I'm Still Very Much Inspired By Charvet

A classic revisited - inspired by Charvet of Paris

One of the two shirts I ever bought from Charvet was one like the classic above, and the other, for a cousin's wedding in Paris, was a navy blue number which was ripped one night when it jagged on a crummy old door. It was a real shame; I loved that shirt and so I cut out the label and kept it as a memento and I used the fabric to polish my best shoes. The death of that Charvet shirt still upsets me to this day - it died a senseless death.

Back to the story. So this is a classic navy and white striped shirt which was almost identical in cloth to my first purchase from Charvet. To this day I keep my original hanging in pristine condition and I have it dry cleaned every six months but it no longer fits me so I just admire it from time to time. This shirt has a timeless elegance about it that comes across as more French than English and the sort of shirt you might find on a man who likes fine things but may not necessarily like wearing a tie.

This shirt was cut for a customer in Sydney, but it will certainly be on my next list of shirts to cut for myself. It is an example of Canclini's Continuativi stock book Argento fabrics range.

Our Cream Cashmere Dressing Gown

Available by custom order only. RRP: $1550.00 - by enquiry www.lenoeudpapillon.com

An Electric Blue Smoking Jacket

Made to order only - minimum time frame is 5 weeks for completion. www.lenoeudpapillon.com

Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner

A baby blue shirt should be worn as often as possible. It is the most versatile shirt outside of white and is a splendid contrast for white collars and white cuffs. If anyone watched the late night news on Channel 10 last night they would have noted young journalist Hamish McDonald's white collar with baby blue twill cotton shirt, navy suit and red repps tie in the live cross to the London 2012 Olympics. His attire was pure electricity on camera.

Five Wedding Bow Ties Depart Sydney For Brisbane

If you are choosing a black bow tie for your wedding, look no further than Le Noeud Papillon of Sydney.  We are happy to tie your bows for you in case your grooms cannot and we are always able to negotiate a better price on 4 or more bow ties.

Canclini 2012 'Skin' Range

The new 'Skin' fabric range from Canclini

Lilac Canclini 140 2 Ply Villa D'Este Shirt

This lilac cotton 140 2 ply Villa D'Este is available from Canclini's Lusso range of fabrics. It is a superb cotton and the colour works well with grey, navy, cream and white. I would venture to say that it as versatile as a baby blue shirt. If you have never used Canclini fabrics before, it is worth considering them the next time you order your shirt. Of all the fabric companies in Italy, Canclini runs the best cut-length service, allowing patrons from around the world to enjoy these fabrics without committing to a full roll of fabric.

French cuff, windsor collar, edge stitched fly front shirt from Le Noeud Papillon of Sydney using Canclini Lusso fabrics

A Wonderful Gift

This torso is unfortunately for a very small man. This shirt was a gift from the makers of Carlo Riva shirting fabric after our meeting this July. Photography never does the fabric justice when it comes to fine cotton, certainly not in this case anyway. It was a delightful length of fabric which will be treasured in years to come. It is also the first time I have experimented with a curved cut away collar. 

Photos won't do this cloth justice; Carlo Riva Blue, White & light green striped cotton fabric in a curved cutaway collar with cub cuff. Our shirts are available on a made to order basis by contacting www.lenoeudpapillon.com

Gentlemen Of Style Part 1

Posted on a mens tailoring forum, the vitriol towards this video meant that I was sure to like it. It is very enjoyable, if not only to see the details in these gentlemen's getups. The real credit though must go to Guerreisms, which produced and directed the video.

Gentlemen of Style (Part 1) from Surgam Films on Vimeo.

Sometimes It's A Matter Of Choice

Have you ever been in the supermarket aisle and seen a hundred different varieties of yoghurts in front of you that you suffer paralysis from the 'tyranny of choice' ? It can sometimes become so frightful; working out whether you want fresh berries, vanilla, light yoghurt, acidophilus, Greek, goat or cow.... that at some point you give up and walk to the next section. It is not much different when you sit down with a silk merchant.

