Interview with Simon Crompton - the lantern of menswear

With his website Permanent Style, the Brit Simon Crompton has become an advisor and inspiration for people around the world who are interested in classic menswear. With a base in the British and tailored, though with more casual inputs in recent years, he guides his readers through the style jungle. Read about his view on where the menswear scene is heading.

We meet Simon Crompton in the press office at Pitti Uomo in Florence, where the air conditioning makes things more comfortable than in the burning heat outside. He is an educated journalist, and with a big interest in style, he started the blog Permanent Style in 2007. The site grew and grew, Simon's reputation in the style world grew, and over the years he has published several books on men's style, and is a regular contributor to the Financial Times How to Spend it, among other publications. The focus is on going deep and taking style seriously, to the right degree.

"The world leader on bespoke, craft and luxury", as is declared about Permanent Style on the site. And there used to be a relatively large focus on tailoring and bespoke too, but more recently the site has become wider.
- I would say it has expanded to more casual stuff. I mean, I wore that before as well, but didn't write as much about it. This I do today. And I've always wanted tailoring to feel relevant, quite contemporary, not too much hooked on old strict rules and such.



"How would you describe the way you dress?"
- I would still call it classic menswear, with an idea of elegance behind it all. But then crossing over to more casual wear.

"Would you say it's easier for you to write about classic tailoring than the more casual stuff, to explain to the readers various things, and so on?
- Sure, in a way elegance in tailoring is more easy to understand. Also in casual wear, like Ivy style, if you look at the old folks like Kennedy or Paul Newman and those guys, there's some real elegance there though. But one can't explain for example fit in the same distinct way for casual clothing, as one can on tailoring, and casualwear is much more diverse and changes more rapidly.

How has your readers reacted to the fact that you now write about a wider type of clothing than before?
- I think it has came down well in general, and of course this is a topic that has been boosted for everyone with Covid. But traffic keeps growing, not sure if it's due to me writing more about casual stuff, but at least it doesn't seem like it's scaring people away.

What type of shoes do you wear the most?
- Like 60% of what I have on my feet are brown suede loafers or boots. Then also quite a bit of black, and some colour 8 cordovan.



What do you choose first, clothes or shoes?
- I choose clothes first, almost always. Shoes are the last thing I pick.

Of those who are interested in menswear, shoe interest is often high, why do you think that is?
- It sure is true. Maybe since it's more of an object than much else in your clothing, you can pick it up, handle it, you can see the design also when it's just standing there. Guys get excited by either suits or shoes, the most prominent things, they are less likely to get interested in shirts, for example.

How would you say the development of the shoe side of "menswear" has been in the last decade?
- Things are trending away from pointier, double monk things and all obsession with patinas. When things get more casual, you have boots, loafers, overall rounder chunkier shoes. Oh and then there's that thing called sneakers... 

And how do you think it will develop in the next ten years?
- Smart shoes aren't going anywhere, maybe shrink but people will always need it. It's like when people thought e-books would mean the end for the physical paper books, but they are still around, cause books are still great objects. That's the same with dress shoes. I feel more worried for the tie, it's too much of an obvious statement to wear in many cases, and here the working practices have already sort of discarded it.



Quick facts about Simon Crompton:
Age?
- 41.
Where do you live?
- In London.
Family? 
- Three daughters.
Could you tell us something special about yourself that few know about?
- I'm a big fan of cricket. My happy place would be sit in the garden, have something good to drink, and listen to BBC's Test Match Special.