Two weeks ago, it was time to go to Como again, to get the autum/winter collection ready with more autumnal and winter colours, textures and weaves. 

I was welcomed in the region of Como by two very kind persons, Alessandra and Francesco.
Francesco had planned a visit of the Taroni silk mill, one of the oldest producers of silk. The visit started by meeting Michele Canepa, the owner of the company, who kindly received us.

Taroni mostly works with high end designers, such as Lanvin, Armani Couture and the long list could continue. What makes them different is that they still use some of the machinery they were using more than a hundred years ago. Michele emphasizes the fact that Italian silk production was a national heritage and savoir faire that the Italians had mastered over the decades.

After showing us fabrics they produced,  I can tell you that I still remember the drape of the satins, the lightness of the crepe and the unique softness of the duchesse, this was a work of art.
We then started walking through the production process, from getting the thread ready, to the weaving, until the very end, quality control. It is rather hard to imagine how someone could create the machinery used to weave silk, and that from meters and meter of utterly thin thread, they end up creating such beautiful pieces.

Surprisingly enough, Michele is the brother of the owner of my supplier, and he told me that even then I could not find fabric made for neckties in Taroni, that I should keep working with my usual supplier. I take his words for it.

It was time to head to my appointment with my main supplier, a few kilometers away. While driving in the heart of the region of Lake Como, I could only admire the scenery that was offered to me: blue skies, the greenest trees, warm colored houses, and the still water of the magnificient lake itself.

I had the great pleasure to meet Marcello again, still wearing his two knitted ties tied together, his “marque de fabrique”, and sporting his most sincere smile, as he always does. 

After a few minutes walking, we were surrounded by alleys and alleys of silks, free to explore through the heart of Italian savoir faire.

When it comes to building a collection, and choosing fabrics, I only trust my hands and my heart. Choosing fabrics is all about feeling them, physically and emotionally. I want them to offer the most beautiful shine, drape and softness, as well as sharing emotions. That is why, when I go through all these fabrics, I know which one should be used. 

I will not reveal the whole choice of fabrics yet, but you will find a very wide variety of weaves and textures this time, with blends of silk, cashmere, wool, making it more sophisticated and delicate.

Dear readers, your new collection will be available soon enough, when the proper autum and winter arrives.

On Thursday of last week, I was about to walk into the evening’s usual manoeuvres when a dashing member of the Savile’s Club arrived in jodhpurs and a riding jacket having just dismounted his beautiful Triumph Bonneville. He was accompanied by a beautiful, redhead–Continental with that rather fetching dust haze from a proper road journey. They had been riding back from Somerset since noon and had worked up a healthy appetite for cocktails and hearty yet refined food. The Savile Club clearly was the perfect answer.

One of the burdens of London life today is that we devote too much time to work and too little to the sophistication of elegant unwinding. It is easy to mix only with one’s office colleagues and then trundle home to the demands of home life without a healthy decompression between. Too much noise, too many delayed trains and tubes, too little of the unexpected makes for dullness.

The wonderful thing about clubs is that they offer variety, intelligent but not overbearingly intellectual friendship and engagement over a glug of something served in crystal. You can meet vaguely like-minded souls from other occupations. You can attend lectures and special lunches if you desire, and in the evenings there are occasional less than usual gathering such as the Eccentric Club, to which I was kindly invited to hold a speech about the art of wearing bowties and what it requires and entails, from mindset to dexterity.

A matter for just a few gentlemanly types you may say? Well it is too easy to look like a prize idiot when sporting a bow tie rather than the habitue of Gooodwood Estate comfortable in best tweed or the pages of James Bond (any of the characters you might choose, James Bond is a brand not a person and one that will be forever associated with looking dashing and living in the world of The Club).

So whilst getting ready to impart the world-changing truth on such important subjects as ribbon width and how one’s facial features impact the shape of a bow I found my mind wandering to the whole world of Clubs and gentlemanly life.

Think about it, the word “club” is an elastic affair. It can mean a discotheque, a sports association or an after-work boozer for trendy 30-somethings where the barmaid wears a string vest and hails you with the words ‘ello darlin’ or “ hiya mate”.

