This is a fact I should have taken into account when deciding upon a simple shirt / jeans / shoes combo to go with my trench coat for the party. Naturally, the ensembled gents resplendent in sharply tailored suits were far too polite to make me feel in the least uncomfortable, but it was all I could do to stop myself from requesting a nifty little number from Dunhill's ample suit department: "Just add it to the tab, squire. Stick a tie in there while you're at it."
It only seems like yesterday that Britain's premium menswear brand moved from among its peers on Jermyn Street to take up residence in its new home just off Berkeley Square in Mayfair, but it has evidently been a year already.
Occassion enough for a party, billed as a debate between Toby Young and Andrew Roberts and focusing on two subjects, each proposed by Toby Young: 'History is bunk', and 'Snobbery is a vice.' The former topic, taken from an apparent quote from Henry Ford, no less, was on the face of it nothing more than an inflammatory statement, the touch paper to which was lit by Mr Young, with his argument that historians had quite regularly made a complete hash of recording past events, and quite competently snuffed out by Mr Roberts, who did not omit the fact that the actual reason we were sitting in that very room was to celebrate an episode in the history of Dunhill.
The second subject offered a more balanced argument, this time Mr Young got the upper hand, helped in no small part by the fact that his elevation to the status of Society Buffoon of London was not helped by his start in life at a lowly comprehensive school. Mr Roberts pointed out that we are all in some way or another, snobs, be it in terms of the school we attend or even the type of music we listen to. But his argument failed to swing the audience, even if his overwhelming drubbing of Mr Young in round one sent him home with a £10,000 cheque for the charity of his choice.
But the real debate took place prior to the debate. The question on everybody's lips was "won't those langostines make an awful mess of the displays as they are being pulled apart?" Not many dared to discover the answer by trying to eat one, tasty as I'm sure they must have been.
The whole event was a joint effort between Dunhill and GQ and the debate was presided over by editor Dylan Jones. This is the second such collaboration, following Dunhill's sponsorship of the Man of the Year awards.
For a far more comprehensive report on the evening's event's you can read GQ's here.
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