Few menswear staples have maintained their cultural and sartorial relevance as convincingly as the trench coat. Introduced in the late 19th century out of practicality, rather than style, it was first intended as a lightweight, weatherproof outer layer for army officers, complete with signature function-first details, such as epaulettes, storm flaps, D-rings and a belted waist.

“The greatest restaurants,” Dom Hamdy reports, are “the ones that make you feel something. They are places that really facilitate human connection. You go into a restaurant, you go through the curtain. It might be an actual curtain or a figurative one, but you should feel like you’re transported away from your world.” Hamdy should know a great restaurant when he sees one. As the founder of a growing number of celebrated London spots, he spends much of his life on the other side of the curtain.

For the incorrigible introverts among us, Larry David is both our comedic relief and voice. A few years ago, he penned something for Air Mail, unabashedly declaring, as he always does, those curmudgeonly sentiments that we dare not say. “I’m a creature of habit,” he acknowledged, “and can’t tolerate anything that throws me off my normal routine. That’s why I detest all holidays, but none as much as Christmas.” Among the many things David loathes about the holidays, he lists the ever-ringing music, the faux bonhomie and those “movies with their ridiculous, treacly sentiments”. Most of all, he adds, he resents the nonstop social gatherings. Few of us are so obdurate and misanthropic that we’re not willing to perform a bit of geniality. Even if the wind up to the holidays can be a bit stressful, most of us enjoy the company of friends and family (at least some of them).

“I like to think that we take an honest approach to making clothes,” Oliver Spencer says, showing MR PORTER around his design studio, just off the picturesque cobbles of Lamb’s Conduit Street in central London. “The type of person who comes to us typically knows what they’re looking for, and I want them to feel that it’s been made well and with real care and thought.”

Few menswear staples have maintained their cultural and sartorial relevance as convincingly as the trench coat. Introduced in the late 19th century out of practicality, rather than style, it was first intended as a lightweight, weatherproof outer layer for army officers, complete with signature function-first details, such as epaulettes, storm flaps, D-rings and a belted waist.

“The greatest restaurants,” Dom Hamdy reports, are “the ones that make you feel something. They are places that really facilitate human connection. You go into a restaurant, you go through the curtain. It might be an actual curtain or a figurative one, but you should feel like you’re transported away from your world.” Hamdy should know a great restaurant when he sees one. As the founder of a growing number of celebrated London spots, he spends much of his life on the other side of the curtain.