To me, a Club ought to be a comfortable home-away-from-home, a urban billet where they serve good but not over-fussy dishes, where they have a few reasonably priced bedrooms ( just in case ), where the staff make an effort to be smart, courteous but not overbearing and where a chap can retire to a low-slung, deep-buttoned leather armchair with a copy of that morning’s newspapers, maybe to catch up on some incongruous style columnists drivel as a guilty pleasure without being told off for snoring. That’s my sort of club, anyway.

The Savile Club in Mayfair, one block up from Claridge’s Hotel and one down from Grosvenor Square at whose far end glowers the 1960 monstrosity of the U.S. embassy, is an 18th century affair done up in the ornate Parisian manner with twirl cornices and mirrors at every turn. If you called its architectural style wildly camp you would not be entirely wrong.

All I can say is that I could not have imagined a more beautiful setting and, returning to my subject, a better audience for this speech opportunity. In other words mixed in with a smattering of happy drunks, the odd bore and the occasional ex-convict were a wonderful collection of professionals, composers, hot air balloonists, refined gentlemen of independent means and ladies with life stories that could make your average Victorian executioner blush. What a perfect place. What a perfect evening.

Thanks to David De Vynel and Imants von Wenden for the invitation.

Photo credits @Annadvk

Today I would like to tell you about the stunning region in the north of Italy, where we find many of our prestigious silks from the local mills.

So where exactly is Como?

It’s a city in the north of Italy, an utterly hilly region, about 22 miles north of Milan, and on the shores of Lake Como. The landscape has been the subject of thousands of paintings, and that’s no surprise when you actually see it with your own eyes. Lake Como is surrounded by mountains where tiny villages overlook the famous clear blue water and along which trees shade the prestigious gardens.

The region of Como itself is an open invitation for travellers seeking peace and beauty.

To get to Como from Milan you have to drive through the narrowest of winding roads. It’s tricky enough driving the smallest car along these roads, and I would not even tell you about facing the challenge of a ride by bus. But the difficult journey is repaid when you eventually get there and experience its beauty. 

Como’s silk tradition goes back hundreds and hundreds of years. It is said that in the Middle Ages craftsmen from Como who traveled all the way to China brought back with them the knowledge of producing silk.

  

Next, Mulberry trees were then planted in the region, specifically for feeding the Bombyx Mori silk-moths that were used to produce the silk thread. Thus began the Como tradition.

More recently, the silk mills in Como have kept ahead of technological innovation, from the tinting of threads, to the actual weaving or designing new patterns.

As you might expect, most of the silk mills in Como are family businesses; dynasties such as Ratti, Binda, Boselli or Mantero.

 Perhaps it is not surprising but, today, Italy produces about 71% of all the silk produced in Europe, and 79% of that is produced in Como. That works out at 3,200 tons of silk - no wonder Como is known as the Silk Capital of Europe. 

This fabulous place is where we travel to choose our silks used to make LaBowtique bow ties. From the start we always vowed to provide you with the highest quality of silks that we could find. Our eyes are everywhere: looking for the silks that catch our eyes straight away; or the ones we find unusual or quirky; or it may be something in the details or the colour combinations; or the size of the patterns; or an unusual weave, a soft touch and drape, or simply us feeling and knowing that ‘this’ particular silk will turn into a great bow tie that we know you will enjoy wearing.

To know a bit more about us, give us a visit at http://www.labowtique.com/gb/content/12-our-bow-ties
                                                                                                                                        

Aujourd’hui nous souhaitons vous parler de la magnifique région de Come en Italie, où nous trouvons les sublimes soies produites localement.

Un peu de géographie, Come est une ville situé au nord-est de l’Italie, dans une région très vallonnée.
Le paysage est digne d’une peinture, le lac de Come trône au milieu de montagnes timides où de discrets villages mettent les pieds dans l’eau, entourés d’arbres plus verts que nature et d’une eau plus bleue qu’un beau ciel d’été. Cela paraît peut être poétique, mais prenez la peine de jeter un œil à ces quelques photos.

