West End Street Style, Part Two: What Five More Well-Dressed Men Taught Us
Savile Row was quiet by early afternoon on a warm summer day, so Rampley's Chris Modoo carried on to Jermyn Street. This is the second half of our West End street style series: five more men worth a second look, from a Savile Row shoemaker to the head of sales at a historic Northampton shoemaking house.
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West End Street Style, Part Two: From Savile Row to Jermyn Street
Part one of this series caught six well-dressed men on Savile Row and around St James's on the same warm afternoon. Read part one of our West End street style series to see how the day began. Chris kept going, and the second half of the conversation runs from a shoemaker's doorway on Savile Row itself through to Jermyn Street, where the shirtmakers and shoemakers keep their own kind of company.
The five men in this instalment cover more ground than the location might suggest. A Savile Row shoemaker who thinks matching your leathers is overrated. A young dresser making the case for restraint disguised as ease. An Italian visitor with a considered opinion on how London tailoring has changed. A visitor from Romania treating a tweed jacket as entirely reasonable summer wear. And the head of sales at one of the most recognisable names in English shoemaking, dressed down for a Friday and still managing to look like he had thought about every inch of it.
Part of what makes the West End worth returning to twice in one series is the density of it. Savile Row and Jermyn Street sit within a few minutes' walk of each other, yet the trades cluster differently along each: tailors and shoemakers concentrated on the Row, shirtmakers and a slightly wider mix of retailers along Jermyn Street. Walking between the two in a single afternoon means moving between two related but distinct dress codes without ever really leaving the same postcode, which is exactly what makes the comparison interesting rather than repetitive.
A shoemaker's own rules
How a Savile Row Shoemaker Dresses for a Heatwave
Simon manages Gaziano & Girling on Savile Row, and the obvious place to begin with a shoemaker is the shoes. His were a made-to-order loafer in a deep, vintage-toned burgundy, chosen for exactly the kind of warm day that makes most men reach for something paler and altogether less interesting. The suit came from Edward Sexton, whose lapels are recognisable from several streets away, and the shirt and tie were both from Turnbull & Asser. The pocket square was Thomas Pink, the watch a vintage 1970s Omega, and the glasses from E.B. Meyrowitz, the Mayfair eyewear house that has been fitting faces since 1875.
The detail worth lingering on is the watch strap: a very dark brown alligator, made by one of Gaziano & Girling's own shoemakers rather than an outside leather house, who takes on watch straps and small leather goods as a side project. It reads as almost black from a distance, which was entirely deliberate. Simon asked for the darkest brown the maker could produce.
Asked how important it is to match your leathers, a question with an obvious answer from most men in tailoring, Simon pushed back. Matching is not really the aim. Complementing is. The strap and the shoes do not need to be identical, only to sit comfortably in the same register, and a shoemaker who spends his working life thinking about leather is a reasonable person to trust on the point.
Considered, not casual
The Case for Smart Casual: What Kelvin Savarot Got Right
Kelvin's outfit looked, at first glance, like the kind of thing most men already own: tassel loafers, trousers, a T-shirt. The difference was in how deliberately each piece had been chosen. The loafers were from Morjas, a Spanish-made pair with enough shape to read as dressed rather than beach-ready. The trousers came from a Singaporean label that also offers made-to-measure options, bought secondhand and unaltered, which says more about the fit of the original pattern than it does about tailoring after the fact. The T-shirt, a linen-cotton blend, did the quiet work that good T-shirts always do: comfortable enough to forget about, smart enough not to need excusing.
A small holdall carried the accessories, and a pendant from his mother, shaped like a vintage propeller aircraft, sat against a plain neckline rather than getting lost under a collar. The frames were Ace & Tate.
What makes the outfit work is restraint applied evenly across every piece. Nothing in it shouts, but nothing in it was left to chance either, and that gap is the entire difference between smart casual done properly and a man who simply forgot to get dressed with any intention.
