Even among classic shoes, some designs come and go, while others are a bit more enduring. In the world of slip-ons, few have been as iconic as Bass Weejuns, Gucci horsebits, and Alden’s tassel loafers. They were all firsts in their respective categories, spawning dozens of imitators until their styles were considered generic. 

Although not as well-known in Anglo countries, JM Weston’s 180 loafers are equally well-regarded in France and Japan. Theirs is a French take on an American classic. The “Weston” part of the company’s name is actually comes from a Boston suburb, near where the company’s founder originally studied shoemaking. Given that the French company has American roots, it’s no surprise that their flagship model should be inspired by American design. 

The 180 is instantly recognizable, with its split toes, high side walls, and curly-Q penny slots. The style was made famous in the 1960s, when post-Beatnik Parisian youths wore it to the Le Drugstore on Boulevard St. Germain, and later when French Presidents wore them on the weekends. Francois Mitterrand is said to own thirty pairs of identical Weston loafers in kidskin, while Jacques Chirac supposedly wears the same style in calf. And as fashion goes, with popularity comes imitation. A number of shoe companies – from Crockett & Jones to Bexley – have come up with similar high side-wall designs. 

I recently picked up a pair find they go excellently with jeans and thin leather jackets. The slightly chunkier silhouette has air of casualness to it, while remaining a bit more refined than many American models. They’re perfect for the kind of tailored-looking casualwear that many Italian labels specialize in. 

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When it comes to absurdly-priced clothing, few things beat $3,200 designer ponchos, $400 grey sweatshirts, and $75 cotton pocket squares. The third isn’t necessarily expensive, but the price feels high for what you’re getting: a 16″ by 16″ piece of cotton that will run you anywhere between $50 and $100. Even the best European mills will sell you half-a-meter of shirting for that kind of money.

Cotton squares are surprisingly useful though – especially in the warmer months. White linen will work with almost any kind of jacket, but it often demands a Presidential fold, which can look a bit formal. Silk can be worn in a more casual puff, but it’s often best with tweed and flannel, as the sheen of silk complements the matte-finish of wool. Wool squares, on the other hand, work well with silk neckties for the same reason, but they can feel a bit autumnal.

Cotton squares, then, are like the spring/ summer version of a wool hank. You can wear them with casual suits or sport coats, and pair them with silk rep ties. Few will noticed the difference between a cotton and wool pocket square once it’s in your pocket, but it’s nice to be able to wear something that feels a bit more seasonal.

Drake’s has cotton squares with big, bold patterns that are as handsome as they are versatile. You can find them these days at Mr. Porter, No Man Walks Alone, The Armoury, Exquisite Trimmings, and A Suitable Wardrobe. Put This On (the main site I write for) also has a pocket square shop. My college Jesse handpicks vintage fabrics from around the world, and then sends them a tailor in Los Angeles so they can be finished with hand-stitched edges (a rare thing, even among top-shelf labels). Vanda Fine Clothing is another great source, and they too finish their squares with hand-stitching.

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I love linen knitwear around this time of year. Linen wears cool when it’s warm and warm when it’s cool, which makes it perfect for those moderate temperatures in the early spring and late fall. It’s also great for layering when cashmere or wool might feel too stuffy. I’ve been wearing my linen knits on weekends with brown leather jackets, tan flannel trousers, and brown suede chukkas. So much of classic men’s style is bifurcated between formal city wear and casual country clothing. This feels like a nice in-between.

The problem with a lot of linen knits, however, is that they don’t hang very well. Since linen is derived from a plant fiber, rather than animal hair, it doesn’t have any crimp, so the yarns feel a bit lifeless. Inis Meain’s knits are the only exceptions I’ve seen. Their linen yarns have a nice, dry hand and a great spring-back quality, which gives their sweaters some body and ensures that the cuffs won’t easily stretch-out. These are essentially just like your best cold-weather knits, but made for the springtime.

Given the favorable exchange rate, you can find Inis Meain sweaters a bit cheaper abroad, although you also risk getting hit with customs and duties. Doherty Evans & Stott, Frans Boone, Private White VC, and Matches Fashion are good first-stops. In the US, you can find them at Ben Silver, Barney’s, East Dane, and A Suitable Wardrobe (which is where I bought my cream and steel blue crewnecks pictured below).

No Man Walks Alone also holds special made-to-order runs with Inis Meain every season. At the moment, they have four styles available in almost any color, and you can knock the prices down by 10% with the checkout code SF10. Additionally, they have a couple of ready-made models in-stock (which are also eligible for the 10% discount). I bought the navy crewneck last month because these are just too good. Wear them in place of cotton knits when you want to add a little more texture.

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Dress shoes are best when they’re old, but sneakers are often better when they’re new. Which works out well because, if it were the other way around, nobody could afford a good shoe wardrobe.

One of my favorite dress shoes is this pair of Edward Green Dovers, which I’ve worn regularly for about four years now. Although the leather has long been broken in, the patina is just starting to build. The toe caps have darkened and the quarters are lightly scuffed. Somehow, even in their beat-up and wrinkled state, they always look their best on their last wear. Such is the magic of good dress shoes – a truly good looking pair isn’t something money can buy. It has to be worn in.

