Showing posts with label bowties. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bowties. Show all posts

Friday, April 2, 2010

Go with the Customizable One.

Every once in a while two manufacturers use the same source and end up with the same exact items. I usually go with the customizable one.

Here are the companies:
  • Paul Stuart
  • R. Hanauer
They both make a great product and use wonderful fabrics. It would be really grand to buy some of their products. I especially love Paul Stuarts accessories. I can't afford any but I do love the way they play with patterns and colors. They always seem to push it as far as they can but still remain conservative. Every year they release the same sort of patterned socks but lightly tweak the design. The herringbone patterned socks are the ones that really catch my eye. Last year it was a pair of socks that had interlocking herring bone. It looked like a zipper-like print. This year it was a really large herringbone each; kind of like the huge Polo logo, absurdly gigantic.

R. Hanauer only makes accessories, or as they call it The Finishing Touches™. They carry a wide range of things from their staple bow ties to patterned d-ring belts. I really like the fact that their bow tie program allow you to choose your own shape. They even allow you to further customize. Most options can be had for the regular price of their products. They make them in the U.S., doesn't matter to me I prefer quality, so you can call them to discuss any specs you need changed on the fly.

Check it out.
At $55 by R. Hanauer with custom configurations gratis sounds good. $70 from Paul Stuart shipped with no customization options available, I think I'll stick with R. Hanauer. Nothing against Paul Stuart, I like the company, this time go with the customizable one.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Self Present 3: Sized Bow Ties

Bow ties are interesting beasts. They fly in and out of style with no apparent reason. They are in style right now and are being produced by the most uncharacteristic makers. The designs are now bordering ludicrous. I can't believe the things coming out now days. These whimsical designs that are reversible are interesting only when done right. Be wary of cheap materials, poor prints, un matchedstriping, and poor manufacture from these fly-by-night producers. No matter how much or little you pay you should get quality. Back to normal discussions, if you wear bow ties you are going to find that at some point you will want a sized bow tie.

I found some offered on Etsy by a Canadian mom. She prices them at $8 shipped. The only catch is that you have to know what size you wear. I wear a 35" sized bow tie. Now to get that size you need to tie your bow tie to the length you like. Experienced bow tie wearers will know that even that is not exactly right. You need to consider the width of the tie, the way it hangs off your collar, if it projects forward and how far, thickness of the material, how tight you tie your bow tie, and width of your face. In other words, just go and tie one of a similar cloth and measure the desired length.

I purchased these sized bow ties from Ruffle-N-Tuck on Etsy.
Tartan in a Silk Wool Blend


Tomato Red in a Wool Flannel

Edited: to include the purchase details.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Taking Inspiration From the Joker

The Joker's trademark colors are green and purple. These colors look well together yet many ignore there potential. Whenever I mention it to a friend they laugh or bring up the Joker. I take it in kind and just prove them wrong. Instead of looking like a cartoon character, I channel a dandy of exquisite taste.

Take a gander and analyze why this works:











Tuesday, November 3, 2009

My Wool Bowtie

Ha ha hat hair from the newsboy cap I borrowed from the sister.

I'm an avid bow tie wearer. I typically only wear silk in very eccentric designs. I only have 3 in conservative design and don't really plan on taming my rotation of bows any time soon.

Recently, I've noticed that bow tie makers are experimenting with pretty interesting designs and are staying away from the regular designs. They usually seem to just be adapting straight tie designs or using the same fabrics from straight tie designs. Well, I wear bow ties to make things more interesting and change my look. Even though I have plenty of bow ties, I'm usually wearing a straight tie.

Now that you know of my bow tie preference let us consider this bow tie. I really enjoy wearing my conservative blue striped shirts and then throwing on a crazy colored bow tie over the collar. The clash is an instant expression of my personality. I adhere to tradition but have no issue with improving or evolving it. Sort of a respect for the past and a desire to make history of my own.

Cricket Bat Shaped Bow Tie about 2 inches wide all the way through

Collar detail shot. I'm wearing a medium spread collar. Most wouldn't but I like it to wear medium spreads instead of BDs, button downs, with bow ties.

As always I like to leave something for you to chew on. Here is some food for thought. The bow tie is a tweed tartan. Tweed is more appropriate fabric for winter because it is warm wearing. To be honest with you, it doesn't really make a difference for the bow ties; my neck is no warmer just because of a 3 inch strip of wool instead of silk. Also the dullness of the fabric is in line with the less than bright conditions of Fall and Winter.


*Note ignore this paragraph if you just want some style tips and don't care for the nuances of mens classical attire. Some will harp on and on about the correct fabrics for ties according to the seasons. Know that they are mistaken or quoting sources that are not accurate. For instance Winston Churchill wore a silk bow tie pretty much his entire premiership. I will save you other examples and get to the point. The only difference is that silk fabrics were worn in town or the metropolis, as Jeeves would put it, and rougher fabrics were country attire. For examples of both watch Jeeves and Wooster on you tube. Jeeves adhered to traditions and held his charge to a higher standard than he himself, Wooster of course, cared to do.

I wore it with today with a cardigan(old worn in cardigan with massive piling) and a blue ground shirt with pink, white, and tan stripes in a fairly large scale. This is a common combination for me. Conservative until you see the tie, square, and socks on me at the time. I maintain a rather dandy set of accessories.

Allow me one more short paragraph and a moment of nostalgia. I chose this particular tie because it reminds me of simpler times. When I was younger we lived in apartments, in Fall we would await the leaves falling on the ground. Why, well we raked them and played in the piles. We would throw each other in the piles. These leaves were similar to the tie; some were orange, yellow, red, maroon, and green. Just like the tie the two sides of the leaf could be different colors depending on the way you look at it.

Farewell and I hope your enjoying your Fall!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

More Favorites

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.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

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:
  • $0=<>
  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.