Hand game
On May 25, President Emmanuel Macron was in Villeneuve-d’Ascq to attend the French Cup final between PSG and Olympique Lyon. As the occasion was ripe for the taking, he took the opportunity to show the whole of France just how close he was to his friend Kylian Mbappé. A handshake, a warm embrace and jokes whispered in his ear in the Paris dressing room before the match. And it was the same afterwards, on the official podium, with the winner’s medal and the complicit gaze of the winners to boot. Next year, the PSG striker will play for Real Madrid, and we already know who is going to miss him.
Winning ticket
For the occasion, the president opted for a classic navy blue wool two-button suit. Elegant? It would have been in the next size up. Practical? You could put it that way. That evening, the presidential suit was equipped with a third, small flap pocket on the right-hand side. Long considered a hallmark of tailoring, this small ticket pocket had originally been designed to hold a train ticket. But it is also highly qualified to hold a ticket to a football match.
Confidence
Dressed for the very last time in PSG colors, Mbappé stood out for one detail that purists and true football fans were bound to have noticed: His socks, which come up high, very high, like a dancer’s leggings. Why this coquetry? For technical reasons? No. For style? Better than that: Wearing them like this is a gaudy gimmick that recent history has reserved for an elite group of football players of unshakeable confidence and extraordinary talent. Sonny Anderson, Thierry Henry and Neymar all pulled their socks up.
Early bird
Still on Mbappé, let’s link up with a sartorial detail that may enable you to wow the gallery at a dinner party or, at the very least, furnish a ponderous silence. A triangle of red fabric adorns the bottom of the champion’s jersey. Do you know what this piece is called? It’s an hirondelle [a “swallow” in English: In clothing, the fabric piece is known as a gusset]. This piece of reinforcement joins the front and back of the jersey, preventing the fabric from tearing at the seams.
Supervised folding
Finally, a word about the man playing gooseberry here. On the right, Philippe Diallo, president of the French Football Federation, is wearing a white shirt and gray suit, with a pocket square forming a single line above the breast pocket. This is the most efficient fold if you insist on wearing a pocket handkerchief. Known in English-speaking countries as the TV fold, because it was long the preferred fold of TV presenters, this type of fold requires a hankie with some hold. Linen or cotton is preferable to silk.