Again, as I said in a previous post, a long time ago I started a little bow tie company selling in the Paddington Markets and some other markets in fact, I think maybe the Kiribilli ones too, with a small idea that Australian men should learn to tie their own bow ties. I had thought it was culturally something we didn’t have a grip on. Today we sell so many other products that bow ties and we have sold them all around the world from our website but not only that, we have watched our customers travel with them too. Which is awesome for us to see and gives me personally a great sense of pride.
The story of this scarf is a fun one. I was in Lake Como in meetings when some friends of mine that had stayed at my apartment in Sydney over Christmas had returned to Nimes in France where they lived. They suggested I now come and stay with them. I had known the wife Clementine in 2007 when she worked at the design studio of Marc Newson. I had in fact introduced her to her husband Thomas.
Fast forward all these years later and there I was finishing up a meeting on a Friday and then driving to Nimes via the port of Genoa. I arrived into the night on a cold night in Nimes and immediately had dinner with Clementine’s extended family. It was a lovely dinner.
The following day we attended the local markets and I asked Clementine that day after seeing her home and her work if she would be interested in doing a collaborative design. Her studio is contained within her home. She agreed. It was so nice, I had been asking for years but it wasn’t something she ever agreed to until now.
So, when I see an American in Germany wearing our silk scarf designed by a French woman collaborating with an Australian bow tie artisan, well, it does remind me of my humble beginnings and that everything worth having in life is a slow burn.
Talk soon, if you need me - Nicholas Atgemis - WhatsApp / FaceTime / Text - +61313140994
