Friday, March 09, 2007
My Name is Vanity, Sheer Vanity
Tonight I am attending the Singapore Business Awards at Ritz Carlton. It's a black tie affair so I pull out the tuxedo from my wardrobe and get my cumberbund and bowtie from the drawer. It's a miracle the pants and cumberbund still fit since I only wear the tux once or twice a year and I am reclaiming land around the waist faster than Singapore.
Once I got that out of the way, I began to think about the bowtie. For years I've been wearing a clip-on bowtie because I don't know how to tie a real bowtie. It has bothered me from time to time because it feels like not knowing how to tie a tie or how to tie your shoe laces. Sure, they have clip-on ties and velcro shoes nowadays but you get the impression that a real man should, at the very least, know how to tie a bowtie and wear a proper bowtie with his tuxedo.
Ordinarily, I could ignore the bowtie issue indefinitely as just another one of those issues at the back of my mind - like how I ignore the persistent backache whenever I golf or every girlfriend I've ever had. This time however, the issue came to the fore with this cool poster of the new James Bond film. Now it's not just knowing how to tie a bowtie. It's looking cool with the bowtie undone at the end of the evening - something which can only be done with a real bowtie.
So at lunchtime today I go to my tailor and explain the issue. To my surprise, he says all he has are clip-on, snap-on and velcro-on bowties. What's more, he doesn't know how to tie a real bowtie himself! Then he asks whether I would like to make another suit or shirt ...
I then spend the next half hour going from one tailor to another in Raffles Place until at last I found a shop that sells real bowties with matching cumberbunds AND they can teach me how to tie a bowtie! I have to say, it took me another half an hour to learn how to do it. It appears to me to be much more difficult than tying a tie. It's smaller, definitely requires use of a mirror and much easier to get wrong because the proportions have to be pretty exact.
Tonight I am attending the Singapore Business Awards at Ritz Carlton. It's a black tie affair so I pull out the tuxedo from my wardrobe and get my cumberbund and bowtie from the drawer. It's a miracle the pants and cumberbund still fit since I only wear the tux once or twice a year and I am reclaiming land around the waist faster than Singapore.
Once I got that out of the way, I began to think about the bowtie. For years I've been wearing a clip-on bowtie because I don't know how to tie a real bowtie. It has bothered me from time to time because it feels like not knowing how to tie a tie or how to tie your shoe laces. Sure, they have clip-on ties and velcro shoes nowadays but you get the impression that a real man should, at the very least, know how to tie a bowtie and wear a proper bowtie with his tuxedo.
Ordinarily, I could ignore the bowtie issue indefinitely as just another one of those issues at the back of my mind - like how I ignore the persistent backache whenever I golf or every girlfriend I've ever had. This time however, the issue came to the fore with this cool poster of the new James Bond film. Now it's not just knowing how to tie a bowtie. It's looking cool with the bowtie undone at the end of the evening - something which can only be done with a real bowtie.So at lunchtime today I go to my tailor and explain the issue. To my surprise, he says all he has are clip-on, snap-on and velcro-on bowties. What's more, he doesn't know how to tie a real bowtie himself! Then he asks whether I would like to make another suit or shirt ...
I then spend the next half hour going from one tailor to another in Raffles Place until at last I found a shop that sells real bowties with matching cumberbunds AND they can teach me how to tie a bowtie! I have to say, it took me another half an hour to learn how to do it. It appears to me to be much more difficult than tying a tie. It's smaller, definitely requires use of a mirror and much easier to get wrong because the proportions have to be pretty exact.
Fortunately, after half an hour, I sort of got the hang of it. Satisfied, I said I'll buy it.
"How much?"
"Five hundred and twenty-eight dollars," said the sales girl matter-of-factly.
"What? You've got to be joking! I could almost buy an entire suit for that price!"
"Sir, it's Ermenegildo Zegna, that's why it costs so much."
"Well do you have a bowtie and cumberbund from Rajah Cheapo & Sons of Bombay or something?" I ask with increasing alarm.
"Sorry sir, the only self-tie bowties we have are from Zegna."
So, reluctantly and mostly out of consideration for the staff who took half an hour to teach me how to tie it, I bought it.
"The name's Vanity, Sheer Vanity."
"It's a pleasure doing business with you Mr. Vanity."
# posted by Fore! @ 5:23 PM 
Comments:
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Yup, that's about the price that one pays for vanity...;)
or perhaps more since my normal/ run of the mill looking black suit would typically cost just that...
and I haven't even started spending to look vain and pretty yet...;)
welcome to the world of vanity...:)
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or perhaps more since my normal/ run of the mill looking black suit would typically cost just that...
and I haven't even started spending to look vain and pretty yet...;)
welcome to the world of vanity...:)
# posted by 
: 4:48 PM
: 4:48 PM << Home