La région de Come est une invitation au voyage et à la beauté.

Afin d’arriver à Come, depuis Milan, il faut emprunter de petites routes, similaires à nos routes de montagne Françaises, à la différence que les routes Italiennes sont très escarpées et sinueuses, laissant passablement assez d’espace à deux voitures de taille raisonnable. La route vers sa beauté est bien méritée.

La tradition de la soie remonte à des centaines et des centaines d’années dans cette région, c’est au Moyen-Âge que des artisans ayant voyagé jusqu’en Chine rapportent leurs connaissances à propos de la production de la soie à Come. La sériculture s’est développée suite à la plantation de mûriers dans le nord de l’Italie, ce dont se nourrissent les vers à soie, les Bombyx Mori.

Au fur et à mesure des siècles, les soieries de Come se sont positionnées comme innovatrices en termes de technique, que ce soit pour la création de la teinture, l’application de celle-ci à la soie et le tissage à proprement parler. La grande majorité des entreprises de Come sont des entreprises familiales, pour n’en citer que quelques unes, Ratti, Binda, Boselli, Mantero.

Aujourd’hui, l’Italie produit 91% de la soie en Europe, dont 79% à dans la région de Come, produisant ainsi 3 200 tonnes de soie. Ne cherchez pas plus loin afin de savoir d’où elle tire sa renommée de Capitale de la Soie.

Cette région est celle où nous nous déplaçons afin de visiter les plus belles soieries Italiennes et de sélectionner pour vous les soies avec lesquelles seront confectionnés les nœuds papillons de la Bowtique, celles qui ont particulièrement attiré notre œil par leurs motifs, leurs teintes, leur tissage, leur toucher et leur brillant.

Pour en savoir davantage, rendez nous visite sur http://www.labowtique.com/fr/content/12-nos-noeuds-papillons

When we think about bow ties, we obviously think about the "classic butterfly" shape bow tie, when there are quite a few other different shapes of them, most of them suffered from the ravages of time, sadly.

This guide will help you discover about the main shapes of bow ties that exist. Of course anything can be done in term of shape, as long as the "opposite symmetry" allows it. Opposite symmetry, you probably wonder what that is, let me explain in a few words, be careful, if you are not too good with directions, that might be confusing. Once tied, a bow tie has 2 loops and 2 ends. Each one of them being opposite to the other. For example, if there is a loop on the front right, there will be another loop on the rear left, then one end on the front left and the other on the rear right. Does that make any sense to anyone? I reckon that pictures will help you understand better, I will show you in another article, soon enough.

Well, let's get to the point.

And to make sure you will choose the shape of bow tie that will actually suit your face the best, we also made a guide about different face shapes, and the bow ties that go with it. Only because we want you to look the most elegant. That is how far we take Bowtieology, the science of bow ties.

Now that you know what bow tie would suit you, the one and only bow tie maker to offer you this service is no one but la Bowtique, at http://www.labowtique.com/gb/4-unique-bowtique

The 5 essential rules to wearing the bow tie.

First of all, without talking about bow ties, we have to remember that beauty lies in harmony.

According to the aesthete philosophy, beauty is defined as the characteristic of a thing which, through a sensorial experience, gives you a sensation of pleasure or satisfaction.

This harmony can be defined by the shape of the bow tie, its visual aspect and its proportions.

Beauty is then linked to the idea of balance, of mathematical harmony between the bow tie once tied and the wearer, or more accurately, its face.

While looking at films, series or TV (I do not, but maybe you do), sometimes I looked at a bow tie and thought, there is something wrong about it, but could not quite tell what. I started thinking about what was not working, and I tried to make up rules about how a bow tie could be beautiful, in a philosophical way.

Here is what I came up with.

5 essential rules on wearing a bow tie:

1. First of all, once tied, a bow tie should not exceed the distance between the ends of the two eyes. That is the first, and most essential point. (see picture)
   
2. Then, you know some people have bigger hands, bigger feet than others and whatever else. They would wear bigger gloves for hands, bigger shoes, and socks for feet. The same goes with bow ties. Big faces go for big bow ties, small faces go for small bow ties. Easy.
   