It is also a useful reminder that fit does most of the work smart casual asks of it. A T-shirt, however good the fabric, will only look considered if it sits correctly through the shoulder and body, and trousers bought secondhand for their measurements rather than their label prove the same point from a different angle. Spend less time hunting for the right brand name and more time checking the fit against your own frame, and the rest of the outfit tends to follow.
A visitor's view
Why an Italian Visitor Rates London Tailoring Differently Now
Paolo kept his outfit simple: linen trousers, a linen blazer, a white Oxford shirt, and a pocket handkerchief he wears without exception. It is the kind of combination that looks effortless specifically because none of the individual pieces are trying to compete with each other, and on a hot day that restraint does real work.
Asked how London style compares to Italian style, Paolo made a point worth taking seriously. London tailoring, in his view, has changed substantially over the past decade and a half, moving toward a more contemporary, more natural kind of elegance, and the construction of the suits themselves now carries an Italian influence he did not expect to find on an English street. It is a two-way exchange rather than a one-directional import: English tailoring absorbing Italian softness in the shoulder while Italian dressers borrow English restraint in turn, with the underlying elegance surviving the trade in both directions.
Paolo made this observation standing a few doors down from several of the tailors responsible for exactly that shift, which gave the comment rather more weight than it might have carried anywhere else in the city.
The exchange he describes has been running for decades, though it has accelerated recently. Savile Row spent much of the twentieth century as the reference point everyone else copied, and a generation of Italian tailors, particularly around Naples, built their own softer, less structured approach partly in response to it. What Paolo noticed is the trade now running the other way: English houses picking up a lighter shoulder and a more natural chest, without giving up the structure that made the Row's reputation in the first place. A linen blazer worn loose over an Oxford shirt, the way Paolo wore his, sits comfortably in either tradition, which is precisely the point.
Tweed in the heat
How to Wear a Tweed Jacket on a Warm Day Without Overheating
Stefan, visiting from Romania, wore the outfit that drew the most questions of the day: a tweed sports coat and matching vest from Walker Slater, worn over contrast trousers from a Paris label, with shoes from Meermin and a tie from Ralph Lauren. Asked directly how he stayed cool in wool on a warm afternoon, his answer was straightforward. The cloth weighed around 300 grams, considerably lighter than the tweed most people picture when they hear the word, and a lighter weight breathes in a way heavier country cloths simply cannot manage.
The umbrella, from James Smith & Sons on New Oxford Street, was not a concession to the forecast. Stefan buys one from the shop every time he visits London, treating the purchase as a small personal tradition rather than a practical necessity.
The real lesson in Stefan's outfit is about weight rather than fabric. Tweed carries a reputation as a cold-weather cloth, but that reputation belongs to the heavier country weights rather than to tweed as a category. A jacket cut from a lighter cloth, in a considered colour, earns its place in a warm-weather wardrobe just as easily as linen does, provided the wearer accepts it will always read as slightly more formal than its lighter-weight neighbours.
Off-duty, still considered
What Edward Green's Head of Sales Wears on a Friday
Anthony, head of sales at Edward Green, admitted he had been caught slightly off guard by the request to talk through his outfit, having dressed down for a Friday in the sun. The overshirt, a chocolate brown suede in a shade the maker calls Cocoa, came from a small workshop in Naples that Anthony discovered at Pitti Uomo in Florence. Underneath, an ice cotton T-shirt from a factory in Osaka provided a slightly heavier, more breathable weave than the standard jersey most men reach for in summer.
The trousers were an old pair from friends running a small label in Oslo, paired with Edward Green's Belgravia loafer in an unlined construction, considerably more contemporary than the brand's traditional offering and noticeably easier to drive in, a detail Anthony volunteered without being asked. The accessories carried more weight than the clothes: his grandfather's signet ring, a Cartier Santos Galbée from somewhere around the 1970s, a pair of tennis bracelets, and an old Tiffany necklace that once belonged to his grandfather, refashioned into a bracelet. The sunglasses were Cubitts.
