A woman's guide: How to prepare your man for the Christmas party round

The round of Christmas parties is coming up - the charity carol service, the office party, dinner at the chairman of the board's club, neighbours' drink dos and so on. You've bought the party dress, velvet trousers, nice shoes - you're going to look sophisticated, cool and generally gorgeous. But there's a fly in the ointment.

He can't be bothered. His chinos were bought from Bodens or Topshop six years ago and are past it, his jacket from C&A a hundred years ago and it hangs off him like a blanket. His shoes are down-at-heel black and boring. His shirts are all blue-striped and have suspicious grey rings around the collars.

There's no point turning up at the party, jewellery sparkling against velvet, everything perfect, if behind you is shambling a being of the male gender who looks as though he would be safer on a lead.

Some party ideas

Here are a few pointers -

1. Show him the photo of George Clooney above and tell him that's what he's going to look like when you've finished with him.

2. Throw away everything he may be tempted to wear - give it to a charity shop, if it's suitable for one.

3. Buy a new outfit for him - jacket, shirt, trousers, shoes, socks, pocket square.

4. Fit is the most important consideration. This means that a trip to the shops is necessary. If you can't tempt him to do this, book a meal at his favourite restaurant and tempt him into town that way. A final resort is shopping online, but judging fit, style and colour will be a problem, so select shops with good and painless return policies.

5. Easiest and safest might be to buy a suit - grey or blue flannel, or Prince of Wales check, or fine herringbone. A well-fitting suit can be worn tie-less for smart casual, but the considerations in para. 6. below apply. 

Obviously if the invitations are for black tie, you will need to throw out that ancient evening suit and buy a replacement. If he moans about cost, go to M&S where evening suits are cheap and come in a variety of shapes and styles. Note that black tie means just that, so discourage the orange bow tie with highland terrier images on it - hardly cool and sophisticated.

6. At this stage, be safe with choice of colour and style. Go for classic shapes of jacket and trousers. A blazer, dark plain, or velvet, jacket are a start. It MUST fit well across the shoulders and not be too long in body or arm - smaller is better than larger. Choose a plain shirt - white is always good, with slimmish fit and collar not too large. Trousers or chinos that for well around backside and are not too long are essential. Try brighter colours in chinos, or something flannely and grey if you want more formal wool trousers. 

A blue blazer, white shirt and pocket square are a safe and stylish smart casual look

Needless to say, no Christmas ties or jumpers should ever be worn, no man will look cool in these, however ironically they are worn.

If your man wears a tie, make sure he doesn't wear it undone - it's sloppy. Much better to take it off.

The pocket square is best if it's not the same fabric as the tie; pick out any colours in other clothes. For socks, the safest choice is to match sock to trouser colour.

7. Don't stint - the more you spend, the better the clothes will look and feel and last.

8. Pay out for a good pair of shoes. Not horrible pointed-toed ones - go for a well-made classic pair of brogues or loafers. Nowadays colour is a secondary factor, but I feel slightly uncomfortable if I'm not wearing black or dark-coloured shoes at an evening event. 

I cannot over-emphasise that good shoes can make up for many sartorial shortcomings, so are, next to the jacket, the most important purchase for your man.

9. Finally, give your man a good scrub - shaved, hair cut, nails and hands clean.

10. After all this he will look good and will be feeling a bit cocky - so just keep a casual eye on him at the party in case you need to head off any predatory females with their eyes on your man.

Marwood's Mustard Mohair socks - ideal Christmas gifts

A whole blog post on one pair of socks? Yes. These gorgeous mustard socks from Marwood, made from mohair, must be the ideal Christmas pair of socks. 

Mohair comes from angora goats bred on a family farm in Devon. The farmers own the goats, do the yarns themselves then send them to another place in England to get knitted, they then receive them back in their natural colour. The socks are then hand dyed. 

Mohair is durable and has good insulating properties, staying cool in summer and warm in winter. For more information see Marwood's website here.

Look out for an interview next week with Marwood's creative director, Becky French.

Will you be shopping online or on the high street this Christmas?

As Christmas draws near, the dread of shopping grows. In pre-internet days, the only choice was a visit to the high street. Now, of course, online buying grows in popularity by the year and the streets echo to the sound of courier vans crashing over speed bumps as parcels are delivered to our homes.

Image Zalando

I'm still unsure which sort of shopping I prefer. Each has its advantages, of course. There's the convenience of sitting at home, away from the crowds, to shop online. On the other hand, it's good to see and touch our purchases in high street shops.

Many are nervous of online shopping, but simple precautions can be taken to shop safely - this advice from BBC One's Watchdog programme is excellent.