At Le Noeud Papillon of Sydney we spend much of our time working on our own silks, but when you get over to Italy you can't help but indulge in all the archives and the hard seasonal work that cloth merchants do to present a collection of directional fabrics to some of the best known brands in the world. 

Luckily for us, we are a small brand, so nobody develops silks just for us, but occasionally we get a chance to look through the spread and pick out anything we might want to add to our existing collection.

Such was the case three weeks ago when we stumbled upon some lovely samples, part of which you can see below. The only problem for our company is, we make bow ties and very few ties, so our parameters for what we need are highly specific. Unfortunately, none of the silks below made the cut, but we thought you might appreciate their beauty anyway.

Difficulty making a decision - the thousands of silk samples available through mills in Italy

This Is Upsetting, They're Riding On Our Shirt Tails...

One of the things that really gets me upset is when someone deliberately tries to antagonise you. We have been working very hard here at Le Noeud Papillon of Sydney for many years to produce the best bow ties using the best silks, the best shirts using the best cottons. On top of that we have spent an extraordinary amount of time writing the blog and keeping people informed of our stories. It was with great disappointment that I found www.lenoeudpapillon.fr  (we are www.lenoeudpapillon.com ). We have spent an enormous amount of money pursuing a trademark which we will post below, and it is therefore sad to see someone try to piggy back off our hard work to offer a generic website which does not even produce bow ties themselves. Below is our trademark, if you have followed our brand for sometime, please support us in writing to this other website and asking them to cease trading.

Our trademark, applied for in 2010, granted in 2012 for a duration of 10 years

The site which was built in 2012 and seems to shadow everything our company does

Mast McBride - What A Unique Tie

Mast McBride followed me on twitter and on an inspection of their website I was pleasantly suprised. The tie which really stuck out was the patchwork seersucker tie. Have a look at their website:

Something unique: Mast McBride Patchwork Seersucker Tie:  $100 USD

Timothy Everest, Not Really A Stumble Upon

A remark I made on an online forum for tailors, in which I was fairly abrasive in my opinion that tailors are conduits for a customers ideas, sparked an uproar from a number of tailors. One of those that would not lie down and take it, accused me of being a nobody and equated a good tailor with a good surgeon and remarked that a patient would never tell a surgeon how to operate. I am not sure if I agree with this statement entirely and I tried to point out a few dinosaur tailors in Sydney who, though having great skills, had very few customers since they still crafted very well made suits that unfortunately still looked like sacks of potatoes on their clients because they refused to make suits 'a la mode'. In the process of all this arguing in a forum environment, which resembles a digital  Athenian plaka, this certain tailor mentioned Timothy Everest's camouflage suit in passing. What a pleasure it was to get something so positive out of an argument. I have posted some of Timothy's work below.

Robert Olson Of Houston Texas, A White Satin Silk Wedding Bow Tie From Le Noeud Papillon Of Sydney

It seemed odd that Robert Olson of Houston, Texas, USA would need a white satin silk bow tie from Le Noeud Papillon in Sydney, Australia. The beauty of being present on the internet is that you can cast a much wider net and so it was that Robert must have stumbled upon us somewhere or another and liked what we did. His needs were specific:

"Ok so I am getting married on May 26, 2012. I really like your style and want my bowtie and cumber to be from you guys. I love the Luca model but don't know much about fabric. I need kind of a quick turnaround on my order."

It was a rush, but our bow tie and cumerband, in the end a white satin silk, managed to arrive on his doorstep the same day he was flying out of Houston for his wedding. This morning I received an email from Robert with the subject line 'I did not forget' as I had asked him to share with us his bow tie. I absolutely love the knot on this one. Congratulations Robert. 

Something For The Diner Blanc Next Year?

I don't know the name of this designer, a man showed me this catalogue whilst I was in a store. I quite like how bold it is. I could see a Frenchman wearing it to the Diner Blanc next year. What do you think?

Berluti Are Making Loafers Now?

