Le Noeud Papillon and Linkson Jackson

It’s funny how despite being a grown man I still get a slight buzz when returning home to find a parcel on the doorstep - even more so when it’s actually for me.

But who can blame me when what’s inside is one of Nicholas Atgemis’ beautiful bow ties. Nicholas is the founder of newish and upcoming Australian label Le Noeud Papillon. Just in case you were wondering, the name translates as ‘the knot of the butterfly’ and is how the French refer to bow ties. An unusual choice of name for a Sydney based label you might think. But that French connection makes itself felt through much of the collection of bows, ties and accessories, all of which possess a certain bohemian joie de vivre.

Now, I can’t claim any credit for discovering this label, those laurels belong to Will at A Suitable Wardrobe. I highly recommend you listen to the interview between Will and Nicholas which is still available as a podcast on iTunes. I’d also recommend Nicholas’ blog which is attached to his website.

The arrival of this exquisitely executed bundle of silken joy was the first time I’d seen one of Nicholas’ ties in the flesh. This particular bow is called Oskar and is a navy ground and vertical white stripe, self-tie Mogador bow.

Thick and lustrous the bow sits beautifully when tied and I’ll be wearing it to work on Monday. The silks come from Como in Italy, a 45 minute drive from Milan. A location famed for its fine silks, each pattern is woven from one of Nicholas’ own designs, as opposed to being selected from existing cloth books. This makes each tie a limited edition original. Of course such quality comes at a price, and while my tie was a very generous and gratefully received gift I’d have no hesitation in handing over my own money.

At the moment the only place to buy them is direct from Oz via Le Noeud Papillon online. However, for those of us in Europe, and especially Great Britain, that will change very shortly.

I can’t claim any credit for discovering Le Noeud Papillon but remember where you first heard the name Linkson Jackson. A gentleman I had the pleasure of meeting a few months ago, like me Linkson was a Parliamentary Researcher for a number of years. And also like me his love of clothes and fine accessories has brought about a change of career path.

Linkson will soon be launching his own online store specialising in luxury and hard to find accessories from around the world, including Le Noeud Papillon bows and a range of bespoke ties. Currently in the final stages of developing his retail website, the launch of the business is imminent. You’ll be the first to know when it does launch, and my poor old postman will be the second.

Keeping Your Cool

“IF you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…” Rudyard Kipling(1895)

I recently took a punt on a few items from An Affordable Wardrobe shop. I say punt not because this is an unreliable source, far from, but because buying vintage clothes can be a bit tricky at the best of times. Buying vintage at a distance of 3000 miles away is even trickier. But I’m glad I followed my gut instincts.

Aside from a vintage shirt, previously discussed, I picked up two blazers. The pick of the haul was a genuine 1960s J Press black hopsack blazer. In fact, I was rather excited when I bagged this one. J Press is one of those wonderful labels that have entered the annals of sartorial folk law, being both a progenitor of the Ivy League look, and of course the guys that dressed Jack Kennedy. Not a brand with the slightest interest in ever coming to Britain, to get my hands on a bit of their kit from that golden era of 1960s, well I was chuffed beyond measure.

Now, this is not a tale of bitter disappointment and woe, the exact opposite in fact. Both blazers were in mint condition, particularly considering their age. No, the reason for bringing it up is to highlight the characteristics of a perfect summer jacket, for this is what both are.

Just to confound the doubters the last few days in England have been absolute scorchers. Hot, bright and uncomfortably close. By virtue of my new jacket and some profuse sweating on the days I’ve opted for a suit, I fully intend to rethink my summer work wardrobe incorporating certain characteristics into bespoke suits and jackets to be commissioned around March next year.

So what are the key components of a perfect summer suit or odd jacket?

Hopsack

Hopsack is a loosely woven coarse fabric of cotton, linen or wool. As Hardy Amies points out in his ‘ABC of Men’s Fashion’, the name refers to the weave not the pattern, which has the appearance of minute squares.

Of course hopsack isn’t the only option available, but my experience is that it wears lighter than linen or mohair and wool mixes. A nice little article here (written by Simon Crompton) on Timothy Everest’s blog introduces Fresco. Another open weave cloth made from high twist wool yarns it’s perhaps more suited to suiting.

