Wrapping Up the Year

For my last tie of 2010 I decided to go out with a bang: a double-layered freeform marbled affair in all the colors of the rainbow by Michael Kensinger. See you next year!

Welcome to the Machine

The designs on this wide polyester tie from Rooster resemble the cartoonish "technical" markings that master album-cover designers Hipgnosis overlaid on a lot of their cover photographs (e.g. Brand X's Moroccan Roll). (By the way, that is the late, great musician and Hipgnosis partner Peter Christopherson himself on that album cover; see For the Love of Vinyl for the story behind it.)

Wooly Bully

It was so cold today I wore a wool tie for extra warmth. The tie is from John Hanly & Co., Ltd., of Nenagh, Ireland, established 1893.

Modules, Pre-Op to Post-Op

Modules of Japan breaks from its usual swing-inspired designs for a pattern loosely based on the op-art works of Victor Vasarely.

Mad Man

Mrs. Veneer and I went to a Mad Men cocktail party, which was the perfect venue for this skinny vintage tie made in Italy. Made by whom is a mystery, but the haberdasher's label shows it was sold by Edward Chapman Ltd. of Vancouver, B.C.

You got plaid on my polka-dots!

Children think it's a plaid tie, while adults think it's polka-dotted. Imagine the mischief I could get up to in this tie, casually draping an arm across my chest when a witness describes the miscreant as a man in a polka-dotted tie, buttoning my blazer when another witness swears it was a man in a plaid tie. Como Fashion has produced the perfect tie for a locked room mystery. (Though I admit its aesthetic quality is rather poor.)

Batik Winotosastro

Batik Winotosastro is a family business based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, founded in 1934. They continue to produce batik fabrics using the traditional wax-resist method, but businesswise they are distinctly modern: they have a Twitter account and their own hotel. I mention all this because that's who made this tie.

Liberty for Lord and Taylor

This tie has a Lord and Taylor label on the back, but the cotton floral fabric (and the text in the tipping) give it away as a Liberty of London.

Walk the Dinosaur

Jimmy Pike contributed some of the most whimsical designs to the Desert Designs necktie line, such as a smiling sun and this grazing dinosaur.

None Blacker

Given Stanley Blacker's reputation for staid, conservative, middle-of-the-road style, I am skeptical that the Stanley Blacker label on the back of this boldly-patterned polyester jacquard tie is original.

Feels like the first tie

Here it is, my very first marbled tie! It was marbled by Jill Wagoner, and I bought it at the American Craft Council show in Baltimore in July, 2002. It's true, you never forget your first.

Purple fan

Here's another hand-marbled tie by Ingrid Butler as Moth Marblers of Sausalito. I have been informed that she is no longer making ties. I am not seeing new marblers filling the voids left by the retiring ones. Come on, somebody, marble some ties!

Mesh Modern

The silk in this tie (VR by Vito Rufolo) is so texturally-woven that it's almost a mesh in places, which makes it difficult to get into focus with a run-of-the-mill digital camera. You have to see it in person for better clarity. The pattern is generic enough that it could pass for "modern" any time in the last 50 years, and may even do so for another 50... We'll see.

Everybody wants a piece of the tribal action

Even stodgy Robert Talbott. This pattern is actually rather ingenious, as it can pass for tribal, kitsch (a la Kenny Scharf), urban, or even art nouveau by virtue of the tiled background. Maybe even gore: is that an intestine?