THE JOURNAL
“Men are difficult to buy gifts for,” Mickey Down says. “I’m not sure why… Maybe we have no taste?” Down himself can’t be accused of lacking in the taste department. The co-creator of HBO’s Industry has himself proven to be a reliably impeccable dresser, rotating between tinted shades and chalk stripe tailoring on the red carpet or Stone Island outerwear and slouchy Japanese knitwear in his day-to-day. He’s also not adverse to a Burberry check when called for.
With the show now entering its fourth season, Down, along with his close friend and co-creator, Konrad Kay, are the force behind one of TV’s most engaging (read… stressful) and original projects in years. _Industry _is a sharp, funny and frenetic insight into the lives and various indiscretions of some very dodgy employees at a fictional investment bank. The pair drew their original inspiration from a real-life stint in finance.
“Konrad and I started writing together because we are best friends and we love hanging out,” Down says. “And really, as much as the infrastructure has changed and we now have this amazing team around us, that really is the core of the creative process for us. Me and Konrad sitting in a room, trying to a make each other laugh and impress each other.
“Putting your style on someone else, unless you know them really, really well, is quite tricky”
“He’s also the person that I buy a gift for the most,” Down adds. “Because we get each other something at the end of each season. That’s my main gift for a friend for a year, and he always gets me something beautiful… and expensive. He got me a lovely gold Cartier bracelet for the end of season four, and I got him a phone with his initials on it, which he was happy to receive.”
When it comes to receiving clothes as a gift, Mickey is a bit less certain. “My wife’s good at it, but no one else has successfully bought me anything that I enjoy wearing. Maybe since I was about four years old.
“I think that it’s quite difficult to buy clothes for other people in general. Accessories, yes, but it’s kind of a personal thing how you dress. So, just putting your style on someone else, unless you know them really, really well, is quite tricky.”
And his favourite gift of all time? “Well, there are actually two,” Down says. “Both from my wife. The first is a milk frother, because I do like a hot chocolate in the evening. And the second is kind of a gift. We’re doing a house renovation, and she bought me a Japanese toilet, which is my favourite thing in the world.
“But something from MR PORTER might work, too.”