   
3. One should wear a certain shape of bow tie according to the shape of his face, to balance its features and not accentuate it.
   
   
4. And remember that just like when wearing a tie, your bow tie should be adapted to the lapels of your jacket. Don’t go for a narrow bow tie if you wear a very wide lapelled jacket.
   
   
5. Last rule and probably one of the most important one, when your bow tie is tied, forget about it.

Here are a few examples of how not to wear a bow tie, and how to wear it properly.

 Sorry Albert.

Sorry, stranger.

Sorry, well, no, there's nothing right about this picture.

A mix of the 3 of them. 

Angelo Flaccavento, perfect proportions, no faux-pas.

Jean, black studs and white tie, not too sure about that, but wearing the perfect bow tie.

John Malkovich, perfect proportions, splendid mix of colours.

To find the perfect bow tie for you, visit http://www.labowtique.com/gb/4-unique-bowtique where you can choose your favorite fabric, and the shape you want.

                                                                                                                            

Les 5 règles essentielles pour porter beau le nœud papillon.

Tout d’abord, gardons en tête que toute notion de beauté est associée à la notion d’harmonie.

Selon la philosophie de l’esthétique, la beauté est définie comme la caractéristique d’une chose qui au travers d’une expérience sensorielle procure une sensation de plaisir ou de satisfaction.

Cette harmonie peut être définie par la forme de la chose, son aspect visuel, ses proportions.

La beauté est donc liée à l’idée d’équilibre, d’harmonie mathématique entre le nœud papillon une fois noué, et la personne le portant, ou plus précisément son visage.

En regardant des films, des séries ou la télévision (je ne la regarde plus, mais peut-être que vous, oui) je me suis rendu compte que parfois le rendu d’un nœud ne fonctionnait pas, quelque chose clochait, et j’ai commencé à me demander pourquoi, et essayer de comprendre quelles pourraient être les règles pour que le rendu d’un nœud soit Beau. Et voici mes conclusions.

Cet article n’est pas le seul, un suivant arrivera dans quelques jours, pour approfondir le sujet.

Voici donc les 5 règles essentielles afin de porter beau le nœud papillon :

1. Une fois noué, le nœud papillon ne doit pas excéder l’espace entre l’extrémité des deux yeux. (voir la photo ci-dessus)
   
2. Comme vous le savez, certaines personnes ont des plus grandes mains que d’autres, ou des plus grands pieds, ou peu importe quoi d’autre, par conséquence ceux-ci porteront de plus grands gants, de plus grands souliers, et que sais-je encore. Il en va de même pour les nœuds papillons, les grands visages porteront de grands nœuds, les petits visages en porteront de plus petits.
   
   
3. Choisissez votre nœud papillon suivant la forme de votre visage. Toutes les formes de nœuds papillons ne conviennent pas à toutes les formes de visages. Il faut que la forme du nœud atténue les caractéristiques de votre visage, et non pas qu’il les accentuent. Nous aborderons ce sujet de manière plus détaillée dans de prochains articles.
   
   
4. Rappelez-vous qu’il faut adapter la largeur de votre nœud aux revers de votre veste, tout comme vous le faites avec votre cravate. Tout comme vous ne portez pas de cravate fine, ou « slim » (ahem) avec une veste à revers larges, ne le faîtes pas non plus avec un nœud papillon.
   
   
5. Et la dernière règle, néanmoins essentielle.. une fois votre nœud noué, oubliez le, portez le avec légèreté.

Voici quelques exemples pour illustrer les mauvaises, et les bonnes proportions.

Désolé Albert.

Désolé.

Désolé, quoique non, rien ne va dans cette photo.

Un mix des trois.

Angelo Flaccavento, proportions parfaites, pas de faux-pas.

Jean Dujardin, mis à part les boutons noirs, proportions parfaites.

John Malkovich, parfait, des proportions jusqu'à la couleur.

Afin de trouver le noeud papillon parfait, vous pouvez visiter http://www.labowtique.com/fr/4-noeud-unique où vous pouvez choisir votre soie favorite ainsi que la forme de votre noeud.