Like it or not, he will always make a living as a writer on clothes. I cannot see what all the fuss is regarding his perks of the job. Travel writers get expenses paid holidays. Wine writers get favours. Such is life.

''For the first time last month, the numbers of visits to Permanent Style topped 250,000. (That's visits, not visitors - which is less - or impressions - which is more.)

In the past six months our traffic has grown by almost 10%. Thank you all very much for your support, for spreading the word, and for the kind messages about how valuable a resource the site has become.''

But aren't there substantial differences between ciritcising a cruise and a tailor? You can't judge a cruise based on pictures but you can do this with a suit. Even if the service of a tailor is, as a consequence of bribing, deemed excellent, an ill fitting suit will speak for itself. If it doesn't look good, words will not make much of a difference or a least I hope so. Manton's AS experience springs to mind, though I would like to know about the amount of lurkers who choose artisans beacause of their reputation on the forums.

I never understood why people are willing to take advice from members on clothing forums oder "style writers". Most of these people have no knowldge about the acutal work that goes into a product. In the end there is not much left for them to criticise apart from service and the end product, where some are still delusuional enough to describe it as positive though everyone can see the difference. Crompton had a suit made for him by one of the greats of Savile Row and in the ongoing process his posts, at least in my opinion, became shorter and less anthusiastic by the week. I guess they told him to get over with it and sod off, at least he hasn't mentioned them ever since.

the really interesting thing is how the blog has evolved since its conception .. it started off with a clear focus on bespoke tailoring, comps said he has previously bought RL and Etro RTW for tailored clothes but wanted to explore bespoke tailors and all the wonders they could offer and build up a wardrobe .. since then he has visited 11 different tailors (counted off his 'tailors i have known' post) and had all sorts of things made from a convertible blazer at Gieves, a shooting tweed suit at huntsman, Double Breasted Suits at Poole & A&S.

For many months now Comps hasnt actually done any real posts about his own commissions at any tailors but rather focused on casual wear, he has several times said that on weekends and such he wears polo shirts and jeans so i suspect that is his natural sense of dress .. i also have a sneaking suspicion that after actually having bespoke clothing made the novelty has worn off and he has realised that he was already wearing clothes that were comfortable & suited his lifestyle best .. in a way his blog has followed the journey of menswear over the past several decades as men shed tailored clothing for casual wear such as jeans, loafers, t shirts, casual jackets etc ..

if this is the case i dont blame him .. bespoke tailored clothes i think work for only a small minority of people:

1) old money who like to visit a tailor as their father did so pre 1970s and its now a habit ..

2) new money ala footballers, pop stars, bankers, tax dodging businessmen who have too much cash lying around to know what to do with it ..

3) men whose body shape lies way out of the norm .. the v fat, the v short, the v tall ..

4) the clothes horse/hobbist .. whether we care to admit it or not most of us probably lie in this camp ..

the sheer exponential rise in cost of tailored clothing combined with the fact that most of modern society doesnt give a shit about formal rules of dressing mean dressing well using a bespoke tailor is disproportionately expensive and most of the time totally unappreciated .. 

fruity

Last edited by Oldfruit1 (2013-01-02 17:04:18)

he cant afford to pay full retail formby .. he is a journalist .. i respect journalists despite recent scandals in the uk but the profession has to be one of the worst paid occupations for a educated person to get into in the UK (unless you are the mayor of london who gets £400k for writing for the evening standard .. from crooked russian owner .. sure something dogy going on there but ill save that rant for another day) ..

however .. his blog gets a hell of a lot of hits .. he has a niche for men looking to learn how to dress properly (this fad may last 6 months but in this time they could have commissioned some items). i reckon with the popularity of his blog he could get any tailor in this economic climate to make him up clothes for free .. infact i would go as far as to say they would be totally stupid to refuse (although saying this our UK tailors esp saville row are probably some of the most stupid businessmen to have ever lived .. they invented modern tailored dress and still managed to almost destroy the industy and hand it over to the italians who are some of the most lazy inept people ever).

ok so after that rant going to tick off objectives ;

offend comps: check
offend english: check
offend italian: check
offend men who wear bespoke clothes: check

Last edited by Oldfruit1 (2013-01-02 17:16:11)

@fruity

It was Gieves & Hawkes and and made by the lady who later left them, though it's too much interpratation on my side.

I don't think the companies waste too much money on him. What are the costst for AS to make him a suit? The cloth and the time to make it, so probably around 600 pounds on their side, that's not too bad. The costs for placing an advert in a magazine or newspaper certainly exceed this by a fair amount. He writes for the magazines that cater for the iGents so they will most likeley consider it a good deal.  And there is one thing you can be sure about, he isn't the only one to do this. There a a few people, especially on the forums, who know how the wind blows.

Don't AS also have James Sherwood on their payproll? He featured quite prominently for them in the past but seems to keep a far lower profile than Crompton.

its actually a miracle that there is british bespoke tailoring left .. partly survived due to the mystique of lords & dukes having clothes made for them i would imagine ..

fruity