One's antique clothes show: How Prince Charles has always been king of wardrobe recycling

Worn in: Prince Charles visits a pioneering low energy eco-home in Watford this week wearing his 40-year -old Lobb shoes

Prince Charles was photographed this week wearing a pair of shoes that were quite clearly older than his children.

Older than his classic Aston Martin, probably. But far from being embarrassing to the detail obsessed Prince, the decrepit age of the fogeyish, wilfully unfashionable lace-ups and their cracked hardiness will have tickled him something rotten.

This is a man who actually prefers his footwear scuffed, but imbued with a deep patina of age and experience about the uppers.

Charles practically invented eccentric, 'stealth-wealth' dressing. The David Beckhams of this world might be slaves to fashion, splurging their money on designer-label kit, showy accessories and overpriced, faddish tat.

But even before the credit crunch kicked in, Charles was flying the flag for good quality, beautifully handcrafted 'investment pieces'.

Clothes that never went out of fashion because they were never in fashion. Clothes that are over and above fashion - and which he is thus happy to wear for decades on end, repairing them as and when necessary.

His suits are unmodishly double-breasted. His dinner jacket is cut like a slouchy cardigan. His ties are almost comically narrow and tightly knotted. His morning suit is a slightly gauche, grey-on-grey, called a 'pick and pick' fabric; the lapels of his waistcoat are accessorised with dandy-ish, white 'slips' or 'demis', which attach to the inside of the garment with buttons.

'Charles loves his details,' his friend Nicky Haslam once told me. 'He loves a ticket pocket (a second pocket just above one of the normal outside pockets) and a tab collar (with buttons) that can be fastened in the event of a hurricane.'

It is this educated, elegantly curmudgeonly approach to his wardrobe that finds Charles topping sartorial surveys - in March, Esquire magazine in the U.S. voted him World's Best Dressed Man, beating off competition from the likes of President Obama.

'The brilliant thing about Prince Charles is the way he never follows any trends, but still manages to look so stylish,' says Jeremy Hackett, of the men's outfitters Hackett.

'He wore double-breasted suits when everyone else had switched to single. It was a brave, if unconscious move, but one that paid off because now he's made that double-breasted style his own.'

'Charles is the ultimate town-and-country man,' says Dylan Jones, editor of British magazine GQ.

'He looks effortlessly stylish whether he's deerstalking in the Scottish Highlands or attending a black-tie dinner in London.

'Look at his ties. Charles was doing a skinny neck-tie for years before Pete Doherty caught on. Oh, and no one puts their hands in their jacket pockets with quite the same casual insouciance as our future King does.' 

And few men like to shop with quite the same narcissistic vigour as Charles, either.

Take those old shoes he wore to walk around Hereford Cathedral this week. They cost around £2,500 and were made for him by Lobb of St James's - not, as many sartorial commentators have noted, by John Lobb, Bootmaker of Jermyn Street.

There is a subtle, but crucial difference. John Lobb, Bootmaker is a Paris based, Hermes-owned footwear brand that has branches all over the place. They charge a mere £400 per pair.

Lobb, on the other hand, is a bespoke-only operation in the quiet end of St James's.

This outfitter has made footwear for Aristotle Onassis, Roald Dahl, Cole Porter, Lord Olivier, Harold Macmillan and Ted Heath.

To make a pair of shoes is a lovingly laborious process involving a hand-made wooden last, eight pieces of leather and expert stitching techniques. You don't throw a pair of Lobb shoes out because they get old.

You keep them, cherish them, have them mended, feed them with finest saddle soap and then get buried in them.

Charles clearly loves wearing clothes with provenance, with a bit of a story to tell. 

When Donatella Versace fingered his dinner suit lapel at a 2001 party at Waddesdon Manor - the magnificent stately home in Buckinghamshire once owned by the Rothschilds - and joked that she hoped it was a Versace design, Charles was delighted to inform the Italian fashion doyenne that it was actually made for him by Savile Row's Anderson & Sheppard and was at least 20 years old.

A confidante of Charles once told me that one of his tweed coats belonged to George VI. Crikey! The royal moth balls must be Chernobyl-strength.

But when Charles is not rummaging around Buckingham Palace's dressing up box, searching for more regal vintage gear to recycle for himself, where does he shop for new stuff?