Sneakers, on the other hand, often look best box-fresh. Picture above are Converse’s 1970s Chuck Taylor repros in their “branch” colorway, which I recently bought for summer. Like the mid-century originals, these are made with a thicker sole and heavier canvas than what’s used today (Chuck Taylors were originally a bit chunky, before slowly thinning out in order to save costs). I’ve been surprised by how much I like these. They go with my Stevenson flight jacket better than today’s thinned out design, as well as quirkier Japanese workwear labels, such as Visvim and Engineered Garments.

You can find the Converse’s 1970s Chuck Taylors line at Mr. Porter and End. Edward Green’s Dovers can be bought at Brooks Brothers (who carries the Dark Oak model I own) and Mr. Porter (who has more unique make-ups). Truthfully, however, with the exchange rate being what it is, you’re better off ordering Edward Greens through Skoaktiebolaget’s made-to-order program. The prices are simply better.

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It’s bittersweet to see my hometown Vancouver change so much over the years. When I was growing up, it was a quiet, sleepy city with cloudy weather and an easy-going attitude (something like a Canadian version of their neighbors in Seattle). Nowadays, the place feels a lot more hip and bustling. Their menswear scene, for example, rivals that of any North American city’s outside of New York. You have Roden Gray and Haven for high-end streetwear; Dutil and NiftyDo for denim and denim-related things; and a dozen or so shops for everyday labels such as APC and Gitman Vintage.

One of my favorites is Neighbour – a small, cozy boutique that’s tucked away inside one of Gastown’s hidden courtyards. Although the shop is Canadian, it has a Scandinavian sense of simplicity. Its interior relies a lot on glass, light-colored woods, and concrete, and instead overcrowding the small space with too many racks and shelves, everything feels spacious and manageable.

Some of what Neighbour carries is probably too designer-y for the average reader here, although I think it’s all great. 1205′s Paula Gerbase, for example, worked for a while on Savile Row before starting her very modern, austere-looking sportswear label (she’s also designing a footwear line for John Lobb). Additionally, Christophe Lemaire might be one of the most interesting menswear designers at the moment. He recently left Hermes, where he handled womenswear, and caused quite a stir with his FW15 show(I think it’s one of the best in recent memory).

The rest of the store has things that can be easily incorporated into any wardrobe. Saager Dilawri – the New York transplant who started Neighbour in 2011 – tells me he only carries things that resonate with him. He likes Stephan Schneider and Our Legacy because their designs are interesting, yet also feel approachable and unpretentious (I’m a big fan of Schneider’s knitwear and Our Legacy’s jeans). He also enjoys O’Ballou for their 1950s sense of casual Italian style and the Japanese label Niuhans for their botanically-dyed clothes (he describes them as having a sense of “air-like lightness” and “clean perfection”).

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What would be the ideal menswear store? The editors of Apparel Arts thought they knew. In 1936, they published “Permanent Modern,” a fourteen-page article introducing their vision of modern menswear retailing.

The article spares little in details. Included are elaborate floor plans and descriptions of the materials that should be used for the architecture, fixtures, and display cases. According to the editors, things should look modern, but not “voguish modern,” as you want to catch the customer’s eye, yet also make the place feel inviting. They even specified the lighting and air conditioning systems (two whole pages were dedicated to that). Should the reader want to implement their vision, they included a directory for the contractors, suppliers, and equipment manufacturers who could help with the store’s construction.

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Sport coats in the fall and winter are often alive with patterns. In tweeds alone, there are dozens of variations on barleycorns and Donegals, as well as a couple hundred district checks. Good patterns are a lot harder come by when the weather gets warm, however. Part of the problem is that cottons and linens generally look best in solid colors, while tropical wools – namely Minnis Fresco – are typically only offered in plain blues and grays.

Harrisons recently reintroduced their famously popular book for patterned summer jacketings, Carlo Barbera for H. Lesser. As the story goes, the collection was initially introduced in the 1970s, when Luciano Barbera approached the British label about including a line of Italian fabrics in their collection. It was a bit of a risk at the time for Lesser, since their other offerings were so quintessentially British, but the book did surprisingly well – which is why many were surprised when it was discontinued. 

The new reissue is slightly lighter in weight than those 1970s originals (at 8/9 oz, it’s closer to what Lesser offered in the 1990s), and the patterns have been tweaked to give them a more contemporary feel. Missing are the gun clubs that so many loved, but there are still a number of handsome options. Some are a bit wild, such as a couple of bright, blueberry windowpanes, while others are reasonably conservative. I’m personally drawn to the dark blue Shepherd’s check and tan glen plaid seen in the first two images below. 

Harrisons has some other reissues planned this year. In the fall, they’ll bring back some of the cloths in their Fine Classics book, and in the next couple of months, they’ll reissue some things from Smiths’s Botany and Gilt Edge, as well as W. Bill’s Shetland. Those interested in ordering can contact one of Harrisons’ distributors (which here in the US would be Isles Textile Group). The Carlo Barbera for H. Lesser book can also be seen in large format here. 

