Going Beyond the Honeymoon Phase
Where do you buy your shirts?
‘The City of London’ is the name given to the financial district of England’s capital, it powers the UK’s largest sector, and is also where I worked for six years.
In 2016, my office was located on Birchin Lane, which runs between Cornhill and Lombard Street. I had only recently secured my first ‘proper job,’ after having spent the past four years out of art college, trying to engineer an unlikely career in financial services. Having succeeded in this long-winded endeavour, I was full of pep about what now lay before me, the hard part supposedly done.
For the rank and file such as myself, who might wear the smear of ‘city boy’ without the accompanying financial benefits, you’d likely choose to buy your shirts from one of three suppliers; T.M. Lewin, Charles Tyrwhitt or, if you fancied yourself a bit edgy; Thomas Pink.
My Dad was a T.M. Lewin man, so as I saw it, that made me one as well. The closest branch was a two-minute walk away on Cornhill, opposite the Royal Exchange, and I’d periodically stop by when a shirt in my limited rotation needed replacing.
It was on one of these occasions while wearing my favourite shirt with faint dashed stripes, that I had one of my strangest retail experiences to date.
Not in stock
On entering, I noticed a tall female sales assistant with brown hair and dark eyes that I hadn’t seen before, helping another punter on the shop floor. Being immediately attracted to her, I decided to occupy myself until she was available.
I wasn’t required to wear a tie to work, and was therefore very much ‘out of the market’, but this didn’t stop me from browsing their selection with the intense scrutiny of a buyer who may well be stuck deciding for hours.
Unsurprisingly, I still hadn’t reached any clear-cut decision on my tie purchase, when the sales assistant freed up, and approached me to see if I needed any help.
0 Comments