When I began my journey into silk bow ties I was certain that I would be successful although somewhat nervous owing to the fact that Australian men, back then, were so belligerent in terms of fashion.
What was on offer in Myer and David Jones, our leading Australian menswear department stores, was a deplorable offering of very average polyester bow ties made in China predominantly, and for the most part, of the pre-tied variety.
I was used to bow ties from Charvet of Paris and Turnbull & Asser of London. The web was still budding and these types of brands had little to no presence in this arena. So, as per that old adage 'in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king' , I thought to myself 'how hard can this be ?'
Well, it was hard. Harder than I expected. I had to work out what kind of silk weaves, weights and patterns suited my product. Then I had to source the silks, something I had no knowledge of. I had to work out what a pattern was. Then I had to start thinking about sewing techniques, packaging solutions and more. And it wasn't just on bow ties, there were ties, shirts, smoking jackets and pocket squares to think about. And finally there was the other constraint - I hadn't been a big drawing type growing up, I preferred words - so I had to both pick up pencils and paper and then go off for basic training in Adobe Illustrator. Thankfully, I had already learned the art of coding at a website design school I attended years earlier when I had the idea that I might design websites for a crust.
Today we hold one of the largest caches of Italian and English woven jacquard silks in Australia specifically for the application of bow ties but equally as beautiful for neck ties and other accoutrements such as scarves, lapel flowers, face masks and pocket squares.
Regardless of our inventory, the world has changed significantly since we came into being, and almost everything that the world has to offer is on sale between online department stores and ebay.
What we continue to offer though, especially in the realm of neck wear and shirts, is a custom made experience with a one on one approach to finding the right solution to what you require. So, if you are getting married, if you have a cause to celebrate, if you want to stand out from the crowd, if you want something just for yourself or if you just have a plain old curiosity about what we do - come visit. We are on a beautiful stretch of road on the way to Sydney's famous Watson's Bay and there is a stunning view along the way of Sydney Harbour.
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