Countess Mara

An unusual floral print from the self-styled Countess. Or are they turkeys, viewed from the front? Click pic for detail.

Jhane Barnes

Jhane Barnes uses an autumn palette for this crosshatched geometric print.

Patchwork madras

Here's a tie from Structure made of actual cotton madras patchwork, a fabric normally used for Bermuda shorts. Les Wexner's Limited Brands, where Structure started out, were successful at spotting style trends and then cranking out clothes in that style quickly and cheaply. This tie must have appeared during a "preppy" boomlet. Structure changed to Express Men and was spun off from Limited Brands into Express, Inc., trading on the NYSE as EXPR, while Sears now owns the rights to the Structure brand.

Speaking of Target

Wouldn't this make an excellent tie for an upscale Target uniform? The only distinguishing mark left on this tie is a McElgunn's label, a name uncommon enough for me to conclude that it's a retailer label from McElgunn's Custom Touch of New Providence, New Jersey. It appears to be about 40-some years old, and unlike so many ties of its vintage it is actually silk and not the trendy polyester of that we-can-make-it-better-from-petroleum era.

Shiny firmament

Today's tie is from Richard James, Savile Row (the premier London street for fine menswear, in case you didn't know). The woven stars and circles on a lustrous purple field are a product of what I call the Great British Purple Tie Craze of the early aughties. Too bad they had to end; Richard James' current tie selection is rather drab by comparison. Oh well, the purples will be back in another ten years or so.

Missoni for Missoni

I missed getting any Missoni for Target ties during the few minutes that they were available on September 13, so I will just have to make do with my few plain old Missoni ties. This one combines "primitive" graphic elements and stripes; fabric and construction-wise, it is one of the most luxurious ties I own. Note to self: try this out with the charcoal suit next time you wear it.

The Honeycomb Bunch

This polyester tie in an "interesting" palette of browns and blues and a little too much black is from the aptly-named Cravateur. There is an extant Cravateur Tie Company in South Africa, but I get the feeling that this one originated a little closer to home, and about four decades back in time.

Paco Rabanne

This necktie from Paco Rabanne takes a traditional medallion design and updates it with larger shapes and a wider, bolder color palette. Originally a jewelry designer, Rabanne (born Francisco Rabaneda Cuervo) launched his own fashion house in Paris in 1966. His use of metal as a dress fabric has inspired an enigmatic short story, "The Dress" by Elizabeth Brown, published by David Longhorn in Issue 17 of his excellent Supernatural Tales journal. (Note that there is a free PDF edition if you feel inclined to read the story right now.)

Arguably modern

Today's tie comes from Ruff Hewn, "True American Wear". The look is supposed to be rustic, but I see a lot of modernism in the minimal shapes and machine-precise lines.

Brownian motion

Continuing the molecular theme, here's another pattern that looks like molecules zipping and caroming randomly around their medium. It's a black-and-white monotone print on patterned silk jacquard, with the label printed on the back: "Design by LOFT Eternal Veri-ties"-- adding some metaphysics to the physics.

The building blocks of Art Deco

This perplexing tie is from Jacques Estier, a brand of Brooklyn-based necktie wholesaler The Tie King, Inc. I like to think of the pattern as an electron microscope image of art-deco molecules.

Stripes

The uneven stripes on this mid-80s-looking tie are in the style of Leonard of Paris, but it's from Conte San Giorgio of Santa Ynez, California.