You have but a few more days to catch the documentary film Palio on the big screens in the UK. GO!!! In the USA it opens on November 6th. Produced and directed by our friends John Hunt and Cosima Spender respectively, it is a documentary about the ancient horse race that canters around the town square in Siena. It is real life that makes fiction look inadequate. "Ben Hur crossed with the Godfather" is how we described it after the first screening we saw. Even though we knew the ending when we watched again on its first day of commercial release, it was still as goose-bump seat-leap thrilling as the first time! Book your tickets here: http://gb.thepalio.com/tickets

To help your heart calm down, relax with the beautiful book that John has published to accompany the film. As you turn the pages, each one more beautiful than the last, you will come across Fashion in the section on the cultural influence of the race. There, next to the princely Florentine House of Pucci, is only... scallywag us! For when we were introduced to John through the auspices of Nancy Hunt and Nile Rodgers, he asked us to see what clothing items we could imagine. Mark, inspired by the Leocorno contrada (the "Unicorn" neighbourhood), made a flowing, dynamic graphic which has since graced jeans for Nile and his godson Jasper; suit linings; and t-shirts. Order your copy of the book here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/099326770X/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_asp_QLixJ.5BE0MAG

Here's Gus demonstrating the heights you can reach in a Palio print t-shirt:

Here's Maestro Nile Rodgers wearing his jeans in the Duran Duran recording studio:

And here's the sherbet zing colour way that Mr Simon le Bon chose for his silk suit lining:

At the opening night last week, Cosima was present for a Q&A after the film. A lady in the row behind us requested the mic, and introduced herself as Sienese. She said they had come to fiercely criticise, find fault, and point out all the things they had got wrong. "There is nothing," she conceded," you have captured it perfectly!"

We do exhort you to see it, you will thank us!