While wandering in Marseille recently, I felt a sudden need for a new pair of shorts. My two-year-old khaki pair were worn and sun-faded, even a bit frayed, and either I'd lost a bit of weight or the waistband had sagged, because they kept sliding down my hips like part of a white rapper's ensemble. Marseille is a trendy town, in a laid-back sort of way, so what I needed was something insouciant and vaguely nautical.
After a series of misses, I pushed open the door of a Napapijri store. This was a brand I knew nothing about: and I was pleasantly surprised. Most outdoor apparel retailers equate utility with ugliness, but Napapijri seemed to be trying to do something different. Although some of its garments were conspicuously over-branded, I liked the flag logo - which in some odd way reminded me of my English homeland. The garments were well-cut in natural fabrics and had a certain rakish style that set them apart from other outerwear items I'd seen.
It came as no surprise, therefore, to discover that Napapijri is Italian. Its name, via a clever bit of marketing, is the Finnish word for Arctic Circle, but the brand was born in Aosta in the early 90s under the name Green Sport Monte Bianco. At the time it made technical backpacks, but it naturally expanded into all areas of travel apparel and accessories. My purchase was a pair of dark navy shorts: more tailored than my old khaki pair but with the handy cargo pockets every traveller needs.
In my own fanciful way, I categorized Napapijri as a brand for gentlemen explorers. This is a rare breed, which dates back to the original Polar explorers of the 19th century. They all had a stiff upper lip - and it wasn't just due to the cold. Take Captain Lawrence "Titus" Oates, who walked out into a deadly blizzard during Scott's 1912 South Pole exhibition because the team's rations were running low. "I am just going outside," he famously told them, pulling on his boots, "and I may be some time."
But the polar wastes aren't the only setting in which you'll find the gentleman explorer. Take Henry Morton Stanley (top), the journalist who was sent to Africa by the New York Herald in 1871 to find the missing explorer and missionary David Livingstone. You know the legend: Stanley stumbles into the explorer in the middle of the jungle, greeting him with: "Doctor Livingstone, I presume?"
A more contemporary gentleman explorer was Bruce Chatwin, (right) author of the magnificent Songlines, who died in 1989. Formerly an art expert at Sotheby's, Chatwin was ordered by an opthamologist to "gaze at long distances" in order to rest his strained eyes. So he set off to the deserts of Sudan to research a book on nomads. Handsome, brilliant and always impeccably dressed, Chatwin is an irresistibly cinematic figure. Those of us who carry Moleskine notebooks are paying homage to him.
So how can you get a bit of gentleman explorer style? In summer, you should no doubt combine your shorts with desert boots and a white linen shirt - add an unlined jacket in the evening, your Moleskine notebook nestling in one of its pockets. And in winter, simply wear a massive hooded, fur-lined parka over a tweed suit. If you can add a bow tie, all the better.
That's all from me for the moment. I am going outside, and I may be some time.
