On Finding The Perfect Pocket Square

Have lunch first . . .

Despite my wardrobe overflowing with all the evidence of my experience, I’m generally quite awful at buying pocket squares (neckties even more so). It’s so easy when choosing, to select a particularly eye-catching pattern or strongly accented mixture of colors. Worse still, all too often, you end up buying the item you find most appealing — something which as a result very nearly matches the previous version of the same item you bought recently, and the time before that.

If experience suggests anything, it suggests that the perfect silk Mughal-print pocket square doesn’t exist, and if it does, it doesn’t exist in my wardrobe. As it took me quite a few attempts in vain to realize too, the perfect one (if it should exist) is actually more likely to be made from a linen blend.

Almost all of my best purchases, those few items that I wear most, were bought with less care and fixation — all invariably somewhat on a whim: a plain knit tie that I bought on holiday because I wanted a memento; the E.Marinella tie bought in the final hours of an online sale because it was heavily discounted (if you’re going to buy rashly in a sale, buy impeccable quality); and of course these two, rather simple, grey Drake’s squares, bought only because they were pleasing to the touch.

Rather than trying to fill that neat void in your collection; when buying on a whim, you buy something you don’t have. If you want to buy something really worthwhile then, do it when you already feel satiated rather than searching — ideally whilst still under the glow of a good lunch (at best a three-martini one).

Pocket square or work of art?

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The Tiger Trap Porcelain/Moss

$130

Bastet’s Bounty Onyx/Gold

$130

Ode to Anubis Rust/Kohl

$130

The Faithful Lamb Slate/Fog

$125

Mark Birley apparently bought the iconic Annabel’s ‘Buddha Room’ buddha from Barling of Mount Street (now the Moynat store) after lunch. Not to suggest that Birley had too many pourings of poire after a good meal, but imagine buying a four-and-a-quarter foot high wooden Buddha — yet look how that turned out.

Have a good day all – and happy lunching.