Comparaisons

Naples against Rome: a soft light jacket that moves, or a clean structured one that imposes. Both made to a very high standard, and the choice is aesthetic.

The clearest choice on Savile Row: a soft draped coat that hangs and moves, or a lean structured one that imposes a line.

Paris against Jermyn Street: the largest cloth range in shirtmaking, or the English house with the turnback cuff.

Two structured coats built to opposite ends: Parisian sculpture against English discipline.

Florence against Naples: a wide-lapelled, round, dartless coat, or the soft high-armholed jacket the Neapolitan style was built on.

Both are fine animal down. One is farmed and available at every price; the other is shorn from wild animals under licence and is the most expensive cloth in the world.

Two answers to heat: one conducts it away and creases permanently, the other lets air through and springs back.

An individual pattern drafted from nothing and corrected on your body, or a standard pattern modified to your measurements. The difference is not hand stitching.

Two Northampton makers, the same construction, and a real difference in finishing and price, with the answer depending on which shape fits your foot.

One runs a stitched canvas from shoulder to hem; the other stops at the chest and fuses below. The difference is drape, alterability and roughly a third of the labour.

The same idea executed two ways: a glued canvas rib and a machine, or a ridge carved from the insole and a needle. One is affordable; the other has nothing that can fail.

Closed lacing against open lacing. One construction detail decides both formality and how well the shoe will fit your foot.