Wallflower

About half of my work day was spent in meetings, so I wore something nondescript that would help me fade into the background. Today's tie is made of 100% rayon and bears the label of Anthony Sicari, whose website is rudimentary and quite possibly abandoned. This is the scale of print that needs a larger item for fuller display; a sundress would be the ideal vehicle for it, but then I couldn't wear it. At least not to work.

Bubbles!

I took advantage of today's perfect tie-wearing weather to flaunt my new tie by New York boutique tiemakers Sovereign Beck. This is the Aqua Cluster design, and like many of my favorite tie patterns it is poised on the dividing line between order and chaos. Like life itself!

Last of the summer florals

Technically it's still summer for another week, and it was a beautiful day sunny today, so I donned an abstract floral tie by Pauline Trigere, of cotton fabric imported from Switzerland. The colors say Liberty, the degree of abstraction says Europe, and the width says 1975. Two ties within a week, I'm on a roll!

A bug? Where?

Today's 56-to-72-degree temperature range was just perfect for wearing a tie, so I reached into my tie closet and pulled out this Desert Designs tie by Doris Gingingara featuring flowers and insects of the Outback. I would like our Upstate bugs much better if they were this happy-looking, and didn't try to suck my blood.

Up with ties!

In addition to being an all-around wonderful movie, Up contains one of the best cinematic necktie sequences ever:

What beautiful ties! (Most of them.) Carl's eventual settling for a plain black bow tie is obviously a symbol of spiritual defeat, a foreshadowing of the sadness to come. Is that a spoiler?

Wrigley's Fruit Stripe Gum

That's what Mrs. V. said when she saw this tie, and that says it all, I think. It's from the Upstarts by Fox Hill line of bygone days and is made of an unnamed silky fabric with a wonderful grain to it. It was the perfect tie for one of those glorious, bright, breezy, high-atmospheric-pressure days (if I say so myself).

Balenciaga

This vintage tie from Balenciaga looks like a jigsaw puzzle of a contour map. If you look closely enough you can see the word "Balenciaga" tastefully hidden in the red section. Not quite as tasteful as not being there at all, but at least the design is left to speak for itself.

MCM (and I don't mean 1900)

I had so much fun wearing a tie last week, I decided to do it again this week. What this narrow Pierre Cardin tie lacks in color it makes up for in discipline: its grid of eccentrically-nested hexagons in dark gray on light gray (with some blue ones thrown in for an austere kind of flair) is decidedly Mid-Century Modern. The pattern would be perfect for a brushed-aluminum screen between my dining room and sunken living room. If Dwell magazine ever does a feature on my house, I will have to wear this tie for the photo shoot. And maybe clean up a little.

Sunny California

Attending a conference in Anaheim this week (the Higher Education Users Group Alliance 09) inspired me to deploy another necktie. I thought this bright beauty by Ernex of London would be suitably Californian, so I wore it on Monday, making me the Most Overdressed guy there (vendors excluded). My plans for a second day of necktie madness were scuttled due to a stained dress shirt, but at least I got one tie blogged.

Spring?

I won't fool myself into thinking spring is here at last despite today's lovely 50+ degrees; this is upstate New York, so we will almost certainly get more snow before spring truly arrives (and probably late at that). But that doesn't mean that I can't pretend for a day and wear a vintage polyester tie of pastel honeycombs filled with "crayon vomit!"

Still here

After a long winter of turtlenecks and sweaters, and a long overdue trip to the cleaners to get my dress shirts washed and pressed, the temperature climbed into comfortable tie-wearing weather today (between 30 and 60 degrees F). Time to tackle that huge backlog of unworn neckties! Or one of them, at least. Today's tie is from Tachi Taylor, if the dodgily-applied label is to be believed, and features a woven Miro-inspired pattern.