Style Guide

A practical guide to the men's overshirt: what makes one, how to size it over a T-shirt or knit, brushed cotton or wool blend, and three ways to wear it this autumn.

Smart casual is the vaguest dress code there is. Here is a three part formula that works for men over 40, and the pieces that carry it.

Two ply cotton, pinpoint weave, collar construction and the difference between modern and body fit, explained through the Eterna and Olymp shirts we stock.

Rise, waist, leg and length explained without the jargon, plus how German brands like Bruhl and Meyer size differently from British high street trousers.

What Giordano shirts are like to wear: the cut, the linen and cotton mixes, the cutaway collar, and how to judge the fit before you buy.

A practical guide to buying suits in Bournemouth: where fit is won and lost, when a waistcoat earns its place, which cloth suits a British autumn, and how the fitting works in store.

What cotton velour is and why it beats fleece, how the Austrian sizing runs against UK chest sizes, and how to wash a robe without flattening the pile.

Bugatti nightwear at Baks: soft cotton that survives washing, a relaxed cut that does not twist in the night, and sizing that stays where you left it.

An independent menswear shop in Westbourne, Bournemouth: shirts, trousers, suiting, footwear and accessories, with fitting advice from the people who buy the stock.

Trunks, boxers or briefs, what cotton and elastane actually do, how continental sizing runs, and the honest answer on when a pair has had its day.

Which wools hold their shape, how a jumper should sit over a shirt, and the difference between a knit you keep for ten years and one that pills by February.

Which wool actually keeps you warm, how leather gloves should fit before they soften, and the one rule that stops winter accessories looking like a set.

The Bruhl range at Baks: stretch cotton chinos and denim cut on German sizing, so the number on the label is the number you get. Which fit suits which build.

Leather uppers, cushioned soles and styles that carry from a working week into the weekend. The Bugatti footwear we keep for autumn, and how the sizing runs.

How the DG's Drifter cut runs, which patterns hold up beyond one summer, and why these shirts leave the shop faster than anything else on the rail.