Style
Another Way To Do An Ascot
The Ascot takes it's name from the town of Ascot, about 55km from London, home of the famous horse race The Royal Ascot. Traditionally it has tapered ends. It was a favoured bit of kit of the English aristocracy who wore them from the early 1700's onwards but as the middle class grew, so too did the demand for this type of neckwear. Today it's seldom that you find men wearing them, they are a little effete and in this regard, worn for example in a club house, they can be a little toffee-nosed. However, the simple fact remains that they are chic. And, worn in a variety of settings they can be dumbed down so that the wearer doesn't have to appear 'tone deaf'. The ones we have had made are 155 x15cm and when tied, preferably with a four in hand knot, or else in a more traditional knot, which I don't advocate, but which you can learn by googling 'how to tie a traditional ascot'. In term of construction, these ascots that we have made are a variation on traditional shapes and construction. They have no tapering, neither in the centre of the piece nor at the ends. For me, given that we were using light silk twill, rather than jacquards, offers a more sleek, more modern finish. It looks more like a kerchief, only the lines are cleaner since there is no roll stitched edge. If you are looking for a modern way to look classically elegant, I definitely recommend you give them a twirl.
WHAT I AM WEARING TO PASS THE TIME DURING COVID
There is a discomfort I feel when I watch instagram posts of influencers I admire and follow when they continue to post images of suits and black tie and smart casual. I barely get a chance these days to don a suit and tie and I have instead been experimenting with athleisure and tailoring. It might sound odd but I have spent some time trying to work out if you can pair a tailored casual jacket with running tights - but not the tights you would suspect, and certainly not meggings. I am talking about those technical running pants by Nike, specifically the range of Phenom running tights which at times can be quite gregarious and one pair I found recently had a finish that on some angles and in certain light looked like faux leather. And what is more, between cutting silks and riding my electric bicycle, and because I swim on Bondi Beach in the morning, I find myself wearing sneakers in that kind of way that you'd expect a Californian to wear on David Letterman or some such late night television show.
HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO LOOK AFTER YOUR FACE MASK?
The short answer is, by hand. The best way to wash them is in a hand-basin using tepid to hot water with laundry detergent. This apparently deteriorates the wall of the virus. Once washed, rinse and leave to dry in direct sunlight. The UV light from reading, also destroys the virus. Once dry, use a warm iron to re-pleat the mask and you are ready to go. Some are saying you need to wash the mask every day. I do not. I rotate my masks regularly (which is why I advoate buying our family pack) and I wait until I have used it a few times before I wash it. As I rotate them I leave them in direct sunlight so I always have a mask or two that have spent the day in the sun. Then I come back to them and wash them all together in one go save one mask. To me, this is common sense. But since we are in unchartered waters, I highly recommend you do your own reading and keep up to date with what is being published in online journals.
And Such Terrible Fabrics, And Nothing To Choose From!
Don't make the mistake of being the last one to the party. Whilst we have fabrics, whilst we can cut make and trim silk face masks in less than 24 hours if needs be, why not consider coming past or dropping us a line on +61413140994 to organise the face mask that you want, in the materials you selected.
New Silk Face Masks Are Being Loaded Today
It's time to think about face masks again so we are going back to the bench and working on a new collection some of which will be loaded today.
The Real Deal When It Comes To Cashmere
The Scottish aren't the only ones that can produce great cashmere, let me be clear. There is a range of cashmere from Mongolia that's produced by Zegna that is some of the most beautiful I have seen anywhere, but from memory it was only available in a small number of colours and we used it predominantly when we were making our design silk jacquard and cashmere scarves with hand-finished tassels. These were limited edition runs and frankly, not everyone wanted our silks on the reverse. When wearing cashmere in the depths of winter it seems more appropriate to have just cashmere on both sides, the silk can be a little too ritzy.
Le Noeud Papillon Silk And Lurex Bomber Jackets - Bespoke Orders Only Through The Sydney Studio
We have decided on a price for the silk and lurex bespoke bomber jackets. That price is $7500.00 AUD . It's the most we've put on any of our work to date but it factors in the cost of setting up the most expensive silks to produce by way of both artwork and per lineal metre cost. Then we have to take into account the bespoke made and the fact that the customer can choose from a myriad of internal finishes. There are three fittings involved, the first produced in canvas. This is a proper experience and one that renders at the end of it, a work of art.