Asked about the trend in footwear more broadly, Anthony's answer came down to a single word: comfort. Lightweight, unlined loafers are winning out over anything that requires a lace, and a shoe that slips on and off with ease has become more valuable to most men than a shoe that looks marginally sharper laced up.
What Chris wore
The Two Rampley Pieces Chris Modoo Wore All Day
Two Rampley pieces ran through both halves of the West End walk. The bronze spot shantung silk tie carries a white spot woven directly into the fabric rather than printed onto it, and the texture of Shantung silk catches light in a way a smoother twill cannot manage, which matters more than usual on a day spent standing in direct sun for hours at a time. The pocket square, printed with Nikolai Astrup's Bonfire Celebrating Midsummer Night, brought a warm, firelit palette into an otherwise fairly restrained set of tailoring, hand rolled and printed in Macclesfield at 42cm, without competing with any of the outfits Chris stood next to over the course of the day.
Both pieces follow the same philosophy running through every conversation on this walk: choosing pieces considered enough to hold their own next to whatever else is happening in an outfit, rather than matching for its own sake.
Five lessons
What a Day on Savile Row and Jermyn Street Teaches About Dressing Well
Taken together, the five conversations in this instalment argue against a single rulebook. A shoemaker who prizes complementary leather over matching leather. A smart-casual outfit built on restraint rather than effort. An outside perspective on how London tailoring has shifted toward something more natural. A tweed jacket rehabilitated for summer by paying attention to cloth weight rather than avoiding the fabric altogether. And an off-duty outfit from inside the shoe trade that treats comfort as a serious consideration rather than a compromise.
None of it depends on spending the most money in the room. It depends on noticing details other people skip: a strap dyed to a specific darkness, a pattern that fits without alteration, a cloth weight chosen on purpose, a loafer picked because it makes the daily commute easier rather than because it photographs well. That is the thread running through both halves of this walk, on Savile Row and on Jermyn Street alike, and it holds up rather better than most style advice tends to once you actually try applying it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Your Questions Answered
What is West End street style, and why do menswear brands film it?
West End street style refers to the informal, everyday tailoring worn by the people who work in and around Savile Row, Jermyn Street and St James's, rather than looks styled specifically for a shoot. We film it because the men who work inside the trade, shoemakers, tailors and shirtmakers among them, tend to dress with more thought than almost anyone else on the street, and watching how they put together an off-duty outfit teaches more than most styling guides manage.
Can you wear a tweed jacket in warm weather?
Yes, provided you pay attention to the weight of the cloth. Heavier country tweeds, cut for shooting and cold weather, will make you uncomfortable in summer. A lighter tweed, closer to 300 grams, breathes well enough to wear comfortably on a warm day and still reads as more considered than a plain cotton jacket.
Do your shoes and watch strap need to match?
No, and treating them as though they must is one of the more common mistakes in men's accessorising. The goal is complementary tones rather than an identical match: a dark brown strap and a slightly different dark brown shoe will sit together comfortably, while forcing an exact match can look unnecessarily rigid.
What is the difference between English and Italian tailoring today?
The gap has narrowed considerably. English tailoring has absorbed a more natural, contemporary shoulder line over the past decade, while Italian construction techniques have become common on Savile Row itself. The two traditions borrow from each other constantly now, rather than sitting as opposites the way they once did.
What are unlined loafers, and why have they become popular?
An unlined loafer removes the internal lining found in a traditional dress shoe, which makes it lighter, more breathable and considerably more comfortable for everyday wear, including driving. The trade-off is a slightly less formal look, which is exactly why unlined loafers have become the preferred choice for warm weather and for men who want comfort without giving up a proper shoe entirely.
What tie and pocket square is Chris Modoo wearing in this video?
Chris wore Rampley & Co's Bronze Spot Shantung Silk Tie and the Bonfire Celebrating Midsummer Night pocket square, printed after Nikolai Astrup's painting of the same name, throughout both halves of the West End walk.
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