This tie just arrived at my doorstep this morning, though to explain how it got there, I’ll have to give a little background. One of the people hanging out with us in Playa was Mary’s friend (whom I now feel as though I can call my friend as well) Mike. Mike has one of the most interesting life stories I’ve ever heard–his father co-owned a horse racing/breeding company with Prince Ahmed bin Salman of the Saudi Royal Family. ”The Prince,” as Mike referred to him, also happened to be his godfather.
Their company, the Thoroughbred Corporation, was one of the largest and most successful in the world and they came close to winning the Triple Crown, the biggest deal in the racing world. Mike traveled all over the world with his horses, staying at palaces, having tea with the Queen of England–you know, just your everyday sort of activities.
So back to the tie. The Thoroughbred Corporation’s colors were green and white and so when they wanted to create a custom set of ties to give out to VIPs, they of course went to the most exclusive and expensive tailor in the world, Bijan. Bijan created a custom set of 102 ties featuring Thoroughbred’s colors with each one costing $3,500. Yes. I’ll repeat that one more time to let it sink in: $3,500.
When Thoroughbred was disbanded after The Prince’s unexpected death, they still had quite a few of these ties left over. Mike offered to send me one since they were gathering dust in an attic. I don’t know if I can bring myself to wear the tie. It’s like owning a piece of history and part of me wants to have it framed and hung on the wall.
