A Flower in the Lapel with a Difference

I'll Be Wearing a Red Carnation

Like the idea of wearing a flower in your buttonhole, but don't walk past a cheerful cockney flower seller's cart each morning on your walk to the office? Have no fear. Vanda Fine Clothing of staunchly independent Singapore have a possible answer to your dilemma.

The Single Carnation Lapel Pin is designed by Vanda and made in Singapore from Japanese air-dried DECO clay. The pin has a traditional yet contemporary appeal that will hugger-mugger hostiles.

Pop one of these in your lapel and you'll be skipping to work and whirling your umbrella all the way.

If carnations aren't your flower of choice, orchid pins are available from Vanda in clay or rose gold (top photo and below). Just to keep things horticulturally appropriate, you could wear a carnation in the West and an orchid in the East — and ne'er the twain shall meet. Although, as a keen gardener, you will know that orchids actually have a cosmopolitan distribution.

Orchids and Cocktails at the Raffles Hotel

Naturally, you'll always wear a read carnation in your navy pinstripe suit (unless you're one of those green carnation-wearing aesthetes), but I can also see you wearing the orchid pin below in your crumpled cream linen suit, Panama hat resting on the table next to your armchair, whilst sipping a Gin Sling at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. The hotel is currently being restored to its former glory.

Sipsmith Serendipity

As you raise your glass to a portrait of Sir Stamford Raffles, you might be interested to know that the Raffles 1915 Gin used in your classic cocktail was created specifically (and exclusively) for Raffles by Sipsmith. 1915 was the year the Gin Sling was first concocted at the venerable hotel.

By quite remarkable serendipity. Sir Stamford's great, great nephew Sam Galsworthy is a co-founder of the London gin distillers.