The Tie Box

Sorting through - cramming ties - not a good plan! I need to get organized, as I am getting the feeling my actions are being met with some disapproval.

A Story about a Tie

Found this terrific little vid on YouTube - Check it out! It's called Lacos (Ties) and it was the winner of a recent YouTube contest. Great song, great story, so-so tie, but you'll love it!

Laços (Ties) - Project: Direct

Some Recent Finds - Three Countess Mara Neckties

At a recent stop to a favorite thrift store, I snagged (gasp - not something you should be doing to ties..let me rephrase that) er, acquired three Countess Mara neckties, one of which is a typical diagonal of the early 1960s (best guess). Two of the three have the famed CM logo on the front. The later model does not. All are silk.

Here's a classic diagonal stripe in muted very 1960s colors.






This next tie is a fun take on a paisley, a little wider, and great colors. The logo is there, but well disguised.



Tag from a now defunct men's wear shop, Rutland's in Orlando, Florida



And finally, a tie with no CM logo on front, but label on the back. Love the way the label proudly states "Made in USA", sort of like buying revolutionary "Homespun", to a point. Not quite time to dump tea again. I'm sure the fabric was woven elsewhere.....and these almost look like "hidden Mickeys"

Red, White and Bluez....

In this season of political fervor, national crisis, pots with chickens but no gas to get them across the road, let us consider the Patriotic Motif necktie. I;m sorry to say I havent any Partisan type ties; the generic one style fits all will have to do, but of late, I admit I have been hoarding them. Here are a few for your consideration. As it happens, they are all currently available at my Ebay Store. There is an endless variety of these on the market place, and seemingly every commercial maker has jumped on the band wagon.

The below tie is one of my favorites, for the complexity of the design, and richness of colors. It's a Van Heusen 417 from their Americana Series entitled Let Freedom Ring...





Slighty more subtle is another Van Heusen, fantastic color and design featuring Hot Air Baloons - perhaps most apropos in a political year. How much more old-timey Americana can you get? It's called "The View from Above"





I love this tie - love the way the designer has created suggested movement on a flat medium with shading suggesting the flag blowing in a breeze. It's a poly tie, lightweight all-around



Another poly tie, straight-forward, no nonsense. Probably made in China or Korea






One of my current favorites, this inexplicable green background tie featuring the tiny American flag is a reversible tie by Wembley, called a "Double-Tie". It;s one of those heavy, thick, gawd-awful upholstery fabric ties that were made when polyester was first cheaply mined in the 1970s, riding the crest of the Bicentennial marketing wave.








Finally, here's a Tommy Hilfiger tie of the same ilk/

Technorati Tags: Patriotic Ties

Handmade and Homemade Ties

One of the most neglected areas of tie collecting is Handmade/Homemade. These are two distinct types, actually, and perhaps could be categorized into three.

I would distinguish "Handmade" as those ties that are made by individual craftspeople who sell them at fairs, art shows, craft shows, or through consignment shops, and perhaps even through internet outlets such as on line stores. The key here is that this is a small business with one or very few people actually making the ties and reaping the profits. Designers sending their styles to sweat shops for mass production don't count, so often these are one of a kind or very limited edition styles. They often have a label indicating the name of a small business or individual. Here's a tie I sold on Ebay some time ago, that had a hand written label. This tie was cotton and the design is very crisp.

"Home-made", on the other hand, would be those ties fashioned by a home-maker and given as gifts or made as a matter of course for wear by the men of the family. These often have no labels, and a definite "home-made" look because of the obvious skill level, or lack of skill. These can still be quite entertaining, particularly when the choice of fabric is interesting. Ties of this ilk may have been made without a pattern; through trial and error, the maker figured it out. The tie below has no interior padding or body...completely unlined. The end of the tie has a finishing stitch much like a hem, very much a technique of the 1930s. There is no label, and this, although I have worn it, appears to be someone;s first effort and maybe even made in a home-economics class. It's definitely from the late 1960s early 1970s and is a wide tie. It's a polyester fabric with a nice weight and feel.




Another type, though I havent yet come across any, are those that are made from commercial patterns. I did recently find an example of a 1971 McCalls pattern for neckties on Ebay.



This pattern is from 1970

BATMAN on a Tie

I just sold a Batman Tie on Ebay and have sent it off to Golden, Colorado. It was a skinny, and the date on the back of the tag was a copyright of 1994. I;m not sure what film this coincided with, but I'm sure the fellow was glad to get it, and perhaps plans to wear it when the new film opens this week - it was silk, and really beautiful. The characters featured here include Cat Woman, Robin, the Boy Wonder, the Joker, Batman, and the Penguin. Just above the visible image is a little design which says Gotham City

The tie's label, Cartoon Corner, is a DC Comics logo. I didn't measure the tie, but it seemed quite short in comparison with a few others leading me to believe this was meant for an adolescent. Would love to hear from others who may have found more ties from this series.

The Rooster Rooster Tie

The Rooster Tie Company has been around since the 1930s but made their mark in the industry in the 1950s with a popular square cut ends tie. The innovative cotton ties featured great graphics and colors, unusual for their time. Some some were occupational, and many played on the popularity of nostalgia beginning to sweep the nation with the use of "antique" looking cars, old-time fonts, and "country" motifs. But was there ever a rooster featured on a Rooster Tie? The answer to that question is shown below. I sold this tie a while back on Ebay, and am kicking myself just a little........





Here are a couple other Rooster Brand ties that also got awa. The first is a square cut with a occupational medical motif, featuring the Caduceus of Mercury, and the Hippocratic Oath.

The next example is a Chintz pattern on cotton. I haven't been able to find out the progression of labels, when they were used, etc, but based on the design, I believe this may be a tie from the late 1960s. If you have additional information about the age of this tie, or of the history of labels on Rooster neckties, I would love to know.

See my ties in my store on Ebay. Just do a search for Rooster Necktie.