Choice is an issue. Many shops run out of our size or colour at this time of year. Online vendors suffer similar problems, of course, but at least we can easily choose alternatives at the click of a mouse. High street shops have limited stock, while online stores often operate from vast, echoing, well-stocked warehouses newly-built outside our towns. The sheer scale of the choice available online is huge; see, for example, the online retailer, Zalando. I was astonished by the size of their offering - it would be quite easy to find a new trend at Zalando - anything from sports wear, fashion to accessories and designer clothes.

Very few goods, from books to whisky, cannot be bought online. Look for sensible return policies and minimum hassle arrangements for the return of goods and, while you'll miss the buzz of Christmas shopping on the high street, you will enjoy shopping online as well.

Which do you prefer and why? If you wish, please comment below.

Gifts for women - some ideas for Christmas

I've collected a few Christmas gift ideas for the wives, girlfriends or other significant women in the lives of Grey Fox readers. Some are very luxurious, others more modest. It's the thought that counts.

For ideas for gifts for men see here and see my curated pages of gift ideas on Inkling here.

For fox fans - Merchant Fox fox mask silver pendant £145

Siskin Catalan Long Denim silk £180

Rose Fulbright luxury lingerie - see website for details

Mackenzie and George belt from £59

Marko John's socks for ladies - from £19.50

Best of British wool scarf from Marks & Spencer £36

Emma Cornes tweed handbags Made in Britain - from £59

Age of Reason scarf Ship in a Storm - see website for sizes and details

20% off until 20th December with code PEARTREE

Archie Foal Bardot sweater £155

Hackett and the Made in Britain discussion

Hot on the heels of the opening of Hackett's new store on Regent Street, London, The Times today reports that Jeremy Hackett... 

"has raised the hackles of the [British] clothing manufacturers by claiming that the textile industry is incapable of making his 'essential British kit'."

Jeremy Hackett at London Collections Men

To read the full report you need to be a Times subscriber, but you'll find it here. To summarise, it reports that the UK Fashion and Textile Association (UKFT) has taken exception to Mr Hackett's reported comments that the company once made 95 per cent of its clothes in Britain, but cannot now do so because the clothing manufacturing industry has 'been decimated'. The response of the the UKFT's chief executive is reported to be that resources do exist to manufacture in Britain, but that Hackett should invest to create the capacity the company needs to manufacture here. 

Assuming the reports are accurate, how fair are they? As ever, there's much truth and on both sides and a sprinkling of realism in Mr Hackett's comments, as reported.

I happen to like Hackett's clothes. They're almost perfect for the older man in search of style. The company does like to play heavily on the Britishness of its menswear, but it doesn't make misleading claims about it being manufactured in the UK. It's talking about design inspiration and influences; obvious from the heavy use of very British-looking cloths and cuts.

Readers will know that I've reported here and on my Guardian blog about the resurgence on British-made menswear and I had the chance to discuss this briefly with Jeremy Hackett at an event a few weeks ago. His response was one I've heard from many larger companies that would like to make clothes in the UK - at present the capacity doesn't always exist to supply the quantity or quality required for the high street. Even companies like Marks & Spencer are having to make their Best of British range in smaller quantities.

Mr Hackett is right, the British industry was decimated over the last few decades. Of course, this raises the issue of how it came about, why and who was responsible - but that's a discussion that isn't constructive or relevant to this blog post. Hackett does make some of its clothes here, in particular bespoke, and some of their clothes and fabrics are UK-made. I've no doubt at all that they would like to make more.

The answer to the problem, as the UKFT points out, is to invest and to revive our once massive production. I believe that a resurgence is starting and I've recorded on my blogs how smaller companies are manufacturing in the UK - much to the appreciation of countries like Japan and China, which can't get enough of our British-made fashion products. Hopefully greater investment will allow greater capacity so that larger retailers like Hackett can revive volume British production of menswear.

On a more personal note, I'd like to write about Hackett's products, wherever they're made. They're not an easy company to keep in touch with - I suppose Grey Fox is small beer for them - but I hope to write more about them in due course. In the meantime, visit Hackett's website here.

The UKFT can be found here.
Grey Fox's list of suppliers of UK-made menswear and accessories - click here.
Grey Fox on The Guardian - click here.

Have an orange Christmas - knitwear from Quiggleys, Fox Hunt and Superdenim

I couldn't resist these jumpers - all made in Britain. Details are given under each image. For more orange see my earlier post here.

Quiggleys - check their website for some other beautiful knitwear

Fox Hunt Menswear - bespoke Lewis jumper

Laurence J Smith from Superdenim

Augustus Hare video - how to tie a bow tie

Artistic and seasonal instruction on how to tie a bow tie from Augustus Hare, the ties and cuff links people. Their ties are made from knitted silk in Northern Italy or in England from Macclesfield silk.