The French call a bow tie a 'noeud papillon' which translates to a 'butterfly knot' (the word is masculine - hence Le Noeud Papillon Of Sydney was founded on a basic appreciation for the French, their beautiful language and their craftsmanship in silk neck ties.
When I began my journey into making bow ties in 2007 I had a basic knowledge of menswear. I had happened to remain in Paris longer than anticipated one summer and during that summer I purchased my first self-tying black satin silk bow tie from Charvet of Paris.
Back then such institutions as Charvet were not available online which meant that I was left with a dilemma - fly back to Paris to get another bow tie or start to make my own.
I decided to start making my own and along the way I wrote a journal blog which documented my progress. My mission was to create a bow tie of equal quality to those one could find in the best menswear stores of London, Paris and New York. We successfully completed that process in 2010 when we began to produce our own designs with Italian silk mills and now we have extended our product range to include pocket squares, ties, braces, eye shades, silk flowers, shirts, jackets, suits and much more though our core passion remains self-tying bow ties. Incidentally, the blog has now had over 1.5 million readers from around the world and has interviewed some of the most revered artisans, tailors and voices of menswear in the world today. Our company is also said by many of those voices to make the best bow ties in the world and we have been featured in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Monocle and The Rake as well as on popular menswear blogs such as The Parisian Gentleman.
We are a small company turning over no more than 3000 bow ties a year and focusing on silks designed specifically for the application of self tying bow ties. Whilst we recognise that not everybody likes bow ties, we are not looking to serve everybody... The bow tie is a polarising topic of menswear and in a world which is becoming ever more casual. Some believe it to be only for black tie and white tie, others suggest a more liberal approach and others still say it may die soon with the world's male population wearing less suits to work and less suits socially. Our customers generally buck trends and find a way to wear bow ties regardless of what the world is doing.
For me, and for those that enjoy Le Noeud Papillon, the bow tie remains the icing on the cake (or better still, the cherry on top), that final item which sets off a beautiful suit and shirt with complimenting socks and shoes. It is the final act of dressing well, to tie your bow tie in the mirror to finish your ensemble, an almost ritualistic bliss and sartorial rite of passage.