You want to look a bit different in your workaday kit? Nothing flashy, you just want to stand apart from the crowd. Get respect from both the lads at the office and adoring looks from the girls after hours? You also want a bit more of a custom look, and you want it to follow tradition but with a twist.

Some men want to look daring, most of them want to look different and all should want to be taken for quality. There is a question to be answered here. How does someone look different and still gain acceptance as both a serious and traditional person? One wants to look the individual but still maintain ties to the straight and narrow.

Generally, the custom made route is the road most taken here. It has been suggested before but Savile Row detailing often sets a man apart from the herd. Small differences in the cut of someone’s jacket lapel or the shape of a shoulder can arouse the sort of subliminal admiration which can elevate one’s personal status.

And then there is the care which proper selection of the cloth itself demands. Although apparel oft proclaims the man it is more often the quality of the cloth which proclaims the apparel. Beautiful woolen suit fabrics in standard navies and charcoals proclaim that you are a seriously minded person with a flair for the excellent. Additionally, bear in mind that quality should be evenly distributed throughout one’s wardrobe. It is no use having a beautiful new suit of clothes if you are going to wear it with an ordinary quality shirt or that unfortunately washable necktie. Therefore, all items should be of a similar grade including suit, shirt, necktie and socks.

What follows is a small selection of elite items with which a man can elegantly adorn himself, declare a certain admirable individuality and yet still stay far away from the label of metro-sexuality. Not, that there is anything wrong with that…


When having a suit made up for you, consider some of these cloths from some of England’s top woolen merchants:


Cloth merchant Dormeuil has recently released a cashmere flannel range of fabrics which is luxury personified. Think of it as an updated version of the West End Club-Land look. It is available in the standard solids and chalk stripes. Whilst draped in a suit from this cloth, passersby and those you interact with will undoubtedly assume you are lord so-and-so but hopefully you’ll have paid your tailors for it.

Another cloth merchant, Harrisons of Edinburgh carries a 99% cashmere and 1% vicuña worsted cloth which tailor’s brilliantly and comes in appropriate city colors and stripes. New looming and weaving techniques make the more than once a week use of cashmere for suits a reasonable possibility. Although it will not wear like iron, it will, with a little care, serve you well and last a good while. The navy with pink chalk stripe and navy with purple beaded pin stripes are especially shocking… in the nattiest possible manner, of course.

What’s useful about a cashmere suit? Nothing. However, it will look richer, feel better and frankly when someone you fancy slips their arm around you, not only will they not want to remove it but they will doubtless expand the petting range. Nothing quite like getting one’s money’s worth.

Scabal Makes a Lapis Lazuli suit fabric which is a super 150s cloth inlaid with microscopic but not pulverized particles of Lapis. There are various gimmick cloths on the market which claim to be 150s and fall short on the quality scale. Scabal does not cut corners and as a result the Lapis cloth is a mid weight worsted in a strong, true 150s weave and thus neither sagging nor premature wear need be worried about. The Lapis inlay produces your standard ultramarine pin or chalk stripe with an added zing. The resulting cloth and suit are subtle, but also smart. One wants to be different but not to go too far, and this cloth allows a man to branch out but not be looked down upon.

H. Lesser and Sons, the venerable cloth merchant who have draped much of the corporate elite and the mandarins of the civil service have recently launched a new cloth which will convey that old world power image in a younger, fresher manner. Their 120s and cashmere range is quite a departure for this firm which is firmly lodged in an oaken roomed tradition. The new cloth’s finish combines the best silky smoothness of the modern look with the depth, dryness and quality a mature Savile Row client would still find proper. Therefore, if you have achieved success before an appropriate age or just want to look like you have, this is the cloth for you.

And after getting a new suit or two make sure that you buy yourself some shirts worthy of your new togs. An excellent starting point would be Acorn fabric’s Grassmere range in a 160s 2x2 and made up by your favorite shirt makers. Both Harvie and Hudson and Dege and Skinner will oblige with either made to measure or custom shirt programs. The Grassmere range is available in solids, mini Bengal stripes and checks as well as a small selection of city patterns and color combinations. Acorn creates a true two fold 160s count cloth which is often superior to supposedly finer fibers marketed by other cotton mills and merchants. The cotton feels like silk against the body but lasts longer with less upkeep and of course always looks appropriate.


And what, you might ask, to place atop these elegant new shirts? Why, 350 thread count ties, ironically though not surprisingly also available at both Harvie and Hudson (www.harvieandhudson.com) and Dege and Skinner (http://www.dege-skinner.co.uk). They are available in standard, though far from dull, geometric patterns to go with quintessentially City shirts. These ties which boast 350 silken threads per square inch yield a tactile impression to the observer’s eye which will earn you points in the taste department. Made up by hand they produce a brilliant and pleasing knot. And they are all made domestically in the UK, thus personal best and patriotism happily coincide, for some.



Finally, when I think of men going about the city with thin, sagging socks down their ankles, almost as if their hose had contracted a sleeping sickness, I cringe. Fortunately, Pantherella socks provide the remedy. Though not sexy, they are extremely well made and if cared for properly (gentle setting, cold water, then hung up to dry), last a very long time. On second thought, you’ll feel sexier when you can stop the need to pull your socks back up your leg and concentrate on what she’s saying. Their cashmere socks are indeed an indulgence but they are also quite fairly priced for the value they offer. They are all hand finished which guarantees a comfortable, clean fit along the toe edge and heel.


These then are items which present a masculine but stunning opportunity to enhance your sense of presence and quality.