Le Noeud Papillon Life & Style

A year on I was ready to try on my mock up shirt. This time I had established a relationship with the head of Charvet, Jean-Claude Colban, and I had asked him to lunch so that I might be able to talk to him about things other than business. It was a privilege I won't forget any time soon - what began with me reading out a small passage of text I'd written into Google Translate and then written out by hand, was met with that general mirth of the French who love it when you try your very best to be one of them and is reciprocated with good will towards the tourist. You see, in all my years of going to Paris as a tourist I had learned one thing - do not approach the French with your guns blaring English like the Americans, for you will be met with resistance. Show a deference towards the language and culture and you may very well be met with a congenial Frenchman who speaks English perfectly well.

I had arrived in Como and unpacked my bag, I lay down in a towel on my bed after a shower and checked my Instagram to see I had a direct message from Andy Poupart - known on Instagram as Style After 50). He was in Milan, could I meet with him during the week. 

I stumbled upon this concept when I was speaking to a silk merchant who works with multiple looms. Over coffee I was asking him about the cost of capital associated with each machine and he was referring to one particular weaving company and their equipment when he explained that a deal was done between the owner of one company and another to merge all the equipment into one building.

So there we were figuring out what to eat on the menu and I usually just follow any line that says 'tartufo' and say yes and somehow we all ordered the same starter and we really did hit the nail on the head. 

The look is, for me anyway, very dashing. I wouldn't do it if I didn't think it added a certain flair. I thought I was the first to do it you see, that sort of ridiculous idea that you sometimes get that you are the renegade, the outlier, the man who is pushing the boundaries of menswear...