Blood?

This tie from Asutra displays the "stone marble" pattern of marbled silk, in which the dyes are dripped onto the substrate and not manipulated with a comb. Blood red is an interesting color choice for a drip pattern!

Republic of China

The label on this tie reads, "With the compliments of Tourism Bureau, Ministry of Transportation and Communications, Republic of China." It was made in... Italy. The design does not strike me as very Chinese, but I guess that was not the point for this gift item. I wonder what audience it was meant for.

Go Blue Hens!

For working the University of Delaware Doctoral Hooding Ceremony and Convocation on May 28, I took a cue from the university president's outfit in the new employee welcoming video and wore a shirt and tie in the university colors (roughly). The rather journeyman tie (the only yellow one I could find, believe it or not) by Giorgio Redaelli has a woodland-themed figural pattern with ducks, deer, rabbits, foxes, and flowers. Hermes and Ferragamo do the best figural ties, combining witty designs with precision printing. And luxury prices.

Gone Troppo

May 27: the official start of summer is still over three weeks away but we already have tropical heat and humidity. Now that's the good old mid-Atlantic climate I grew up with! What better way to celebrate the return of tropical weather than with a vintage Kanaka Tie from Hawaii* of wonderful lightweight crinkly cotton barkcloth?

* Supposedly... ;-)

Golden Peacock

I rarely see a hand-marbled tie under a fashion brand, but this modified peacock pattern bears a x'Andrini label and tipping. I like the way the tiny splashes of purple, pink, and white spice up the earthtones palette.

Back in Liberty

Nothing suits a sunny day like a pink shirt and a Liberty of London cotton paisley necktie. Target scored a real coup this spring with a line of Liberty products; I was too slow to get any of the neckties (I really wanted the one with cars on it!), but I did pick up a couple superb floral print shirts.

Hickey Freeman

There is a very little bit of Frank Lloyd Wright in the vaguely deco-ish pattern on this tie from Rochester clothing manufacturer Hickey Freeman, though it is more cluttered than anything Wright designed.

Double Marble

This hand-marbled tie from Cosette Originals of Austin, Texas, has two layers of marbling: a freeform layer in predominantly golds and greens underneath, and a darker layer of the "feather" pattern on top, applied sparsely to let the base layer show through.

Paul Klee - Legend of the Nile

Egyptian motifs can be found throughout the works of Paul Klee, and Egypt is the primary subject of his 1937 pastel Legend of the Nile. Klee used shades of blue for the background of his piece; Christina Desiree has transposed the blues into a yellow and brown colorway for this tie from the Gallery Collection.

Jacks Are Better

Guess what? I'll be reviving the blog, now that I work in a more necktie-ish establishment than I did for the last 3+ years. First I have a little catching up to do; I wore this wide, vintage polyester number last November. Inside each little box is a jack (as in playing cards); see below for an enlargement of the detail. Why jacks? Beats me, but they remind of me of the cut-price cigarettes formerly sold at Sheetz with the slogan "Jacks Are Better" (taken from the oft-invoked poker rule "jacks or better [to open]"). What Jacks were better than was never specified, which was a smart move, because they were certainly not better than any name-brand cigarette, and it's doubtful they were better than any other budget cigarette either. Plus they burned down really fast, or so I am told. ;-)

Sheetz is also home to the elegantly-named Shmuffin, though they have retired their most glorious hot food name ever: Hamzel & Pretzel (the only name more ridiculous than Denny's Moons Over My Hammy). It's now just a Ham Pretzel Melt. Why they got rid of that and kept Shmagelz and Shmiscuits (Sheetz's brands of magels and miscuits, apparently) is one of a million marketing decisions that don't seem to make any sense.

The Necktie by Jean-François Lévesque

I have no new necktie-wearings of my own to report, but my wife steered me to this wonderful short film presented by the National Film Board of Canada, in which neckties play a central role. The video player is too wide to embed in this blog column (which was designed to be narrow, for posting pictures of neckties), but please take twelve minutes to go watch it on the NFB website.

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.