In The Fashion World, Understated Does Not Mean Boring

Tonight Brian goes for the understated and urbane look of a smoky navy blue tie with antique white stripes. Looking closely, one can see a discreet burgundy stripe on either side of the latter, barely discernible, but present. This tie is a modest benefactor, an anonymous philanthropist, that faceless bidder on the telephone at an auction who, when the price skyrockets and one by one, the rest drop their paddles, murmurs a single syllable from across the wires, and his proxy lifts her hand one last time to claim his objet de désir.