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Trousers are pretty straightforward, at least when compared to jackets. Except for what goes into the waistband, there’s no real internal construction to speak of – just pocket bags and lining, which are hidden underneath the garment’s shell. They’re also a lot easier to fit, which makes them nice for custom tailoring. Once your tailor has your pattern down – one for flat front pants, and another for pleats – you can order trousers straight-to-finish. 

I recently received my first order from Salvatore Ambrosi, the famous (and at times infamous) tailor from the Spanish Quarters of Naples. Salvatore, for those unfamiliar, had a meteoric rise eight years ago when he was first introduced to the online community of bespoke tailoring enthusiasts. People were crazy for his stuff, but after a few good years, Salvatore couldn’t keep up with the increasing number of orders. Deliveries were delayed and emails went unanswered. As far as I know, everyone eventually got their trousers or money back, but people are still rightly sour about the experience. The last time I wrote about Salvatore, a well-respected menswear writer emailed me to say I was breaking iGent omertà. He was probably half joking, but also … probably half not. 

Since that debacle five years ago, Salvatore has slowly rebuilt his business. He’s developed a healthy customer base in East Asia, partnered with boutiques to handle the logistics of his orders, and expanded his workshop. Instead of just the small workroom that he and his father used to occupy – and Michael Alden once filmed – his family’s operation now takes up two floors in the same building. 

Things seem to be flowing pretty smoothly nowadays. I received my pants just a short month after my fitting, and I’m happy to say: they live up to their hype. As simple as trousers can be, Salvatore’s are exceptionally good. The pants fit perfectly clean through the legs and seat, and perhaps most importantly, they’re styled quite well. Unlike my English or other Neapolitan trousers, these are slimmer through the thighs, which allows the legs to be nicely pegged without making the hips look too wide. The rise comes to about my naval, but the pants don’t look frumpy because of the slim leg line and pleats. The pleats are subtle, but they help break up the swath of fabric that would otherwise stretch across the lap. 

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Phillip Carr, the director of Saint Crispin’s, is holding trunk shows at The Wingtip in San Francisco this week. I have a pair of chukkas already on order with him, but have been dreaming about my next commission. So far, the plan is to get a pair of Norwegian split toes (model 633) made from the some of the company’s famous crust calf.

Many shoe companies would have you believe that their shoes are handmade, but Saint Crispin’s are the real deal. Their uppers are hand lasted, bottoms hand beveled, and soles hand attached. Instead of using Goodyear welting or Blake stitching (which are machine-executed operations), Saint Crispin’s are hand welted with a pegged waist. By eliminating the stitching, they can get much more shaping into their waists and arches.

It’s that shaping that accounts for so much of Saint Crispin’s appeal. Check out these studded Dainite soles below, for example. Instead of the chunky versions you’ve seen from almost every other maker, Saint Crispin’s carefully bevels theirs to match the narrow waist of their shoes. This is done by first shaping the sole with a chisel, and then fine-tuning it with a rasp. 

As it goes with most things, these are best seen in person. You can check out Saint Crispin’s schedule of trunk shows on their website. They’re at The Wingtip in San Francisco until the end of Wednesday, March 18th, after which they’ll be leaving for East Asia. In North America, you can also find them at Leffot, The Armoury, LeatherSoul, and LeatherFoot. 

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Have you read “The Secret Vice?” It’s a wonderful article by the journalist dandy Tom Wolfe. Published in 1966 in the New York Herald Tribune, it’s about how men in the United States are hooked on the allure on custom tailoring.

“Practically all the most powerful men in New York,” Wolfe wrote, “especially on Wall Street, the people in investment houses, banks and law firms, the politicians, [and] especially Brooklyn Democrats, for some reason […] are fanatical about the marginal differences that go into custom tailoring. They are almost like a secret club insignia for them. And yet it is a taboo subject. […] At Yale and Harvard, boys think nothing of going over and picking up a copy of Leer, Poke, Feel, Prod, Tickle, Hot Whips, Modern Mammaries, and other such magazines, and reading them right out in the open. Sex is not taboo. But when the catalogue comes from Brooks Brothers or J. Press, that’s something they whip out only in private.”

Today, men with The Secret Vice find community online – where they can talk about tailors and clothes without shame. When possible, however, the world of bespoke tailoring is best explored through more traditional social networks. It’s always better to meet with another tailoring enthusiast in person, not only to see what his suits look like in real life, but also to get his thoughts. For a variety of reasons, clients are often eager to give praise, but reluctant to share criticism. To know how someone really feels about their tailor, you have to talk with him behind closed doors.

When I met with George from BRIO last week, he was wearing a blue sport coat and grey overcoat from Sartoria Corcos, a bespoke tailoring shop based in Florence, Italy. George has been a client of many tailors over the years (he introduced many enthusiasts, including me, to Liverano, for example), but tells me that Sartoria Corcos is probably the one he’ll stick with for life.

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