Ordering tailored clothes online can be daunting. At AskOkey, we pride ourselves on making the online bespoke process as seamless and efficient as possible. With only a few simple steps on your end, we will create the most comfortable garments you’ve ever owned whilst looking like a king. Want a quick run-down on our process?
The pork pie hat, made famous by Charles Mingus in his jazz standard “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat”, is another version of the men’s hat variety; often misnamed, it is best described as having a brim and a round crown. The pork pie is historically associated with jazz musicians. Lester Young’s pork pie had a large
Continuing our casual tour through the world of hats: today we look at the trilby. Like the fedora, the trilby is named after a woman – in this case Trilby, a play by George Du Maurier which ran first in 1894. The hat, modelled on a Tyrolean hat (see upcoming post). In contrast to the
The fedora is so common that it serves as a collective name for just about any hat with a brim that is not a stetson or a bowler. Image: Optimo Hats (Proff’s favourite) The hat in the picture is an Optimo fedora, with a 2.25 inch brim (a fairly standard shape). It is a “soft”
Ordering tailored clothes online can be daunting. At AskOkey, we pride ourselves on making the online bespoke process as seamless and efficient as possible. With only a few simple steps on your end, we will create the most comfortable garments you’ve ever owned whilst looking like a king. Want a quick run-down on our process?
The dust has settled and the pre-launch excitement has died down a bit in the back offices here at AskOkey. Now the hard work starts fulfilling the four-score preorders and ensuring that the MTM production line can coast along in fifth gear. Some commenters have suggested that MTM is simply a ticked-up version of Ready
Among the debates in the great parliament of menswear is the relative merits of the peak lapel. Even here at AskOkey, the topic has sparked discussion (not heated argument, but what you could call a robust exchange of views). Proff broke with tradition when he and Hashim designed a peak lapel single breasted suit with
Named after Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz), the Ricky jacket was a staple of 1950s youth wear. Image courtesy of the Houndstooth Kid Strictly speaking, a Ricky jacket has contrasting panels (in the picture, pale pink and dark blue). It has a zipper front, elastic waist and a fairly large collar. Made in gabardine (often rayon,
One of the AskOkey team recently picked up a dark blue gabardine suit, year of birth around 1950. This prompted the question – what is so great about gabardine, in particular the heavy gabardine that you used to be able to get? Gabardine is a worsted twill weave, with close, raised “twills” or ribs. The
How Made to Measure and Bespoke are Different The online menswear universe has its galaxies and not a few black holes. One instance of what might be called interstellar combat is the argument that bespoke clothes cannot be ordered online, and that they are essentially made to measure (MTM). What exactly is this heated debate,
A well-known summer fabric, seersucker is a cotton weave. The name is a curiosity – it means, in Persian, silk and sugar, referring to the smooth and rough, or mottled alternating weaves in the weave. Often in blue and white stripe, seersucker does not have to be striped, but it always has the alternating smooth
Famous from Boardwalk Empire, Mad Men and other historical dramas, the club collar is probably due for a revival. With rounded tabs, it looks like this: Club collars should be short (less than two inches), and the distance between the tabs (width) should be about the same as the length of the tabs. In other
Shirt collars make an interesting study in themselves. Since around 1860, when detachable collars were invented – or at least introduced into the market – collars have been short, rounded, pointed, wing style, flat and all manner of shapes. Fairly early on, the difference between formal and informal collars was marked. Formal collars were wing
Suits, trousers and jackets can be made of tweed, wool, linen and blends, including silk. Each weave and type has its properties that make it distinct, and each one has its best uses – tweed for jackets and country suits, worsted for business suits, etc. One fabric that has been around for years is flannel.
The Proff encourages men to start their tie collections with a navy grenadine tie. What is grenadine, and why is a grenadine tie so useful? Grenadine is a woven fabric, made on a Jaquard loom. What is a Jaqard loom? A jacquard machine is a device that you attach to a loom to make woven