As this global malaise continues to wreak havoc on people's travel plans and lifestyle, we still have a choice, well most of us do anyway, as to how we present ourselves to the world. As one of my regular customers wrote to me on the weekend, he found our Instagram enjoyable because it gave him inspiration to put on his nice clothes again. It was a privilege to see men like Dandy Wellington who wagered war on the virus by not giving up on how he presented himself to the world. That same customer said that over the weekend he has posed his wife a question: "Do you think I will ever wear my bow ties again?"
It was a sensible question. He was a surgeon. He wore scrubs to the hospital. He consulted via zoom. He was at a stage in a career where he would be more likely to start wrapping things up rather than ramping things up. I didn't get to find out what his wife's response was but mine would have been - "well yes, but, then, maybe never quite in the same way again."
It took a couple of hours for the twin towers to fall and look at the ramification that has had on air travel for two decades since. And with that in mind, what did we do when we had to take our shoes off at airports and so on? We just got on with it. And so too, I hope, will be get back to dressing our best.
A man, a business owner, just turned up to the Studio door not five minutes ago. He was dressed in a cashmere frock coat, a blue suit, coiffed hair, kangaroo Berluti loafers, a pair of translucent grey lens glasses. The moment I saw him I took him seriously and felt he meant business. And it gave me inspiration to start doing it more myself. I have been dressing only to please myself when I went out on the town. The rest of the time, athleisure. Ooff, too much athleisure.
So Dandy, thank you. You inspire me. The guy who turned up five minutes ago inspired me. We have to soldier on and keep on keeping on.
