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Starting off, we have an $8 dollar tie from Burlington Coat Factory's sales rack. It was produced by Donald J. Trump's people. A heavy silk, woven, pastel pink colored beauty. The white and dark grey over stripe advise on what to pair it up with. A perfect marriage with a spring weight, grey flannel sadly, I have none. I do have a grey striped shirt I wear with this. The grey and pink really accent each other well. I would cation you to heed the warning: you might be mobbed by admirers if worn when alone!

This is a vintage tie I bought on eBay for about 7 bucks. It is navy blue with purple and brown flowers. It is a bold tie for serious bow tie wearers. Definitely not a starter bow tie, lest ye be remembered as a lecturer on the antiquities. No maker's tag on the back of it. It is 100 percent silk though.


Here is a pair of golf ball and tee cuff links gold plated in 24 carats. The finest, joking obviously, in sport cuff links I bought myself for Christmas in '07. Links like this, because of their sporting nature, are informal enough for any combination of jacket and pants. In fact, I'll go as far as saying I would not advise wearing them with suits; save the most casual of suits.

Lastly, I have a light blue and white, enameled, chain connected cuff link. I purchased it at a thrift store for 50 cents. I loved them so much I donated $24.50, bringing us to $25 the most I'll ever spend for a pair of links. Chain connected links are generally formal and require suits of any kind. I wear them with suits .

Note: if I am starting to sound like The Architect from An Affordable Wardrobe remember, I was poor first.

The 3 Most Versatile Ties I Own.

My three most versatile ties. Save the red one, they can be worn with everything I own. The entire rainbow and hues in between can be worn with the blue Churchill dot ties. Only a few colors don't work with the red spotted tie. For example, yellow and purple are horrible with it.

How to pull it off:

• Get dressed except for your tie.
• Throw on one of the Churchill patterned ties.
• Get in front of a mirror and make sure the combination of shirt, tie, and jacket harmonize.
• Check to see that you don't clash with your skin tone.
• Finally, smile, this is the easiest type of tie to wear.

Where to get them from:

• Ebay
• Bowties.com: R. Hanauer makes them in a variety of colors by hand in the US.
• Drakes of London: Drakes of London is an English tie and pocket square maker; they specialize in formal patterns like this one. Everything is handmade in England from some of the best silks.
• Thrift shops or Second hand stores: This pattern in those two colors is one of the easiest patterns to find, thanks to Winston Churchill.

Prices:

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1. Ebay under $25 but typically $3 - $5.
2. Bowties.com between $45 - $65
3. Drakes of London $120 + shipping from London.
4. Thrift/ Second Hand stores between $0.25 - $5.

My ties (starting from the left):

1. Navy Churchill patterned Chaps tie: $6 Burlington Coat Factory
2. Navy Churchill patterned R. Hanauer bowtie: $50 made to order by R. Hanauer all it took was a 5 minute call.
3. Red Churchill patterned Vintage ??? tie: $7 purchased in a lot of 6 bowties on ebay for $42 shipped.

*Note: I love charts, bullet points, graphs, and all sorts of mathematical visuals. I plan on including them as much as possible.