"Simply the Best Way to Store Your Pocket Squares"
About Simon Menkes
Creator of the Pocket Square Valet
In the Summer of 2015, I got rid of every article of clothing in my closet (with the exception of two special pieces) and began to build a whole new wardrobe. What precipitated this radical act was not a lottery win, but a dramatic change in my health.
Coming Back to Life
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In the Spring of 2014, I lived in the Eastern United States and struggled every day to carry 222 pounds on a 5 foot 7 inch frame. My blood pressure and cholesterol were seriously high, and I couldn't climb stairs without stopping to catch my breath.
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At the invitation of two very special friends, Dave and Heidi Murphy, I returned to my home state of California and spent five months as their guests. It was like being at a beautiful health retreat! Dave and Heidi showed me a new way of eating and living, and under their kind care, I lost weight and rediscovered my joie de vivre. When I left them in March 2015, I’d reached my goal weight of 150 pounds, my cholesterol was in the 170’s, and my blood pressure was around 115/75!
The New Sartorial Me
Building a new wardrobe became a visual way for me to celebrate the success I’d had regaining my health. Plus it was absurdly easy to justify letting go of my old clothes, because I’d lost nearly 75 pounds, and nothing fit anymore! I’d never been much of a dresser, but I was determined to live life to the fullest, and that meant dressing in ways I felt really honored and valued me.
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I got a job with a company where the owner expected the men to wear ties, and although I was initially resistant (the last time I’d worn ties as part of a dress code was in the ‘80’s!), I fell in love with the self-expression ties represent. Everyone has their favorite brands, and mine became Ermenegildo Zegna. I love the creativity the Zegna designers bring to their ties. To me, Zegna ties are a most joyous celebration of color and pattern. (I must admit, however, my favorite tie is from Versace - the “passionately mad” tie-designers of the world!)
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​One has to have nice jackets, shirts, and pants to go with terrific ties, no? So I assembled a small but quality collection of all three. Plus shoes! Cary Grant once said, “It is totally impossible to be well-dressed in cheap shoes.” And of course, there must be belts that accent and complement those shoes! The progression made perfect sense to me, until nothing I’d owned in my old life existed anymore.
The Two Things I Kept
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I donated almost every item of my old clothing to the devoted ladies of the Hospice of the North Coast Resale Shop in Encinitas. All I kept were two items I’d purchased in my mid-twenties: a timeless tweed Zegna sport coat that now fit again, and an expensive blue silk tie I’d been talked into buying by a persuasive salesman in a men’s shop in Sydney, Australia. I didn’t recall the maker of the tie, but one day I turned it over and found ... it was a Zegna! I’m an accountant, so consistency (even when it’s unconscious) is one of our hallmarks!
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This new wardrobe was necessary, but would have been way beyond my means, if I hadn’t become an eBay aficionado. With some careful shopping and reasonable risk-taking, I came out way, way ahead! And as one of my online mentors, Sven Raphael Schneider of the Gentleman’s Gazette counsels (see the tab, Links We Love for his amazing website), if you shop intelligently for second hand clothing ... “your alterations tailor can do the rest!”
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Toward the latter days of 2015, I had assembled a wardrobe I was proud of, but I still hadn’t discovered pocket squares.
It’s Cool to Do Squares!
I started to study the men I felt set the bar for me as far as dressing fashionably. In San Diego, there was my friend Zac O’Brien, who shows incredible panache with his handlebar moustache and his elegant suits, and the always-stylish Randy Rodriguez, both men in the investments field and both avid pocket square wearers. And online, Sven Rafael Schneider of Gentleman’s Gazette, Antonio Centeno of Real Men Real Style, and Omar Kinnebrew of Bespokuture.com, all sported pocket squares. Obviously, the next step up for me was to do the same!
In some ways, it seems to me, we gentlemen are more limited than women in our areas of sartorial self-expression, especially when it comes to color and flair. That’s why we have to use all the tools at our disposal - especially ties and pocket squares!
Now I’m the Proud Proprietor of the Pocket Square Valet
As I began to build my collection of squares, I looked around for a way to store them. Drawer and closet space are always limited in my world, and as I couldn’t find a solution online, I came up with something new -- the Pocket Square Valet (see the PSV Blog for the strange but true tale of how it came into being.)
These days, I’m working to get the word out about the PSV, while still practicing as a CPA and certified Business Mediator in the San Diego area. I’m also very creative, and am rewriting my second novel, a time-travel romance that’s even stranger, quirkier, and (at times) more humorous than the story of the creation of the Pocket Square Valet!
I use my Pocket Square Valet every day. It’s really made things easier for me to dress well each morning and be “the best me I can be.” Perhaps you’ll decide to give it a try. I know you won’t be disappointed!
All my best from Los Angeles, California,
Simon Menkes
