A friend of ours received a present the other day.
A white box. Half the size of a shoe box. On the front in classy black sans serif it read ‘MR PORTER’
Not his name of course, but one of the world’s latest names in luxury clothing, accessories and other pursuits of interest to the urban male.
Launched in February 2011 Mr Porter is now ‘the premier global online retail destination for men’s style.’
The company is the product of some smart thinking by leading men in style and fashion including Toby Bateman chief menswear buyer of Selfridges and Jeremy Langmead former editor of Esquire.
It enjoys the backing of Net-A-Porter the women’s fashion label now presenting top brands from the catwalks to a worldwide audience, an enterprise with a value of 350 million pounds.
The Mr Porter website is impeccable. Offering insights and advice as well as sales. They believe in style not fashion. The colour scheme is mostly no-nonsense black and white. Straightforward and honest. As is the advice and the carefully selected range of brands they sell.
Mr Porter is not an outrageous follow-me-if-you-dare style leader but rather the approach is targeted, tailored is possibly a better word, for a well-heeled but confident and conservative man.
Apart from clear displays of clothes for you to buy, additional sections attract the eye, like their gallery of style icons past and present. Each one of these men carries the formal title of Mr, except of course if they are more correctly addressed as Sir, Lord or Duke.
The website already enjoys a total of more than 1.6 million viewers each month, offering express delivery to over 170 countries and, for the style leaders of London and Manhattan, same day delivery.
Now, what was in our friend’s box?
What treasure lay in this sturdy white package?
Underneath the voluminous cushioning of black tissue he found a small black velvet drawstring bag with a subtle logo,
Inside that, a silver money clip. On one side a small panel of the familiar technicolour keyboard and on the other side, was engraved ‘Paul Smith’
A card, with words supplied by the sender but printed by the company, said ‘This should match your socks nicely …”
Indeed it did. A lovely touch.
If you feel like it’s time to lift your game, elevate your look on life, improve your wardrobe, take a regular visit to www.mrporter.com
