Style

We are receiving parcels every other day so it's a good time to stay close to the website as certain projects come to fruition including our new scarf rings, a selection of new printed silk twills and of course our new wool and lurex melanges which are very much in the vein of Coco but not have their own personality. Certainly they are very beautiful and very elegant in their distressed wool way that's difficult to describe. In short, keep checking back on the website. 

Sukajan (スカジャン) are, in their most basic and historic form, a synthetic bomber jacket which is either quilted or non-quilted and is usually a mixture of contrast colours between the sleeves and the body which has then been heavily embroidered on.

We get a lot of people asking about our shapes of bow ties and questions which we try to answer on the website and over Whatsapp as much as we can. But for those of you who are unsure as to how to size a bow tie, the answer is, there is no strict answer. It will come down to personality, the shape of your face, how far your eyes are apart, the style of suit you are wearing and more. So before you begin, perhaps look at the sizing below and then look in the mirror with a ruler and roughly see where you think you will fit in in terms of size. Our most prized shape, which is the most often cut for the website, is our modified butterfly. This fits MOST people, but on some it just doesn't suit. So it pays to do some research for yourself. Any questions, Whatsapp +61413140994

It has been an unusual time for us as it has been for many businesses. However, we are continuing to get back into the full swing of production of bow ties and we are here to serve you when you need us. Whatsapp +61413140994

Part of me does not want to tell you about Mount Jagungal. Blue Lake I can easily talk about because everyone was on it. But not Jagungal. I felt like I was indigenous to the land, that is had remained unspoiled, that I was one of God’s chosen few to enjoy his work uninterrupted. The pandemic had rendered out most of my desires to be a man of international standing. I am sure I wasn’t the only one. But I just started figuring out in April last year what might give me great pleasure in using the abundance our nation has to offer for experiences and travel since we were all going to be confined to borders indefinitely and I certainly don’t have any friends with private jets nor the casual disposable income to quarantine upon my return. So the first of my expeditions I checked off in September last year, that was to snow camp on a ski tour. I had done snow shoes and an overnight in the snow but not a particularly long sojourn. 

According to Peter Howard I was three sheets to the wind (drunk) when I gave him the final brief for the first painting of the year for the window at the Studio.

Regardless of the miscommunication I am extremely happy with the result and I think it's some of his best work to date. The basic theme is that Natalie Portman (who is rumored on a Marvel fans website to be taking over the lead in the Thor franchise) is in Sydney knocking out the corona virus with Thor's hammer. But somewhere in there I said to Peter - do as you want to after that.

I love working with Peter. When I first met him he was the guy who ran the Blockbuster video store in Rose Bay. He was a proper movie buff. In fact, when he left today he saw my friend holding a copy of The Leopard which I had loaned him. Peter turned to me and said "film director", I knew what he meant, I responded "Visconti" . He nodded his head.

He used to write the most amazing post it notes on every movie of value in the video store and just by those notes alone I would select my VHS and subsequent DVD for rental. Oh my, it seems a lifetime away and yet it feels like a few moments ago.

Today Peter works in sales for fans (the air blade type, not for influencers and followers :) ) and moonlights at a painter taking on commissions for locals.

Anyway, without further ado, the canvas is below. If you are in the area check it out, it will be there for a month, we are located at 36 New South Head Road, Vaucluse, Sydney, 2030.

Since the world has gone online it is hard to get a feeling of who you are actually dealing with when you shop a website or engage an online service. The difference with Le Noeud Papillon is that it is based around myself and my small team.

My name is Nicholas Atgemis. Twelve years ago I started making self-tying bow ties. Today, if you read our testimonials, you will see that we have proved successful at it and have since branched out into many other product lines. 

I am available to my customers 24/7 on Whatsapp or FaceTime and have a proven track record of delivering custom made products around the world in a very timely manner. In some cases we can cut make trim and ship on the same day - if you push us. But we'd rather you take the time to select the right fabrics, choose the right shapes and get the right products made to your taste.

As for our fabrics - we pride ourselves on using only the best. We design most of the fabrics we use in our range and work with looms to deliver the remainder in what we deem as a combination between classic heritage designs such as fatted grosgrains and baratheas, to the most ethereal and vibrant fabrics you will find just about anywhere on the planet. 

I encourage you to contact us on +61413140994 or else see our Instagram where you can see both the work we are doing and hear from our customers and what they are wearing.