Shamefully, and I mean shamefully, I left these behind in Milan. I had gone to the trouble of getting the Berluti staff to bring them in from London and then I had a silk meeting the following morning in Como in which I placed a big order and then out of sheer guilt for the amount I spent, I sheepishly didn't collect the shoes and convinced myself that 'I need every penny for my business right now'. I loved this pair of loafers. It was the one pair I wanted to take home to Sydney and side up next to some sartorially inclined Double Bay Trotter and not say a word, just let him marvel... let him know I had been to Europe and then just keep walking. It wasn't to be. It is the woman that I didn't call back, the one that got away, the ship that has now sailed. What you can't really make our from the image is that there is a kind of splotched orange patina on the loafer that makes the shades go from blood orange to a light orange that is tending towards white. A very unique shoe, very well crafted, sturdily built, not like those very light loafers that you won't get more than a season out of. And, finally, very reasonably priced considering what they are.

Berliuti, now offering a patina suede loafer, these blood orange ones were a real treat

Shirt Details... Joel Varjacques and Marol

These I found on the Rue St Honore. I wish I hadn't lost the man's card. It was a great shop. It was towards the intersection with the Place Vendome. We have been doing shirts with this kind of detail for some time, although we run the contrast band closer to the cuff edge, not set back. 

The quality of fabrication on these shirts was very intricate, even finer than ours, which was why I wanted to photograph them. I would not advocate wearing the silk one second from the top unless you owned a business in the sex industry, but I would definitely consider the top navy shirt for anything seafaring. Joel Varjaques and Marol were just two brands being offered amongst other brands such as Brioni. 

Silks, What's In Vogue This September 2012, The Latest Issue Of Silks For Le Noeud Papillon

Right now a jacquard loom like the one below is currently working very hard to produce our next range of silks. We thought we might let you know what is in 'vogue' for us a Le Noeud Papillon. Apart from our usual mogadors, satins, saglias and repps silks we will also be experimenting with a heavier styled natte silk this season. One of the new mills that we have begun working with is a specialist in natte. So, stick around and in September we will issue our new silks out and await to hear your feedback. 

An operational jacquard loom weaving a silk. These machines will break over August and then begin work again in September

Natte silks like these are not as common as other silks such as satins. Although they can be known to fray, they give a unique matte finish to a silk rather than the usual satin sheen.

On A Roll But Doing It Solo

Roger Shamoun of Zimma Tailors said to me as I tied some bow ties in his window, 'it's hard, I'm a one man band' and I felt like turning to him and saying 'brother, give me a hug, I'm a one man band too'. Ideally, it would be good to turn a one man band into an ensemble, begin a trio, make it a quintet - but in these economically uncertain times, people are doing it tough and there isn't any cheap labour going around that you can use willy nilly, so you need to make the most of your skill sets. 

Roger is of course the brains behind a very astute looking tailoring business located in the Ivy complex off George Street in Sydney's CBD, diagonally opposite Peter Alexander. What Roger is good at is made to measure suiting which he works off new blocks that he designs each season. He also does interesting one offs for customers, like this red woollen shawl lapel evening jacket. If you are in the city and have a spare moment, drop in to see Roger's tie collection, his pocket squares, the suits and of course, our bow ties which have just arrived.

Zimma Tailors

330 George Street Sydney
No. 3 Palings Lane, Ivy
NSW 2000 Australia

Fabrics Shops, Not Just For Mums Anymore...

I must have walked, cycled or ran past Marche Saint-Pierre in Montmartre a hundred times or more. Five years ago it would have been the last place on earth I would have wanted to visit 'Cor Blimey!' For me, back then, fabric shops always brought back the haunting memory of my mother and my fastidious auntie always 'touch and feeling', then sighing and talking to the late Mr. Ganter 'oh, it's beautiful, oh how lovely' and it was all very pedestrian, very mumsy, far removed from playing martial arts wars with my brother where he was Danny Laruso and I was the guy about to get licked. Strangely, it took me years to work out that I was never going to win the fights and he was always so quick to begin the crane movement upwards preparing for the scissor kick that would give me a bloody nose. So, in truth, I would have rather been getting my head kicked in than standing around a fabrics shop whilst my mother and aunt fingered fabrics.

