Trooping the Colour

Saturday 15th June is the date of this year's Trooping the Colour, or The King's Birthday Parade, to mark the official birthday of the Sovereign.

Taking place on Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall, Number 9 Company Irish Guards will troop their 'Colour' in front of King Charles. The parade and march past will include not only Foot Guards but also a ride past by The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery as well as the Household Cavalry (The Life Guards and The Blues and Royals) to the musical accompaniment of the Mounted Band of the Household Cavalry. This ceremony is believed to have been first performed during the reign of King Charles II (1660 - 1685). Afterwards, there will be a flypast by the Red Arrows down The Mall and over Buckingham Palace.

What better way to join in the celebrations and fly the flag than by sporting one of Otway & Orford's patriotic silk pocket squares. A new design, 'Ride Ahead' uses a wonderful recruitment poster for the Household Cavalry by one of Britain's most famous graphic designers, Abram Games. A perennial favourite, 'Jubilee Diamond' uses David Bent's striking artwork of the Red Arrows, for whom he was the Official Artist in Residence. We're pretty sure that if the King weren't in ceremonial military uniform for Trooping the Colour, he might be tempted to pop one of these two beautiful men's pocket squares into his own top pocket. His Majesty is after all probably the best known wearer of pocket squares anywhere in the world and of course he is Colonel-in-Chief of the Household Cavalry.

This image of the King is by Dan Marsh and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic licence.