A man whose voice has risen above the general chatter of fashion blogs and influencers. Simon Crompton has become an oracle for those who seek information, detailed reviews and honest takes on the finest menswear in the world. Founding Permanent Style in 2007, he has grown his platform into one of the preeminent spaces for craft-based menswear companies to be seen and talked about.

We sat down for a socially distanced chat while restrictions were still in place here in London, about his decision to step out from his 9-5 on his own, to the state of menswear here in the UK and around the world. Covering topics from the rise of sustainability and green-washing to a shift of focusing on craft and how products are made rather than how they look. As someone who has been imbedded in this industry for years now, his insights offer an unfiltered view of an industry that is often covered in PR bluff and marketing hype.

Can you tell us a little bit about what got you started in menswear and this journey that led to you running a publication such as Permanent Style?

I worked as a financial journalist for quite a long time and then I started the blog at the time when they started to become fashionable or interesting. I got into menswear when a lot of people in my office would wear suits a lot of the time, as did I.

I started to get a bit of money for the first time and wanted to know what went into making a good suit, how I could get one that was good quality. I think I bought a suit from Zara or somewhere like that and I was very disappointed as it just didn’t look good and I didn’t know why, I couldn’t work it out. Maybe having quite an analytical frame of mind, and a journalistic one as well, I was quite keen to find out why that was. I started looking into it and writing down what I had discovered. It was really the encouragement from a friend of mine, a colleague at work who encouraged me to start a blog and I’m very glad that they did as that’s where it all started.