Tailor

What do the musicians Paul Weller and Daryl Hall, the gallerist Iwan Wirth, and the actor Gary Oldman have in common? A taste in tailors. I meet Tom Arena, who's just set up a regular pop-up atelier, in his suite-cum-studio on the Chelsea Hotel’s fourth floor. He has just finished a morning of fittings with “Young British Artist” Liam Gillick and the makeup queen Bobbi Brown. I’m here for my second suit from Arena and the sheer abundance of cloth and swatch books of the world’s finest yarns makes my head spin: Fox Brothers tweeds, Dormeuil cottons, Caccioppoli linens and silks, exquisite Venetian linings and trimmings.

I was at a straight forward shooting weekend up in North Yorkshire in early January. During elevenses, passions around Brexit and the general election were fiery even before the sloe gin had kicked in. From the estate owner to the gamekeepers and beaters, they all said the same thing, “we saw it coming”. They poured scorn on some MPs who had returned their seat, from both sides of the political divide. Most fascinatingly, they all agreed on something one of them said, “well we have Rishi Sunak as our MP and he is terrific.” I’ll take their word for it.