Despite years of buying bespoke clothing, and therefore steadily fewer if more expensive clothes, I have never lost a taste for the retail fix. There’s nothing like the thrill of making an ever-so-slightly irresponsible purchase, then walking out of the door with the item in your hand, pumped full of adrenaline and guilt.

Sales make this worse, not better. Auctions are terrible. And then there are fiendishly structured auctions that pray precisely on your weakness. At Lodger years ago (hands up who remembers Lodger?) we experimented with sales on Twitter that showed the price of shoes going down and down, until someone finally snapped and bought them.

That only took a day, or more likely a few hours. Nicholas over at Le Noeud Papillon has gone one better, stringing out a reverse or Dutch auction over a couple of weeks. On Saturday his stock had 50% off; on Sunday it was 55%; today it’s gone to 60%. What’s my breaking point for that Arnold grosgrain bow tie? I don’t know, but it seems likely I’m going to find out sometime in the next day or two.

Pictured above: wearing a Noeud Papillon bow in a photo shoot for The Rake.