The Dinner-Led Growth Toile
I love a good tartan, a bold paisley, and a slightly dusty chalk stripe. But founding a new business centered around restaurants, dining, and experiences, there was no question I would need to design a custom toile. And by design, I mean described the concept in detail, I am NOT an artist, let alone capable of drawing a toile!
If you think you’re not familiar with toile, think again—you just didn't know its name. You have probably seen a toile on a decorative pillow, a dinner plate, a kitchen towel, a dress, upholstered furniture, and even as wallpaper. There are old toiles and modern toiles. The casual shirt I get the most compliments for of late is a toile with kittens on it since we got a bonded pair of kittens a year ago.
The Dinner-Led Growth Toile de Jouy scenes
The direction to Marie, the toile designer, was to depict several scenes from executive dinners, especially those performed by Dinner-Led Growth. Going around the toile:
Top left is me teaching a guest how to saber Champagne while another guest waits for a turn. Since most dinners are close to 20 attendees, sabering at least 2 bottles is necessary to ensure everyone gets a splash for the toast.
Top right is me making a Blue Blazer cocktail, a flaming hot toddy-like drink named after the blue flames that appear as the bartender pours the flaming whiskey-and-boiling water from tankard to tankard to mix it.
Bottom right is a table of guests enthralled with the slide presentation about increasing sales and decreasing costs.
Bottom left is a table toasting over a bottle of Port that has been “tonged,” a method of opening an old bottle of Port using iron tongs and something freezing cold to cause thermal shock to the bottle.
This isn’t my first rodeo toile
About 10 years ago, Wingtip did a collaboration with California Cowboy, a local startup redefining the pool shirt. No, seriously, their shirts were really cool, we sold out the run, and had people begging us to make more.
The shirt featured cocktails that were meaningful to Wingtip’s membership.
The Manhattan was a no-brainer as the #1 cocktail by units year after year.
The Duke’s Martini was the #2 cocktail, represented on the shirt.
The Blue Blazer was rarely poured (for reasons explained in this post), but given the “blue blazer” is the most versatile garment a gentleman can own, the name alone required its inclusion.
Same goes for Tuxedo No. 2.
The Stinger was prominent for a year or so, as explained in this post.
The Zombie was not yet a thing at Wingtip, but we did commission famous Tiki artist Doug Horne to design a custom Tiki mug for the club, but that’s maybe a post for another day.
I’m guessing the Old Fashioned made the shirt because we needed one more cocktail.
The Future of the Dinner-Led Growth Toile
I have big plans for the Dinner-Led Growth toile. You’ll need to watch this space. Below is what it looks like as a repeat. You may see more of this in the future…