The list of Royal Warrants includes Asprey as the royal jewellers; the Savile Row tailor Gieves & Hawkes; Austin Reed and Burberry for casual clothes; outdoor gear from Barbour; the Scotch House for knitwear, and Loakes for (more) shoes.

But Charles, being something of sartorial maverick, likes to cut his own dash. . . 

SECRETS OF PRINCE CHARLES' RE-OCCURRING STYLE

HATS

James Lock & Co., St James’ St, London

Handily located next door to Lobb the shoemaker stands Lock’s - a hatter of such celebrated pedigree, they say, that a postcard addressed simply to ‘The best hatter in the world, London’, was once delivered to its door without delay.

Timeless topper: Prince Charles wears his James Lock & Co hat in 1972 and again 36 years later

The Prince simply wouldn’t dream of purchasing a fedora or a trilby from anywhere else. Established more than 300 years ago to serve the court of St James’s, Lock’s has supplied many a famous hat-wearer, including Oscar Wilde, whose final bill was settled posthumously - 100 years after his death.

The shop, which had supplied him with an opera hat, a bowler and a wide brimmed, velvet-finished fedora, had written off the debt. But a cheque for three pounds and six shillings, and an anonymous accompanying letter, were left on the doorstep in 2000.

KILTS

Kinloch Anderson Ltd, Leith, Edinburgh

Charle's kilts cost - wait for it - £725 each and are made of Edward Stuart tartan. The kilts are traditionally fashioned to the selvedge (edge of the roll) of the cloth, which gives them a more substantial finish. 

Tartan fan: The prince's kilt transcends the decades

The Scots manufacturer, which has been in the business since 1868, is proudly profligate in the process, stating that there is ‘no economy of cloth usage’ when it comes to cutting a new kilt.

Each uses eight yards of fabric and takes ten weeks to make.

SUITS AND COATS

Anderson & Sheppard, Old Burlington Street, London

You don’t go to Anderson & Sheppard for a bargain. Entry level for bespoke suit here is just shy of £3,000. A three-piece dinner suit costs almost £4,300. Even a standard pair of trousers comes in around a grand.

No wonder Charles wears his suits until they are coming apart at the seams (he is also likely to favour Gieves and Hawkes for suits and coats).

Sticking with his style: Wearing a long, double breasted coat in 1988 and again in 2006

The Anderson & Sheppard house style is beautifully minimal - with fewer seams than other suits and a natural curve on the lapel.

Anderson & Sheppard are said to have a different trouser tailor at your service depending on which side Sir dresses.

Iconic designer Tom Ford and Mikhail Gorbachev are customers.

Aged 16, fashion designer Alexander McQueen served an apprenticeship here and, while helping make suits for Prince Charles, would secretly scrawl obscene messages on the inside of the linings.

MILITARY UNIFORMS

Welsh & Jeffries, 20 Savile Row, London

Charles gets his military clobber from old-school tailor Welsh & Jeffries. Their approach to some of their newer neighbours on ‘the Row’ is combative.

Trooping the colour: Charles dons his military wear in 1993 and 2008

‘They call us the fuddy-duddies,’ says W&J’s Francis Morris. But you can see why fuddy-duddy Charles likes it here, can’t you?

Oddly enough, the second most famous person to have his gear made by W&J is that stalwart of understatement - Mr David Beckham.

SHIRTS AND TIES

Turnbull & Asser, Jermyn Street, London

The famous Jermyn Street chemiserie has had a steady flow of royal and celebrity traffic ever since it opened back in 1885.

As well as making Charles shirts, T&A also kitted out Churchill with his famous boiler suits and made women’s shirts for Princess Diana.

Seen it before: The Prince wears the same shirt in 2002 and 2008

The Sultan of Oman once ordered 240 shirts in 20 minutes. You can buy very decent Turnbull & Asser shirts off the peg - and in myriad colours, checks and candy stripes, for less than £100.

Charles, however, gets his made bespoke out of sea island cotton or poplin, with French cuffs, deep spread, narrow collars and pearl buttons.

When the future King had his polo accident in 1990, T&A’s cutter, Mr Cuss, made Charles a selection of special, one-armed shirts with matching slings in the same material.

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