It was not until I started making bow ties that I started to appreciate fabrics shops. There was Ganters in Kingston, Canberra which put me onto my first satins but they were not heavy enough. There was E & M Greenfield in Sydney, but the quality wasn't near enough to what I needed. There was Jansens Tissus on the Rue Fauborg St Honore in Paris but they catered for a female clientele. There were countless small country town fabrics stores in rural NSW, Australia, a dozen or so Chinese silk merchant shops in, you guessed it, Chinatown, Sydney and then there was Textiles and Lace in Rosebery - which came close, but unfortunately the silks were sturdy duchess satins, more for wedding dresses. All of this running around broke me in, so these days, when I find a  good fabric store, I treasure it. Just like teen heart throb Neil Patrick Harris said that 'theatre is not just for the gays anymore', so too fabric shops are not just for the mums anymore....

Such was the case when on a late afternoon in early July I was sent on one last errand, to find some fabric for an application which I won't divulge to you readers just yet. Needless to say, I was so glad to be back in Montmartre and this time I had my wonderful girlfriend to accompany me to the Marche Saint-Pierre at 2 Rue Charles Nodier, Paris 18eme. Marche Saint-Pierre is to Parisians what E & M Greenfield is to Sydney, but on a much grander scale. It is right in the midst of Amelie Poulain territory, below the Sacre Coeur, so it is as much a picturesque tour of Paris as it is a fabric excursion. If you are next in Paris, I would suggest if you are into that kind of thing, as I have now become, then it will be a fruitful expedition. One piece of advice I would give you is as follows - like all good department stores, the higher you go the better it gets. So don't stay on the ground floor or else you will be disappointed, it is not until you get to the 4,5 and 6th 'etage' that you will really see what they have to offer. When you are in there, say hello to Luc Houssou on the furnishings silks floor, he is one of the best dressed Parisians I met on this trip.

Don't stop on the ground floor, it is where the mothers congregate, the real 'business' starts on the 3rd floor and up

Classic Black Tie Combination Sets Now Available

With the wedding season about to warm up again in a month we have released a black tie and pocket square combination. Our Premium Black bow tie has been paired with a classic white silk habotai pocket square with hand rolled edges, a classic staple for any man's wardrobe. It is packaged in our unique bow tie box which is ideal as a carry case for cufflinks, bow ties and pocket squares. Don't forget, we ship worldwide.www.lenoeudpapillon.com $175.00AUD - Available in limited supply and exclusively online.

Our New White Pocket Squares - Classic Staples For A Man's Wardrobe

Available online at www.lenoeudpapillon.com

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A Recommend From Sator Of Cutter And Tailor

Sator, the famous online writer who features heavily on Style Forum and on Cutter And Tailor, has written a piece on Harrisons Burley, an independent and family owned cloth company from Yorkshire, England. Harrisons are rather interesting to me because they are one of the first companies to run an eBay store which sells cut lengths and ships almost anywhere. You can log onto their website here, and then springboard from there into their eBay store where you will find cut lengths. For anyone who has an existing relationship with a real tailor, this allows you to buy cloth straight from the company and then take it directly to your tailor, thereby saving some money along the way.

For example, a super 160's wool/cashmere navy plain suiting fabric in a 3.5 metre length costs approximately $213.00AUD withstanding shipping and not including VAT which an Australian would not pay given that it is being exported directly from Yorkshire. On that basis, you are paying approximately $61 AUD a metre for fabric which from another known branded bunch, a comparative price example is $110.00 a metre for a super 110's including freight and over $230 a metre for a super 160's. However, with many types of wool and wool blends it is impossible to compare apples with apples. Either way, this is a nice resource to have available for the average man who does not have an existing relationship with a cloth company.

Super 130's pin head in navy

Super 160's cashmere wool mix twill in navy