100 Days, 100 Ties

Thin’s in, baby. Thin is IN. Don Draper and his co-workers at Mad Men‘s upstart ad firm Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Rowan Martin Comet Cupid Starsky & Hutch all got a new chance to show off their newest vintage ties at this past Sunday’s season premier. I had a front-row seat (on my couch) for the TV event of the summer (not counting the World Cup, LeBron James’s bad decision, CNN’s coverage of Hurricane Petrol, Pillars of the Earth, and Sanford & Son reruns).

I was so touched, that I skipped a day of wearing ties to play golf. Oh, just kidding, I could have worn a tie, it would have been too hot. Sweat stains on a tie? Not. Pretty.

My impressions of the first episode of MMIV? It was a mulligan (golf term). They laid up (another one) and Sallied the putt up to the hole (I’ll stop). They had a lot of transitions to cover–divorced Don, divorced Betty, new office digs, new Peggy wardrobe, same Joan buxomitude–and I think they just wanted to gurge them all up in Epi #1. But, in the last minute, it’s obvious that the show will quickly get up to no good. In a good way.

And, so, to honor this slow start out of the gate that will undoubtedly (please, writers?) turn into another great season, I bring you MTTW, Mod Thin Tie Week. Or just TTW, in case I’m misusing the word “Mod.” Or should I go back to MMTW (Mad Men Tie Week), my original premise promise? Nonetheless, it will be a short week, but I will make it worth your while (please, writer?), and I will have settled on a name by then. Or afterwards. By Sunday, I swear.

Less tie, less chance of hitting it w/soup

My Tie du Jour is a muted, two-tone electric blue (I think I just invented another oxymoron) from Wembley, and not only does the label create a new synthetic fabric–WEMLON (Orlon, Dacron & Rayon were just not cheesy enough)–but they give you matching ideas. Right on the label, it says (for Blue, Black or Gray Suit).The print, alas, is too small to take a picture.

All blue, black and gray suits--any Wembley ties?

That just slays me for some reason. In the 60s, when this tie was likely created (pretty sure that WEMLON was outlawed in the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, signed by Nixon & Brezhnev in May ’72), blue, black and gray suits just HAD to have accounted for 99.1% of all suits worn by non-pimps and non-Frenchmen (French pimps wear blue suits, ironiquement).

I wonder how many times that closed the deal. “Well, honey, this tag says ‘Blue, Black or Gray Suits.’ I could wear this tie every day!” And he probably put it onto a short-sleeve shirt. Sigh. Gotta show cuffs, guys, unless you’re freakin’ Sipowicz from NYPD Blue.

Until tomorrow. Thanks for reading…Brooke

Wow, this is officially the latest I have written the blog…just haven’t been by the laptop much this weekend. And when I was, Julia had taken it over. Plus, I was procrastinating, since I wanted to watch the Mad Men season premier before writing it.

Don Draper, the main character in Mad Men, is the inspiration for this week’s MTTW (Mod Thin Tie Week), which will likely begin on Tuesday. Monday is the Chamber’s golf outing, and if I wear a tie, it won’t be a thin, Draper-esque 60’s model. Poor planning, I guess, but that’s okay.

Back to Friday…my Tie du Other Jour is a quite interesting number from Pineda Covalin, a Mexican designer. Very interesting ménagerie of designs, so the website is worth a look. Many of the designs have a name, and this one is “Stone of the Sun”, for some reason. As you can see from the closeup here, the name should perhaps be Cigar of the Bunny, or Some Sort of Lizard. Think there was some peyote going around the designer’s atelier. And I like it!

We have a new member of Guys With Ties…Zach Selch is a fellow Lincoln School parent. I mentioned him a few days ago, when I was talking about the 7-fold tie. After I guessed wrong on where he got his ties made, he corrected me via comment the other day, “Thailand, Brooke. I get my ties made in Thailand. highly recommended – http://www.samhober.com.”

Thanks for reading, have a nice Mod thin Tie Week…Brooke

We interrupt this tie blog to bring you an evening of gin-and-tonics on the porch of Paul [last name withheld to protect the drinkmaker] last night, along with the requisite recovery period. Perfect summer activity, really. No regrets.

My Tie du Yesterday was an interesting pick-up, from (methinks) the Hadassah House Resale Shop on Dempster in Skokie. This particular hue of red caught my eye, and I kinda liked the rope pattern, too. The brand is Envoy, which has not survived long enough to be on Google. The TdY seems like it could have been in the red-power-tie collection of someone who follows the power tie color of the day. It complemented my red-wavy-pinstriped Gene Meyer shirt, which is unfortunately seeing its last days. Seems to have lost its shape, oddly enough, as if the buttons don’t jive up with the button holes (and, no, I did NOT mis-button or miss a button).

We had some follow-up from Eric Schneider, who borrowed a couple of ties a couple of weeks ago. He had not worn a tie in over ten years, and went to a wedding. His son Levi (who looks SHARP as heck in his summer suit) and he are now the inaugural members of DSWT (Dads & Sons With Ties), a subset of GWT.

I received a very cool New York Times pictorial from my folks, entitled Unwilted. This link will take you to a sort of video montage put together by NYT’s Bill Cunningham. Some more great summer looks in here, replete with ties, of course.

Here’s another link to a former 100 Days, 100 Ties pictorial alum, Brandon Bowers of Astor & Black. He was on WGNtv recently, and here’s the piece. Brandon and good friend Billie Kershasky were the inaugural (and still only) members of GWGWT (Girls With Guys With Ties).

