There’s something about a double-breasted suit. Traditionally more formal than single-breasted jackets, they can simultaneously portray authority, power and confidence. When cut right, they shape the body like no other piece of tailoring can, and are an excellent display of a tailor’s skillset. For Aleks Cvetkovic, there isn’t much that compares. His favourite DB comes with razor sharp peak lapels, heavily roped shoulders and a long, flared skirt, and it’s cut from a chocolate brown flannel with a wide chalk stripe, giving it a playful, romantic edge. It was made by the late Edward Sexton, and it’s especially important to Aleks because it was the last suit to be approved by the man who reinvented Savile Row.

A former editor and colleague of mine at The Rake magazine, Aleks is now a creative strategist as well as a freelance journalist. Based in London, he works with a number of the world’s preeminent luxury brands, devising and overseeing content outputs and social media strategies. His wardrobe has sharpened since those early days at The Rake, with his personal style evolving alongside his professional life. “Clothes should be about how they make you feel” he tells me on a snowy day in central London. “If you look at the way I was dressing at The Rake; it was all stripes and checks and sort of an attempt at Wall Street. It was an important phase that I had to go through, but none of that was authentic. Today I believe that style is understanding the context you’re in and dressing appropriately for it, while using clothes to be comfortable in your skin.”

The suit he’s wearing today is the result of a near decade long relationship with Edward Sexton. Aleks has had a number of pieces made by the house, but this suit is particularly important, not least because it’s the last one of his the great man oversaw. What was it like being fitted by Edward? “I’ll always remember what it was like and I miss it. He would feel his way through your physique, with very light tip of the fingers sensing what was going on. I always used to stand there quietly because he didn’t want to talk. He wanted to concentrate on the clothes. So you’d stand there quietly for twenty minutes, and these fingertips would go down your shoulders, through your spine, around your waist, under your arms. He would feel his way through how the clothes was sitting on you and no one else has ever done that to the same extent. I always think of them as healing hands. I just used to stand there and these healing hands would pass over me.”

But what about the suit itself then? “It’s the culmination of about eight years of working consistently with one team. “It’s peak second skin for me. Edward and the team were so meticulous and they had years of figuring out my pattern and sense of style.”

Sexton is known for its dramatic combination of large peak lapels and strong roped shoulders, with a nipped in waist that creates a broad, hourglass silhouette. This suit is no different and everything has been dialled up to eleven, removing any business-like connotations the DB may have. It also works perfectly with a thin rollneck in place of a shirt and tie. “This is my favourite way to wear this”, says Aleks. “I wear it primarily on date nights, with a black rollneck, which makes the brown a bit more modern. It’s a house double-breasted, two by three, with two and a half inch pocket flaps and a ticket pocket, which draws the eye right the way around your ribcage. The trousers have a good width with twin forward facing pleats, and two inch turn ups. This, for me, will forever be a classic Sexton suit.”

Photography by Charlie Thomas