The people behind our guides
Our guides are written by the people named in their bylines. Some are written by more than one person, which is why we usually say "we" rather than "I".
Before a guide is published, it is reviewed in full by Lawrence Anderson and Raf Adams. Lawrence's focus at The VOU is old-money style, British heritage menswear and the strategy behind a man's wardrobe. Raf's is luxury menswear, brand analysis and quiet-luxury styling. The author and the reviewers are responsible for each guide together, so if something in it is wrong, that is on them and on us, not on a piece of software.
We also consult the stylists and image consultants we work with, choosing for each guide the people whose expertise fits its subject. You can see who they are in our directory of image consultants and stylists.
The editorial rules are set by the people who run The VOU. We write for men, in British English, and we decide which questions deserve a guide and which do not. No tool makes those calls for us.
How a guide is made
It starts with a real question
We look at what men search for and at where our existing guides fall short. A guide has to answer something specific. "How to dress well" is not a guide. "What size belt should I buy?" is.
The facts come from the original source
We take facts from the people who know them first hand. That means a brand's own size chart rather than a blog that copied it, a tailor's published price list rather than a guess, and medical bodies such as the American Academy of Dermatology for anything that touches your skin. Our guide to razor burn and razor bumps, for example, is built on what the American Academy of Dermatology and the Cleveland Clinic publish.
We name each source where we use it. Our newer guides also end with a list of every source we checked and the date we checked it, so you can follow the trail yourself.
When sources disagree, we say so
Sizing is the obvious example. In our guide to measuring yourself for a suit, Brooks Brothers calls a man of 5 foot 9 a Short, while Oliver Wicks's size bands make him a Regular. Neither brand is wrong. We show you both and explain what to do about it, instead of picking one and presenting it as settled.
Anything that changes gets a date
Prices and product details go out of date, so every price carries the date we read it. In our guide to suit alterations, each figure comes from a tailor's own published price list, and every list was read again on 12 October 2026, the day the guide went live.
It is reviewed before it goes live
No guide is published until Lawrence Anderson and Raf Adams have reviewed the full text and the release has been approved. Claims we cannot back up with a source are taken out before that point.
Where AI tools fit in
We use AI tools, and you should know how.
What they help with
AI tools help us with the slow, mechanical side of the work. They gather and sort sources, pull figures from size charts and price lists into one place so we can compare them, produce first drafts from that research, and run checks on a finished guide, such as opening every link and matching every quotation against the page it came from.
What they never do
An AI tool is never the source of a fact. Every number, price, date and quotation in a guide comes from a named source, and it is checked against that source before publication, word for word in the case of quotations.
AI tools do not choose what we write about, do not approve a guide for publication and are not credited as authors. An AI draft is never published as it stands. Our team decides what each guide says and answers for it.
Pictures
Some pictures in our guides are made with AI image tools, including the featured pictures we have added since October 2026. We use them to illustrate the subject of a guide, such as the shape of a haircut. They are illustrations, not photographs of real people.
No paid placements
No brand pays to appear in our guides. When we mention a brand, it is because its size chart, price list, care instructions or product is relevant to the question, and the links to brands are there so you can check the source for yourself.
Updates and corrections
How we date changes
Each guide shows the date it was first published and, once it has been revised, the date of the latest update. We never change a date to make an old guide look new.
Telling us about a mistake
If you spot something wrong, tell us through our contact page. Say which guide and which sentence, and where you saw the correct information if you have it. We check the point against the source and correct the guide when we got it wrong.
Our older guides
Not every guide we have published meets these standards yet. Some of our older guides were written before we worked this way, and we are going through them one by one, checking their facts and sources against the rules on this page and updating them as we go.