[dropcap cap=A]s we were dressing for a black-tie charity event one evening, we couldn’t find my husband’s bow tie. Crisis! Feeling creative, and struggling with his collar (and bad temper), I managed to substitute one of our pins — matte onyx and gold — instead. He grumbled, but finally wore it, and even enjoyed it. (“Told you so!”)[/dropcap]
Then I decided to perform a public service for America and start a trend to liberate all the beleaguered males from the horrors of the bow tie: I moved a number of our more geometric, understated, slow-moving ladies’ pins to the men’s case. They looked good there.
Sure enough, when the wife of one of our clients, a theater director, came in to buy him an anniversary gift, what do you think I immediately suggested? Yes, and she did buy him a nice fan-shaped onyx pin.
What I didn’t know at the time was that he had just won a Tony award, and soon enough, I had the pleasure of cutting out from my newspaper the picture of award-winning director Robert Hall’s nomination. Fastened to the collar of his dress shirt was a fan-shaped pin — my pin! I started a trend!
[h4]Eve J. Alfillé[/h4]
Eve J. Alfillé Gallery and Studio, Evanston, IL
[span class=note]This story is from the December 2010 edition of INSTORE[/span]