Very excited about the 4th Season premier of Mad Men. I’ll be choosing my mod, thin ties for the week, which may be just a 4-tie week, due to the Chamber golf outing. Unless, of course, I figure out a way to wear a tie to the course. But, on what will likely be a 90-degree day, I ‘spect I’ll be in an open-necked polo shirt of some variety.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

I realize that I have repeated myself, um, repeatedly throughout 100 Days, 100 Ties, but I think I have done a decent job presenting a bit of variety into the proceedings. I cringe at the thought of subjecting you to the same stories, and I’d simply disappear if I repeated one of the punny subjects.

My Tie du Jour has to be pretty far from a repeat, though. I’ve worn other polka-dotted ties, but this one is still pretty unique. From the Attitude line of BCBG, I got it at Marshall’s or TJ Maxx, with this shirt in mind. The shirt is also BCBG-Attitude, so I’m probably not the first soul to put these together. But, I have to say that my cufflinks make it truly singular.

These are the Turkish eye beads that were taken from the bracelet that got me into Ayla’s Originals International Bead Bazaar to make some cufflinks. I thought this merited an ensemble photo.

Well, I got one new Guy With Tie this morning. I had a chance at a bunch more at our Business After Hours at Autobarn Nissan this evening, but my battery was dead. So, my GWT for the day is John Zrnich, an attorney with the firm Khuri & Zrnich in Wilmette (they used to office in Evanston).

So, on August 9, get a sitter, get a tie, and get yourself to my Flat. I’m going to have a 100th Day, 100th Tie celebration of some sort. I’ll serve, naturally, Thai food. You’ll wear, naturally, ties, or I can provide one for you.

In the meantime, I’m going to see if I can request some donations of ties from local celebs, to raise some money for charity, via an auction or somesuch. CelebriTIES for ChariTIES (I think Dr. Vince may have come up with that one a while back). My thought for the charity is the Evanston Community Foundation, a wonderful organization. Pending my interview, I will hopefully be attending their Leadership Evanston course, starting in the fall. Tuition is $1,000, and I plan to use some of the funds raised her to go to my tuition. I’m also having a bake sale, and I’m not above doing a car wash to earn my keep in LE.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

It has been mentioned that, when wearing my seersucker suit or jacket, “Ice Cream Man” collects the spoils in the contest “Name What Profession Brooke Resembles Now.” It’s not a very popular contest, but that right there is the hands down winner, although the horse race thing is making strides.

Today I was actually mistaken for an ice cream man! Sort of. I was attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony at Andy’s Frozen Custard here in downtown Evanston, and I was introduced to some folks from the Evanston YWCA, and one said, “You must be Andy?” The seersucker worked!

I am quite striped today, in my pink and royal blue Tie du Jour from Tommy Hilfiger. I actually put the tie with the striped Burberry shirt BEFORE deciding on the seersucker blazer. This outfit definitely falls into the “Do Not Adjust Your Set” category.

Speaking of Burberry, that reminds me of a resale shopping tip. I have a really nice raincoat (of the trenchcoat variety) from Brooks Brothers, that I found (of course) at a resale shop. It fits well and repels the rain, as long as I’m not out there for hours and hours. A couple of weeks, I saw a Burberry one at a (what else?) resale shop. It just oozed class and style and value. But, since I had just gotten the Brooks one, and since the cuffs were ever so slightly frayed, i didn’t get it. Frayed or not, that would have been a great purchase. Stupid, stupid, stupid. So, for some things, labels don’t mean much, but sometimes, an upgrade may be worth paying extra attention to the higher labels. Not that I would pay for the higher-cost labels (at retail, at least), but part of their value is that they usually last longer, and look better as they age. Shoes are a prime example of this…if you find a good label, keep looking for that label.

Okay, down off the box.

I have a Guy With Tie today, from very close to home. Or to work, at least. Kevin Babb, who works for Pension Specialists, the company who shares office space with the Chamber. He had this tie on for about an hour, to go see a prospect. The joys of a casually dressed office.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

This entire blogpost should be read with your best Gérard Depardieu accent. Or Maurice Chevalier or Lumière (from Beauty & the Beast), wheechevair yeux chuze.

Today is Bastille Day, a French national holiday which I choose to celebrate due to my French heritage. The French choose to celebrate le quatorze juillet because the storming of the temporary prison at la Bastille was a battle they actually won. Oui, bien sur, it was indeed easier because they were fighting the French. But–mais!–it is a holiday with parades and fireworks and much drinking of wine (just like the other 364-5 days of the year in France).

My cravatte du jour, or Tie du Jour, was chosen with this day in mind. A couple of months ago, at the Unique Thrift Store, I found this very cool fleur de lis-adorned tie.This big pic doesn’t do it much justice, so I’ll insert one that shows a little more of the detail and texture.

I had my main man tailor Wafa Zanayed thin it for me. A cool thing that he did was, since it had no tag, he made me a tie-tucker thingie (I am not aware of the technical term for the place where you place the thin end of the tie, if it’s not a label).

Since we had a couple of Chamber networking events today (even more next week), I ended up with a lot of new GWT (and even one GWGWT–Girl With Guy With Tie). Let’s get to ’em…

First we have Morley Robbins and Elizabeth Erkenswick, from Chiropractic First, here in Evanston. They were kicking the tires, so to speak, at our Networking Breakfast this morning. Morley is a fellow tie guy, who regaled me with some great stories about ties.

We have a double GWT, Steve Andrews of Pace Bus and Jeff Semler of Heil, Heil, Smart & Golee, a local insurance/real estate agency.

And here we have Josh Granum, a financial planner with Northwestern Mutual Financial Network.

Thanks for reading…my boss, the 9-year old one, is ordering me off of the computer. Brooke