As Oscar Wilde once wrote, one can either be a work of art or wear one. As I middle age, I am inclined to believe I am long past being a work of art, so I choose to go with the fabrics we develop to cloak me as one :) . Of course, we don't expect to sell many, there are so few men out there with the balls to pull this jacket off and of course, it is highly unlikely that in the middle of a pandemic and with unemployment on the rise, that this will be seen as soup du jour fashion. Nevertheless, we soldier on and wish to be there for you when things take a turn for the better. In the meantime, see the details of the jacket on our instagram .
If You Are Bored And Love Literature But Still Don't Have The Time - Might I Recommend Anna Karenina Ready By Maggie Gyllenhaal On Audible
To my mind, in my youth, snobbishly, I graded humans into two categories. Those that had read War And Peace and those who had not. And to that extent, I believed, if you had read War And Peace, you ought to have read Anna Karenina as a flow on.
The reason I love Anna Karenina is because, as a priest once explained to me, pleasure and pain and two sides of the same coin. And so it was in my youth, and because I pursued difficult relationships, that love must also bring fear, dread and suffering. Anna Karenina to me is a didactic Christian based story of what right and wrong love is. Before I go any further, I would like to add I haven't read anything of what scholars say it is, I am going off the cuff with my own opinion, so, and because we have so many customers smarter than I am, if I am wrong, please don't correct me, just let me have my opinion.
The Greatest Luxury Of All Has Been Given To Us In Bucket Loads - Time - And How We Now Spend It
It is only this week that I have started to make better use of the time on my hands to do things that pleasure me and one of them was to begin making new music playlists on Spotify which take a long while to create. You really need time on your hands to make a Spotify playlist that's from your own taste and you need to run down a hole bunch of rabbit holes just to find one great song that will have a lasting impression. One such song was Tezeta by Mulatu Astatke , which I highly encourage you to click on whilst you are reading this post, because I am writing this post in the same way that this nonchalant jazz song floats.
In The Garden Of Earthly Delights ....
In a time when there is so much uncertainty, when things look like they might spiral into hell, concurrently we have produced some of our most impressive work to date. Go figure. As a farmer once said to me many moons back: "How do you make God laugh? Tell him you have a plan!" . I have never forgotten that. It's one of those lines that comes back every time life throws you a cure ball. But, what choice to we have other than to adapt, change and move on. And if you feel confident enough, consider purchasing one of our earthly delights - because to my mind, sporting a bow tie right now might just calm the rest of the rabble down and remind them of civilization and that Rome still stands.
New Cushions - Slowly Trickling In
Our new prototypes for cushions and pillow slips are finished and I have been entertaining myself by chopping up silks from our collection and filling my own home with them as we try to perfect (though one never reaches perfection, perhaps the word is hone or refine) our make and slowly slowly they are becoming little works of art that make me very happy because it's another way I can engage my silks on a daily basis. A few of our best customers and some of our suppliers have received one on the house. I am still awaiting their feedback. Without wanting to sound pretentious, though I can be, they are made of silks that I doubt any other companies in the world today are using in production and I am super proud to be working with the silk looms that I do, because knowing that you are using the best ingredients, whether it's a cushion, a bow tie or anything else we produce, just makes it that much more unique than what else is on offer out there. And to our customers, I invite you to contact me should you ever see a silk you want as a cushion or pillow slip, we can turn them around within 72 hours. As always, I am available on WhatsApp on +61413140994 .
HOW TO MAKE OUR FACE MASKS AT HOME
It's really not that hard to make our face masks provided you have some spare time and some patience to master the technique. And what a gift to give someone dear to you?
You require:
* Two pieces of fabric cut to squares of 23cm
* Scissors
* Sewing Machine (Preferable)
* Round elastic for the ear loops
* Some pins
* An iron
Follow our video to see how to do it yourself.