s the dry hand and matte finishing,” says Drake’s Creative Director, Michael Hill. “Especially in dustier colors, such as this series we recently made, they just complement casual forms of tailoring.” 

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The term bespoke has a lot of marketing cachet nowadays. It’s used to describe anything and everything. There are bespoke salads, crackers, bacon, bicycles, cardboard boxes, and financial services. There’s even a ready-to-wear clothing line called Bespoken. 

Most of this is just harmless marketing hype – a way for brands to defend themselves against commodification – but some of it is disconcerting if you care about actual bespoke tailoring. Lots of made-to-measure and made-to-order services these days describe themselves as bespoke, even when they’re not, which makes it difficult for the casual consumer to know exactly what he’s getting. 

A couple of weeks ago, Simon Crompton wrote a basic primer on the differences between ready-to-wear, made-to-measure, and bespoke (it’s the start of a longer guide on how to buy tailored clothing). The info here will be nothing new for anyone who’s been interested in custom clothes for a while, but it’s the kind of thing that helps sets parameters for those just getting acquainted.  

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Saint Crispin’s might be the closest thing to bespoke shoes without actually being bespoke. It’s not just about their construction – Vass, Enzo Bonafé, and Meermin’s Linea Maestro line offer handwelted shoes at lower price points anyway – but rather the shaping. Saint Crispin’s puts a lot of shape into their shoes. Whereas other companies just sharpen the angles on their toe boxes, Saint Crispin’s cuts a tighter waist, higher arch, lower vamp, and curvier heel. As a result, their shoes look a lot more refined – which is why they go so well with tailored clothing. 

On the downside, there’s also much less room for error. Most ready-to-wear brands build a little more room into their shoes, which allows them to comfortably fit a wider range of customers. With Saint Crispin’s, however, you’re painfully made aware of every bump and misaligned angle if your shoes don’t fit perfectly. 

This problem must have been obvious early on because the company has an ingenious made-to-order program. Along with being able to change the leather and any design details, they can also customize their lasts. That means rasping off parts for a closer fit, or building up places that need more room. You can see one of Saint Crispin’s workers modifying a last in the video at the end of this post. 

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I’m fairly straightforward when it comes to tailored clothing. For shirts, I mostly wear light blues in stripes and solids – the latter in slightly more textured weaves than poplin (which I find too boring). End-on-end, oxford, and a heavier twill works well. A bold butcher stripe is a nice way to add visual interest to a tie-less, sport coat ensemble, while a solid blue shirt will serve as a nice background for any tie and jacket combination. As usual, I find if you limit the number of patterns you wear to two, you don’t have to think as much about pattern coordination. 

In contrast, my casualwear is all over the place, but lately I’ve been wearing shirts that are slightly more off-beat than your standard button-ups (or even the ever-reliable white tee). Outerwear tends to be simpler this time of year – assuming you can wear a jacket at all – so sometimes wearing an interesting shirt is about as much as you can do on a warm day. Four options I’ve been relying on: 

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With all the interest in heritage brands and sneakers these days, I’m surprised there aren’t more articles about Norman Walsh. They’re the last British-owned sneaker company still producing in the UK. I recently picked up a pair of their blue and white Ensign running shoes. Originally designed for the Bolton Harriers to compete in the 1981 New York Marathon, they have that retro runner feel I’ve been enjoying so much (aka NarcDad shoes, for those who remember). 

Like the Harrier club, Norman Walsh is located in Bolton, which used to be a large textile production center before Britain lost most of its cotton industry. It’s also the birthplace of running shoes. Back in the 1890s, the town’s J.W. Foster & Sons (which would later become Reebok) developed the style by stripping away cricket shoes to make them more agile, and then adding spikes for traction. Norman Walsh himself served as an apprentice here before starting his own label in 1961. 

Fifty-five years later, his company remains. Their shoes are much beloved by British trail and fell runners – the latter being a term for people who race up hills (which, to be honest, sounds like a sport invented by a couple of fun-loving, drunk Brits). Along with athletic shoes, they also have a range of casual styles for people who like to wear their runners off the trails. 

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For a guy who has never explored anything but his fridge, I have a strange fascination with British adventure wear. You know the stuff – waxed hunting coats, mountaineering anoraks, belted storm parkas. They’re the kind of things that inspire designers such as Nigel Cabourn and Daiki Suzuki, and form the bedrock on which a lot of traditional outerwear is built. 

One of the greatest names in this field is Grenfell, a label given to a specific kind of tightly woven, cotton gabardine. It actually started as a bespoke fabric for Sir Wilfred Grenfell, a medical missionary who famously worked in some of the bleakest and most inhospitable parts of Canada’s Newfoundland and Labrador coast. Walter Haythornthwaite, who ran the mill T. Haythornthwaite & Sons, developed it after attending one of Sir Grenfell’s lectures. Lightweight and water resistant, it was originally designed to protect Sir Grenfell from the harsh Newfoundland environment, but was later marketed to the general public under the Grenfell name (with his permission, of course). 

Throughout the 20th century, Grenfell cloth has been worn by sportsmen, adventurers, and pioneers. Malcolm Campbell used it for a racing suit when he broke records at Daytona Beach and Bonneville; Wilfred Grenfell used it for a cagoule when he pulled sleds to see patients; and David Attenborough used it for a walker jacket when he studied Rwandan gorillas. The cloth has even been used to keep mountaineers warm. F.S. Smythe slept in a Grenfell tent in 1933 when a snow blizzard drew him to his knees on Mount Everest. Pitched at 27,000 feet, the tent set a record at the time for being the highest point of man-made habitation. 

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One of the nice things about having a bespoke shirtmaker is that you can generally get whatever you want, whenever you want. No more relying on designers each season, hoping they’ll have exactly what you need. Once a shirtmaker has your pattern down, you can just request swatches, choose your details, and then order remotely. I get all my dress shirts made through Ascot Chang, a custom tailoring business out of Hong Kong that offers better prices than most tailors in their league. 

The only problem is that bespoke tailors don’t offer many casual shirtings. So while they’re great for the kind of traditional office shirts you might wear with tailored clothing, they can leave you wanting on weekends. Granted, most will have a decent selection of basic linens, wool-cotton blends, and casual plaids, but those feel more like the kind of shirts you’d find at Brooks Brothers than Barney’s. 

I’ve been trying to find a solution for a while – a place that will offer me a custom fit, but also a more casual style. I think I’ve found it last year through Proper Cloth, an online made-to-measure shirt company run by a few young guys out of NYC. Full disclosure: they’re an advertiser at Put This On (the main site I write for), but this isn’t a paid post and I don’t get any discount on my orders. I’m just impressed with their work. 

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Brooks Brothers is having one of their better sales I’ve seen in a while. At the moment, you can take $200 off any order over $500 (or $100 off any order over $300) with the checkout code BCSP15. 

The sale is notable for a few reasons. First, it applies to everything – including items that are normally excluded from promotions, such as shell cordovan and Edward Green shoes. Second, unless you’re purchasing a suit, you can count on a bigger discount than you’d otherwise get through their 25% off Friends and Family sale. Add to that free shipping and things get pretty nice. 

This would be a good time to pick up a pair of their higher-end shoes, which are typically made by either Crockett & Jones or Alden. I particularly like these unlined chukkas, suede cap-toe boots, and lightweight tie loafers. I also use these shell cordovan boots all the time during the fall and winter months, as they go well with just about anything. 

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