Rakish

I’m approaching that age when careers begin to take off in various directions, into various areas and toward varying levels of interesting dinner party conversation. A friend of mine has been carving out his niche in a field that would be utterly alien to me if I did not know him and relentlessly stalk his career online. Aleks is a journalist at The Rake; he's an eloquent writer, a true connoisseur of luxury menswear, and a general man about town. I seem to photograph him an awful lot, for both personal and professional endeavours. In our latest collaboration I accompanied him to a suit-fitting at his tailor's on Savile Row, the illustrious Edward Sexton (whose made-to-measure I snapped on Aleks last year). It’s a beautiful studio, with huge windows and even huger mirrors - certainly not the kind of space that Beatrix Potter’s Tailor of Gloucester ever put me in mind of.

Bespoke suiting-up is a process that requires several fittings, and I've only included a couple of snaps as the experience is hopefully going to turn into a feature-length piece by Aleks. Over the course of the next few weeks he’ll be getting his first fully bespoke suit; being privy to a moment he’s been dreaming of for at least half a decade was great fun. (Also very informative - who knew there were so many names for so many different shades of blue? Not I. )

Thanks to both Aleks and his tailor, Dominic Sebag-Montefiore, for letting me be a fly-on-the-wall with a very loud shutter.