Buggy lined

There is little point in having a lightweight open weave cloth if you then go and add layers of interlining and lining. Buggy lining as the picture above shows refers to a loosely attached lining which comes either 1/3 or 1/2 way down the back of the jacket. This means for reducing weight and layers is equally appropriate for odd jackets or summer suits, as demonstrated here.

Keep the padding to a minimum

As with the buggy lining the concept is a simple one; reduce layers, reduce weight and increase air flow. People often mistakenly use the term soft shouldered when they mean lightly structured. Soft shoulders follow more closely the natural curve of the shoulder and don’t have the acute angles from the neck and between the arm and the sleeve-head that normal more structured jackets do. My jacket is lightly structured. The only padding is a small amount in the sleeve-head. This makes for a light jacket and allows for a great deal of movement.

Patch pockets

Another means of reducing layers and increasing air flow is having patch pockets. The pocket is attached directly to the outside facing cloth of the jacket, thereby removing the need for a pocket lining. Regular pockets not only have their own pocket linings but are usually attached to the inside lining of the jacket, and a good summer jacket should have as few linings as possible.

While it is too late to get suits made for this summer I shall be incorporating these lessons learnt in time for next year, where I hope to have the perfect summer suits.  If you can keep your cool while all around you are losing theirs…

The Soft Roll Project: Update

Long time readers may remember it’s been my ambition to start producing a few clothes under my own label. Every season I struggle to find certain items, but without the money to get all my clothes made for me I’ve decided this is the only answer. I’ve settled on a name for the label, and the clothes will be classically inspired, hard to find, limited edition items of good quality all sold at a fair price.

The first item I want to produce is a proper soft roll collar button down shirt, the kind that unofficial Ivy League archivist G. Bruce Boyer regularly waxes lyrical about. I’m yet to find a shirt with a proper soft roll at a reasonable price – lower than £100 - and this seemed a worthy first project.

Well, last week I met the manufacturer for my shirts and we discussed how we might go about this collaborative project. Each shirt will be:

-Made to order, within the European Union, by a shirt making family with a proud history and over two generations of experience behind it;

-Hand cut;

-Individually made by one artisan;

-Available in short, regular and medium sleeve lengths;

-Available in three colours: white, blue and pink;

-Of high quality 2-fold cotton from some of Europe’s finest mills

And provided my maths is sound I should be able to retail this for under £50. This would allow me to satisfy my other criterion that the shirt should be an affordable price, and like the originals accessible to both the banker and the student. Because each shirt is made to order the make time is 5 weeks, but this is also how I’m able to bring it in for such a reasonable price; reasonable when you consider plenty of labels charge a lot more for a lot less and still don’t deliver a guaranteed soft roll collar.

My manufacturer is currently working up samples which will allow us to experiment with the collar to get it just right.

With regard to stylistic points, the shirt will be in keeping with the original soft roll button downs by being closer to a regular cut rather than a slim fit – whose day is done I think. It will have button cuffs of course, a proper box pleat and a back button on the collar. I’ve decided against having a pocket, but all going well I will offer a double pocket version to be called the weekender at a later date.

And the name of this shirt, ‘Brooks was here’.

A Commuters Lot Is Not A Happy One

I recently joined the ranks of the commuter. Unless you live above your place of work we are all commuters. But I mean the real deal, not those fellows whose journey to work is within the M25, but a proper long distance yomp - 2.5hours door to door - if all goes to plan.

My new job takes me from London to Cambridge each day, featuring two changes of train, a tube ride and a 20 minute walk from the station to the office morning and night. The first day in I got soaked from the toes up thanks to a summer downpour – something we get a lot of in England.

When you consider the trial of will that is British public transport these days; then the need to lug laptops, blackberries, papers and gym kit back and forth; and finally factor in the changeable whether, it’s a tricky prospect maintaining standards of dress on a prolonged daily commute. No wonder most people abandon all attempts at style and dressing well, opting instead for comfort and convenience.

This last factor, convenience, is a particularly difficult urge to overcome. Having suffered a lengthy commute, I can well understand why some men, and many more women, choose to wear trainers over shoes to and from the office.

