Competition: Age of Reason pocket squares - part 2

The Age of Reason/Grey Fox competition

Win a Made in England silk pocket square - click here for information about the competition which was launched this week.

Below Ali Mapletoft, part of the husband and wife team which founded the business, tells us more about Age of Reason -

'Age of Reason is a UK accessories label; we pride ourselves on making men’s silk pocket squares and women’s scarves in England. We try to offer our customers wearable luxury with a playful twist made from fine natural fabrics. For inspiration we look to British punk heritage, and the streets of cities like London and Brighton.

We started as a women’s wear accessories label, and stumbled upon menswear when men kept buying our small women’s neckerchiefs to use as pocket squares. Since then we’ve begun creating products with men in mind and have moved from pin-hemming to traditional hand rolling. We’re fascinated by men’s style, which has always been rich with coding. Wearing a hand rolled pocket square is universal code for “I know stuff about dressing well.” It’s almost tribal

Each pocket square design is hand painted with inks onto water-colour paper by Ali at our studio in Brighton, before being printed onto silk. Every piece is then hand rolled by one skilled seamstress in Yorkshire. Some people like to frame our pocket squares, which is great, but we do love to see them worn. Every piece should work as stand-alone art or a simple accessory. Defiant slogans, naughty prints and secret messages are worked into each pocket square alongside innocuous imagery to encourage the wearer to reveal or conceal different parts depending on their mood or outfit.

Personal style is something so deeply individual, and it takes time to develop. We like to think that we create stories in silk, and that they become part of the wearer’s own personal story'.

Below are some images of the design process and of a few other squares in the range