Our bespoke service also extends (in these most unusual times). I do hope I get to delete that last line soon!

If you listen vary carefully you are about to hear a name drop. Natalie Portman.

Yes, she is living in Sydney, Australia whilst her husband directs films and I believe she is also filming her Marvel movie franchise of Thor at the same time.

Yes, I was always a fan. In fact, as a young man I thought I'd meet her but did not know how or why.

In fact, I can distinctly recall reading that she was off to Harvard to study psychology and I found that very impressive.

Well, it took 12 years of making bow ties and other menswear items for that to transpire because it was a chance encounter where she was seated at the cafe next door and I walked in and gave her two sets of eye shades and walked out.

I did not expect to hear from her again but then a call came through one day, a crackly call, an American voice, and I was quite dismissive because I was busy. 

Finally she said "can you hear me now?" and I said "yes" and she said "you gave me some eye shades a few weeks back" , the penny dropped, I was much more amiable after "oh I thought I'd never hear from you". She was up ten minutes later to get her husband some gifts for the festive season.

I believe she does not take her husband's last name and her name is a stage name, so I will continue to refer to her as Natalie Portman because I don't know if she is Mrs. Millepied or Ms Portman or Ms Hershlag etc etc. 

Ten minutes later Natalie Portman, internationally acclaimed actress, activist, vegan, mother of two and Oscar winner for best actress, was inside my Studio and she seemed to like the space, I think she said as much. 

She had wanted to buy her husband a dressing robe in printed velvet that at the time was in the window. However, I convinced her it would take a long time to produce and wasn't the easiest thing to transport back to the United States. 

In the end I think she chose beautifully and I am glad to now count her as one of our patrons but as luck would have it our paths have not crossed since. However, a few weeks later she was photographed wearing a t shirt I gave her as a present, a t shirt I designed for my little boxing gym that I run out of my garage in Vaucluse Sydney.

Anyway, I am super proud to have her a customer and I look forward to seeing her husbands version of Carmen and hopefully my daughter and I can watch Thor together some time next year.

My tailor was short of work over Christmas so I said to him whilst it was quiet in January to knock out a jacket for the window display in 2021. I wanted something thought provoking but also it wasn't quite so, there was another bit to it. There was a last piece of a cashmere wool from an English loom that my friend Aman had in his warehouse in England. He was selling me some wool for a bespoke customer, a navy hospack, and he just happened to have it on file but there wasn't enough to make a full jacket, just enough for trousers. 

I did not need trousers, and certainly not in white, but its such a rare thing to fund a good cashmere and merino wool in optical white, so I took it. 

It took a little time to gestate but there was a piece of fabric from what I call my 'celebration' pile, fabrics which are usually used for bow ties for events and for peacocking. This one particular fabric I had which was never going to be used up as bow ties, owing to the fact that I had bought for metreage than I needed because of minimum quantities, but could be used as material for an evening jacket. Only to do an evening jacket in that one material would be way too over the top. The material, and I don't know exactly why, reminded me of Klimt's backgrounds in his paintings and then also, and again, I have no idea how my mind works, of Martin Sharp Nimrod posters from the early 1980's and the jazz mural theme of the institutional restaurant in Woollahra, The Bistro Moncur.

I put it all together as a schism of sorts, a little like my gemini star sign, we are not one thing. In this jacket was the calm purity of the white, and then the frenetic patterns that one might see in jazz music, lofty, wild, mercurial, in the other fabric. And we did it in a wide notched lapel with patch pockets, a segue from traditional cuts for dinner jackets. The only thing I regret is that we used white buttons. For some reason they detract from the finish of it all, so I will now search for something a little more contemporary. 

Overall, together the contrasts worked and it was marvelled at in the window for the weeks that followed. We can of course make you a jacket in the same manner, only it won't be in the same fabrics as we used up the last of both. For custom orders please call +61413140994

Our cushions are custom made in our Sydney Studio, hand cut, so you can select exactly what you want. Pictured is two cheetah cushions in printed velvet made for a customer in country NSW.

I don't like to gloat but I was very happy when I saw our shorts featured in the Australian Financial Review wish list magazine this month. The story of our Botticelli design and its application as shorts, cushions and more is one I hope will be part of our long term brands story; a cold January morning at the Uffizi gallery in Florence which produced our most exciting silk to date.