What To Buy This Week: The St James Seasonal Edit

As far as festive gifts go, these are going to be tricky to beat. The velvet Albert slipper is a thing of simple beauty, a true gentlemen’s accouterment with some 200 years of sartorial history behind it. There are many fine velvet slippers out there of course, but this martini-embroidered example from Jermyn Street shoemaking stalwart Foster & Son is up there in the festive fun stakes. Shown here in scarlet velvet but also available in black with the requisite quilted lining, these slippers reference a martini as it should be; served with a gin and olive. They are without question the ideal acquisition for the rakish man in your life this Christmas. £295.00, www.foster.co.uk.

The Knightsbridge fedora is one of Bates’s signature models, a majestic tall-crowned, wide-brimmed hat with a stately look to it made-up in a sturdy rabbit fur felt. Paired with a long coat and chamois gloves it turns even the most uninspired individual into a veritable Clark Gable. Indeed, Bates has produced the hat for time immemorial in navy, charcoal, burgundy and brown, such is its timeless appeal. Now though, the hatter has added an additional caramel coloured option to its collection named ‘fallow’. Gorgeously warming and sophisticated in tone, the hat pairs easily with camel, chocolate or navy overcoats and is just the thing to have the recipient standing out from the coat-clad man in the street this Christmas – for all the right reasons. Available in store, www.bates-hats.com.

The Budd safari shirt has achieved cult status amongst the shirtmaking-obsessed intelligentsia in recent seasons. A ready-to-wear version of an experimental safari shirt created by the house for Simon Crompton of Permanent Style a few years ago, this denim variant is the first winter version that Budd has offered ready-to-wear. In a gorgeous mid-blue winter-weight denim, the shirt is generous yet gently waisted, with a tall collar that’s ideal for popping and bold pleated patch-and-flap pockets on the hips and breast. A thoroughly useful article, it is ideally proportioned to work either as a conventional shirt, or as jacket. Double-up over a navy washed cotton spread-collar shirt and dark houndstooth tie for a particularly rakish look. Pop a hanky in the breast pocket for additional swagger. £595.00, www.buddshirts.co.uk.

It would be all too easy for me to suggest that you purchase just a single bottle of something for a Christmas gift from Berry Bros. & Rudd, but quite frankly that lacks ambition. For our first Christmas hamper recommendation, might we suggest the exquisite Chef’s Pantry selection? As with everything that Berry Bros. curates, nothing is left to compromise and everything is “good enough to bear our name”. As such, the hamper contains a well-balanced mix of delicious fine wine and foodstuffs, including the finest Berry Bros. & Rudd Grand Cru Champagne by Mailly, the Berry Bros. & Rudd Reserve Red by Collovray & Terrier, Pays d’Oc and the Berry Bros. & Rudd Reserve White by Collovray & Terrier, Pays d’Oc, any of which is the perfect tipple to serve at festive dinner parties. Topped off with jars of White Truffle & Porcini Sauce, pink Himalayan sea-salt, Pommery Moutarde de Meaux and bottles of Álvaro Palacios Olive Oil and Aceto Balsamico di Moderna IGP from Vigna Oro, this hamper deserves a place in not only the chef’s pantry, but yours too. £100.00, www.bbr.com.

Now, there’s no way around this – this stuff is without question my Achilles heel. Smooth, strong, gloriously salty and generous in flavour, this soft Italian raw sheep’s milk cheese is the best of it’s kind, laced with seams of unctuous black truffle to the very core. I should probably be recommending you buy your loved ones something a little more practical for Christmas, a hamper or a cheeseboard for example – of which Paxton’s do many – but I simply cannot. Take it to dinner parties, serve it at Christmas supper and then again on Boxing Day, buy it by the wheel, melt it down and take a bath in it – I don’t care. It is superb and once you’ve tried it, you’ll be as obsessed and as incoherent as myself on the matter. £58.00 per kilo, www.paxtonandwhitfield.co.uk.

Without doubt, Floris is pioneering an altogether new level of sophistication in its scents. The house’s latest creation, the ‘Fragrance Journals’ is a series of parfums that aim to evoke very particular cultural moments in London’s history; Soho circa 1962, the King’s Road in 1976 and so forth. This particular fragrance is The Rake’s favourite and paints a sensory picture of Mayfair’s Berkeley Square circa 1988, alive with newfound confidence and enterprise. Believe me when I say that it hits the nail on the head with classically elegant core of vetiver and thyme, top notes of cassis and bergamot and a subtle woody base of sandalwood, musk and amber. It feels incredibly refined, matures wonderfully on the skin and is quite possibly one of the single most sophisticated scents that the house has designed this year. Well worth splashing out on (pardon the pun…). £140.00, www.florislondon.com.

When it comes to intelligent and refreshingly quirky British design, Sunspel is well ahead of the curve. This curious knitted wool jersey jacket sits somewhere between cardigan and blazer, yielding a useful, relaxed and extremely comfortable wardrobe staple. With patch pockets, a polo-like spread collar and six-button front, it’s remarkably easy to wear and is ideal for winter layering. Sunspel’s vintage woollen jersey is particularly substantial, spun specifically for the house by an age-old Italian mill in luxurious two-fold merino. It was developed from an archive sample of Sunspel woollen underwear jersey, intended to be soft enough to wear next to the skin – which ensures that the jacket retains a particularly luxurious handle. Dress with a powder blue Oxford button-down, earthy woollen tie and grey brace-top flannels for a relaxed yet rakish look this season. £195.00, www.sunspel.com.

For when only festive excess will do, nothing beats a Fortnum’s hamper. The Windsor is perhaps the most extravagant of the lot, filled with an almost bottomless array of luxurious delights intended for festive feasting - including Fortnum’s legendary King George Christmas Pud. Quite apart from the exceptional range of confectionary; from Gigantissimi Florentines to marron glaces and the wealth of comestibles including smoked ham and salmon, Stilton, Fois Gras Torchon and waxed cheddar chruckle, it’s the booze that really hits the spot as far as this particular hamper is concerned. Between a magnum of vintage champagne, vintage Port, Margaux, Meursault Les Narvaux, Barolo Le Albe, Ruster Ausbruch and Pedro Ximenez Sherry VOS, all of which has been chosen to pair well with Christmas dishes, you’re well and truly set. There’s also F&M’s exquisite Jamaica Blue Mountain Clifton Mount Estate Beans Coffee to help you sober up afterwards. £1000.00, www.fortnumandmason.com.