Back in the days of expense account yore, it was not unusual to drop $300 to $400 on lunch with a single client. Beers before lunch, wine with lunch, after lunch port and cigars. This was relationship building and I sure as hell wasn't going to endure three hours of a CFO's gushing about his favorite ride at Six Flags on my dime. Especially when my employer had an iron clad non-compete.
I have seen clients expense golf clubs, fur coats and prostitutes. That's not so much about building relationships as it's using your position to grab something for yourself. The client who bought a fur coat also bought this tie for me. Or, was it a pair of box cloth braces? I'm not too sure. It was after a very long lunch that we stumbled into Paul Stuart. The client wasn't so much generous as he was buying my silence when he whipped out company plastic to pay for a fur lined Loden coat.
That was 17 years ago and this tie remains a favorite despite its unethical origins. Everybody thinks it's a baseball tie until they take a closer look. Hugely popular with Brits and Bermudians, it never fails to secure a surprised double take. I guess they wonder why a Septic (Septic Tank- Yank) would wear a Cricket tie? They should ask the guy who expensed it.
Nice tie but what about the shirt? Hilditch and Key? Alas, I am without expense account stories...but port, cigars, golf clubs, fur coats, braces and prostitutes are a different matter...
ReplyDeleteOyster Guy-
ReplyDeleteYou're not supposed to notice the shirt.
tintin, I love the tie, where is it from?
ReplyDeleteNic- Chanel from the early to mid '90s. Great ties but they had these horrible little chains for tie keepers on the back.
ReplyDeleteI know its not cricket but I noticed the shirt first too.
ReplyDeleteEnzo- I know you think it's Rugby but it's not.
ReplyDeleteIf the tie was framed by the jacket's gorge instead of the shirting it would definitely leap out.
ReplyDeletePerfect.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a favorite ride at Six Flags but I have a favorite one at Whitewater! Which is owned by Six Flags! Got an hour to hear about it? You're payin'! Hey, you gonna eat that? Lemme just reach over your plate there...
ReplyDelete-DB
Damn nice tie... ever wear one of those club collar rounded jobbies? might go nice with that
ReplyDeleteThe decline in generational style changes
ReplyDeleteA reader writes:
One thing I noticed when I was looking through my mom's 1973 high school yearbook was how similarly everybody was dressed. Compare that to my (late '90s/early 2000s) high school experience, where there were different subgroups who dressed differently from one another.
If you ever watch either of the MTV series 16 and Pregnant or Teen Mom, you'll notice how many of the dads dress similarly to one another: solid-color oversized baseball caps, usually turned to one side, and baggy clothes. That's basically the style of lower-class white teenagers (you see those clothes all over the men's section at Wal-Mart.) On the other hand, my cousin, a conservative 17-year-old from an upper-middle-class family, would never be caught dead dressed like that.
In other words, what's changed is that in the past, people had a common culture, and teenagers dressed to distinguish themselves from 40-year-olds. Now teenagers dress to distinguish themselves from other teenagers.
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