The Limey

Limey, Pom and Tommy are delightful terms of endearment for we tea-swilling Brits. There are minor European ones too: 'rosbif' (roast beef) in France and the wonderful 'inselaffe' (island ape) in Germany. Oh! — I'm meant be angry and offended? Sorry, I'm not following that fashion. We know where that leads.

I'm Tommy

Tommy (or Tomnmy Atkins) was a generic name given to British soldiers and evidence suggests that the term was in circulation in the 18th century. Limey appears in the 19th century in reference to a British Royal Navy practice of adding lime juice to sailor's grog to prevent scurvy. Pom arrives in the 20th century as a term for recent British arrivals to our Australian colony — etymology cloudy.

A rose is a rose is a rose, but I think there's something particularly attractive about limey, especially in summer.

Limey mastered

Living up to the name, I try and throw a slice of lime into the summer clothing cocktail every now and again. Here we see a 4-ply cotton tank top from William Lockie. Soft as a baby's christening blanket. 

The unstructured, quarter-lined three-button brown jacket is of a linen, wool and silk mix by Brunello Cucinelli.

It wasn't planned, but it might be the same as the one worn by Daniel Craig in Spectre.

I hope they have a more gentlemanly Bond after Daniel. They pumped up the brutish physicality too much. Bond, having been expelled from overrated Eton, was an Old Fettesian with genteel Scottish and Swiss parentage — his parents, Andrew Bond and Monique Delacroix-Bond, died in a car accident when he was a boy — so let's have more old-school elegance and poise mixed in with the essential thuggery.

Decent egg

Brunello Cucinelli is a v. decent Italian egg whose philosophy is to work for the 'moral and economic dignity of mankind' through 'neohumanistic capitalism' or what we might call localist capitalism. He keeps all production local to the ancient town of Solomeo — his home — and employs people local to this community.

Oh, Solomeo

Solomeo is an ancient Italian town Brunello has largely restored to its former glory. He ensures his workers are extremely well-treated. From an interview with the FT: “For me, it is not sustainable to give €5m to a charity and have your products made by children [abroad].”

In other words, he resents the hypocrisy and virtue signalling of the fashion industry. Where there is honesty there is dignity. As I say, a good egg.

These are big brown vintage glasses frames I mentioned in Blizzards of Tweed; the frames I was having glazed with a green lens. Fantastic result. Possibly the clearest and most effective sunglasses I have right now. Better than the ones I have that are meant to be purpose-built for glare when yachting.

Getting one's legs involved

I wasn't going to allow my legs to stand on the sidelines whilst adding a citrus twist to the summer wardrobe. Here we see them in Lime Bright chinos from Cordings.

My legs were reluctant to wear the trousers at first due to their vivid hue, but they soon got used to them. Cordings stock chinos in some rather splendid colours. The chinos are made from Lancastrian cotton, which they describe as having the 'perfect weight'.

After all this talk of limes, there's only one thing for it. Gimlet (to your taste) anyone? Pip-pip!