But footwear isn’t the only issue. Even before I started my long commute I began to despair of rucksacks. While useful for lugging kit around, with the added bonus of keeping your hands free, few items of apparel do more damage to a suit than a rucksack. These bags destroy shoulder pads and reduce even a well made suit to appearing like a cheap rag. The main problem is that the damage these bags do to a suit outlasts the mere wearing of the bag.

But it is possible to commuter proof your working wardrobe. For me that started with the purchase of an Ally Capellino Timothy Tote.  This low key London label is the brainchild of Alison Lloyd and first launched back in 1980. Their range of bags and accessories have a minimalist industrial aesthetic, which coupled to pleasing design tweaks makes them highly original. They’re not cheap but they are well made and wonderfully practical. But, whichever brand you opt for a Tote is a shrewd investment.

The next step in my wardrobe reappraisal is footwear. This is a subject I touched on briefly in an earlier unrelated post. When last in Rome I noticed that during wet winter months the males out there substitute their slim Blake Stitched shoes for more robust forms with rubber soles. I’d planned a shift to such footwear for high winter but that investment in stouter shoes, in particular Dainite soled shoes, will be brought forward. As to sources, Herring Shoe do a nice range which maintain the elegance of a classic dress shoe with the practicality of either a rubber insert or complete Dainite sole.

A commuter’s lot is not a happy one, but it doesn’t have to be uncomfortable or inelegant. Happy trails.

Buying Ready-to-Wear Shirts in Japan: Beams

Here at Men’s Flair we frequently discuss that most essential item of men’s attire: the dress shirt. One aspect of it that we repeatedly mention, like Howard Hughes on a bad day, is the fit. Even a $300 shirt can make you look bad if it’s baggy and ill-proportioned, and with so many options available these days, men really don’t have an excuse for wearing something that looks like it once hosted the Cirque du Soleil.

Finding that perfectly-fitting shirt can be a long, difficult process. The best solution is, of course, to have shirts made to your body’s proportions. But even going custom won’t guarantee a good fit if you can’t try it on during the construction process, and it’s sometimes impractical for busy chaps to find a decent tailor and then make the time to visit him for sizings.

While traipsing around various parts of Tokyo I’ve looked through many a menswear shop in search of the ideal ready-to-wear shirt. As you would expect, most ready-to-wear shirts here are designed to fit the standard profile of Japanese men, who tend to be smaller in the chest and shoulders – and shorter in the arms – than westerners of similar height. Nevertheless, I’ve found that in terms of fit, as well as price and quality, Beams’s shirts are among the best of any country.

All of Beams’s own-brand shirts are (to my knowledge, at least) made in Japan. In general, their collars are a great deal softer than most English-made shirts, giving a more relaxed feel. The semi-spread is the most prevalent collar type (and arguably the most practical, as it looks good with ties of varying widths), but I’m quite partial to the button-down variety, especially during summer.

Flat, rather than placket, shirt fronts are the norm. I was a bit unsure about this at first, but have actually grown to prefer them. The yoke is sometimes (but not always) seamed in the middle, and the back panel is almost always darted. The darts serve to suppress the fabric around the chest and midriff, giving a more fitted look. I haven’t found my arm movement restricted in any way by the lack of pleating, but their absence might make the chest area a bit tight for the barrel-chested.

Beams’s shirts are made from a variety of cottons in different weights. Most of the ones I own are made from lightweight 2-ply cotton, but I do have the odd heavier-weight Oxford cloth that’s a bit more casual. I’ve found that, regardless of type, the fabric is of good quality and able to withstand the weekly wearing-and-washing routine without any special treatment. I’ve had the pink one (pictured top left) for at least four years and it still looks very respectable.

It’s traditionally been quite hard to find Beams gear outside Japan. Inventory magazine’s Vancouver shop sells quite a few Beams-branded items, but they tend to be more casual shirts and whatnot for “urban rambler” types. Zozotown – a vast online clothes shopping mall that caters to young Japanese and offers virtually the entire inventory of Beams, United Arrows, et al – might one day start an international shipping service, but right now you’ll have to go through a proxy shopping service like FromJapan.co.jp, or find someone in Japan who will buy and ship the goods on your behalf.