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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This is the face I imagine Franco Sozzi makes when he hears you only wear crunchy silk knit ties. He’s the president of Sozzi Calze – a century-old Italian manufacturer of high-end dress socks and knitted neckwear. Crunchy silk knits, such as those from Drake’s, are often favored by men’s style enthusiasts for their unique texture and weave. As Franco shows, however, other things can look good as well. 

Silk is nice for knit ties because it’s versatile. Particularly in a color such as black, you can wear one year-round with almost anything – brown tweeds, cotton sport coats, grey wool suits, etc. It’s the one tie you can rely on when you don’t want to put too much thought into your clothes, but also need something to dress down a tailored jacket. The style has been made famous by everyone from mid-century jazz musicians to the literary version of James Bond (who Ian Fleming often described as wearing a dark suit, clean white shirt, and “thin, black silk knitted tie.”)

In the last year or so, however, I’ve started to appreciate more seasonal knits. Ones made from wool or cashmere have fuzzier textures, which makes them pair well with tweeds and flannels during the winter months. I also recently picked up a cotton knit tie to go with a linen suit. Cotton tends to produce a flatter weave than silk, but sometimes you want that bit of understatement. See above, for example, where Franco is pictured wearing a patch pocketed, tan suit with a fancy shirting (monogrammed, no less) and soft, beige cotton knit. The whole ensemble just has a nice spring/ summer feel to it – more so, I think than, if he went with a crunchier silk. 

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It’s ironic that shoemaking is sometimes referred to as “the gentle craft” since, of all the bespoke trades, it’s seems like the least gentle of them all. The lasts are carved from large blocks of wood using a hinged blade; the stiff leathers are pulled over their wooden forms using pinchers; and heels are attached by nailing them down with hammers. The whole process sounds very noisy. 

Out of that process, however, can come such beautiful and elegant things. Nicholas Templeman recently sent me the photo above of my country grain Norwegians, which are currently in their in-welt fitting stage. Sleeker than Edward Green’s Dover, but more conservative than Saint Crispin’s 633 split-toes, they look like the perfect blend of town and country – something to wear with tweeds in the city. 

To get to this stage, a lot had to be done since Nicholas made my lasts a couple of months ago. The first step was to draft the pattern – much like a tailor would for a suit – and then lay the pieces on a leather hide. Only, in this case, the cutter has to be careful with where he or she puts the pieces. “The vamp needs to be cut from the hind quarters of the animal, since that’s where the grain is tightest,” Nicholas explains. “As you move up towards the neck, the leather get increasingly softer, so it doesn’t work as well for areas that bend a lot.” That sort of careful cutting is what prevents loose grain wrinkling, which you sometimes see on more casual shoes (or just cheaply made ones). 

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One of my favorite things about Drake’s is their ability to design things that feel contemporary on the one hand, but also classic on the other. It’s easy, after all, to produce ties that are classic and boring. Also easy to make ones that are trendy and awful. Steering a line between those two worlds, however, that takes skill, which is why Drake’s is so impressive. For a company that ventures beyond your typical Macclesfield silk prints and basic rep stripes, their batting average is very high. 

Some of that is due to how closely Michael Hill and his team work with mills. “I’m hesitant to take all the credit,” he tells me. “We’ve been working with the same mills since the 1970s, which means every collection is a collaboration. I often sit down with them and pour over their archives to figure out what to design today.” Those new designs will draw from a color here, maybe a weave there, but then be updated in ways to make them feel current. “There are few better ways to design than by looking at what’s been successful for us and the mill in the past,” Michael says. 

That’s important for men who like to wear more casual suits or sport coats. A conservative striped tie will go with anything, but if you’re looking for something more interesting to go with a tailored jacket, Drake’s always has plenty of tasteful options. Some of my favorites from this season:

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