Penny - In The Vein Of Churchill

One of the things I learnt recently was that Winston Churchill wore navy with white polka dot bow ties, not, as I have previously thought, black with white polka dots. The reason I had it figured incorrectly was that my only reference was black and white photos I could find of Churchill. It was an article in the Wall Street Journal by William Lyons, with Charles O'Reilly from Turbull & Asser, where Churchill once bought his bow ties from, which set me straight:

"I suppose we really ought to put it on display," says Charles O'Reilly, the buyer for Turnbull & Asser who is responsible for purchasing the retailer's stock of brightly colored silks. Not that the tailor is short of neckwear; leafing through a tie rack replete with dozens of styles, Mr. O'Reilly picks out a royal-blue polka-dot number familiar to many as the preferred choice of Sir Winston Churchill. Due to a number of handwritten requests from customers over the past two years, the London-based tailor decided to reintroduce its Churchill Spot bow-tie range this year. "It's proved hugely popular," he says, adding that sales of bow ties at the company have increased as much as 25% in the past two years.