100 Days, 100 Ties

RIP, Freddie Mercury (Farrokh Bulsara to his friends and fam). Oh, that’s not news or anything. He’s been dead for years (wow! 1991!). Never did get those teeth fixed, did ye, Fred?

No specific reason for putting a dead Freddie on here, except that the subject of today’s post takes after a fun Queen song. It also makes for a fun add-on to the Friday Freebie. The Tie du Jour (hey, I’m actually writing it TODAY!) is now, officially, the Freddie Friday Freebie.

Last week, I received a blog entry from Ellie Laveer, who runs a cool website called The Cordial Churchman. She creates and sells fantastic bow ties, as well as some neckties, too. Her blog entry was about square-end neckties, and I just had happened upon one at Unique Thrift Store a couple days prior. She uses some amazing fabrics, and I will have to peruse her site with conviction one of these jours.

My TdJ is from Arrow. Pretty thin…the big end is not much bigger than the little one. Seems like a 60s era tie…SPEAKING of which: Mad Men will kick off its 4th season of drinkin’, smokin’, screwin’, divorcin’ fun on July 25. The week following, I will coronate as Draper Week. No, I will not drink or smoke or screw or divorce–here at the office at least–but I will wear some thin ties and plain white pocket squares. And maybe I’ll pomade my hair. Once.

The square-end is not a complete rarity, I guess. Most knit ties are square-ended. It definitely is noticeable, though. Several folks have mentioned it today, and, somehow, it looks different, in mirrors and glass, on me.

Thanks for reading…have a great weekend. Brooke

Okay, now since I’ve been late for two days straight it seems like the norm. Darn me and my wanton unwillingness to get hooked on gingko biloba. Come on, it’s just one little gingko, man. Everybody’s doing it…it’s cool. Man.

Somehow I don’t think there ever was an ABC After-School Special on the societal ills of herbal remedies. Perhaps that would have helped me in this situation. Hey, ABC, let’s get with it.

The Tie du Jour du Yesterday is from Metropolitan View, the house brand, so to speak, of Bloomingdale’s. I’m a bit bummed about the picture (nothing new there), as the blue is not quite captured. It’s more of a cornflower blue and really jumped off of the blue and green stripes of the shirt, which had some seersucker fabric qualities to it. This was found/rescued at the Salvation Army store on Kedzie & Chicago, here in Evanston. Buck-ninety, if memory serves (yeah, yeah, I know it usually doesn’t)…

Okay, let me sneak in this (likely penultimate) bit on the World Cup. I am downright depressed about its coming to an end. I should feel the opposite–it’s the final, there will be a NEW champion (Spain and Holland have never won football’s biggest prize), and I’m going to win my pool–but I’m going to miss the every day excitement. Well, I’ll only be 45 when it goes to Brazil in 2014. Perhaps I’ll finally head down there. Aunt Mathilde (from Sao Paulo), lead the tour! I’ll buy the caipirinhas! Anyway, it’s been an interesting tournament…weird balls, scandalous referees, Teutonic youth, Dutch optimism, Iberian magic all wrapped up in a beautiful continent that has never presented itself on such a stage.

Have a great Friday…I’ll post on the Friday Freebie at some point today (or tomorrow, nah hah!)…Thanks for reading…Brooke

Or, shall I say, Uruguay vs. Netherlands. Yes, yes, I know, soccer is about to commandeer my tie blog. AGAIN. But, it’s such a good storyline, especially with the ties that have been worn and, now, given away.

The last Friday Freebie tie had an interesting weekend. It was the orange one that I wore when Netherlands played Brazil. I was accompanied by my Dutch friends Dirk den Ouden and Trudie Wierts, who were duly impressed with my good luck charm of a tie, especially since it worked. Dirk commented that he should be the one to wear the tie throughout the remainder of the tournament, and I was only glad enough to oblige. The only thing was…I had to retrieve the tie.

This is your tie on drugs

I wore it all day Friday, through happy hour and an evening out. The tie, sadly, was lost en route and did not make it home. I thought it was lost forever, but a buddy spotted it in the gutter on MONDAY evening and alerted me to its location. Posh Sheridan Road in SE Evanston was like the scene in E.T. when the boys spotted their alien buddy, expiring in the creek. A quick check showed no outward signs of abuse–tire tracks, dog teeth marks, etc–and so I delivered it to Dirk for today’s match. Hopefully, it’s good luck-ness was not tarnished by its lost weekend on the skids.

Oranje! Hup!

Sorry for the seeming favoritism here, but I am sticking with the oranje theme here, as I stand to win a World Cup betting pool (“Gambling is illegal at Bushwood, and I…never…slice”) if Holland take home the Jules Rimet trophy. This Tie du Jour is one of my faves, and it’s from Tommy Hilfiger. It’s like an electric orange, with a blue, yellow and darker orange thrown into the mix. This tie jumps out from the chestal region (my new term) and really makes itself known.

One of Tommy’s touches is to make the small end of the tie a different fabric. As you can see here, it’s just a navy blue with white polka dots, which don’t really do much except to get folks to notice, which is kind of the point of a tie, after all.

I had some tie-related correspondence over the weekend…

My friend (and longtime 100D100T contributor) Dan Murrell sent in this article, on the re-entry of bow ties into the style of the day. No pictures, alas…

And, from the Perfect Timing Department comes this emailed link from The Cordial Churchman, a blog/online store that I just started browsing. They are touting their square-end neck ties, hand-sewn by proprietor Ellie Laveer. The timing works, as I found, on my last trip to Unique Thrift Store, a square-end tie that I’ll fire up later this week. It’ll be very tough to choose only one of Ellie’s creations, when i finally get down to bidness and toss on in the old shopping cart.

Well, that’s all I have to say for now. Thanks so much for reading…Brooke

I’m ecstatic that the US have gotten to the point where the general citizenry are upset when they lose a match in the World Cup. We’ve certainly come a long way from 1990, where it was simply novel to see them on the pitch against Czechoslovakia (a soul-crushing 5-1 defeat) and Italy (a surprisingly close 1-0 loss). This year, expectations rose substantially, especially as a Ghana-Uruguay path to the–GHAST–semifinal looked inviting. It was, obviously, not to be.

That said, as my allegiance to the boys in blue (and white and red) has grown, there have always been national teams that I have carried a torch for, sometimes for no apparent reason. Since I am a Chelsea fan, and watch English Premier League football the most, I followed England’s matches, frustratingly. Germany’s domestic league has fallen a little behind the Spanish, Italian and the aforementioned English leagues, but their system leads to youthful vigor that translates into powerful performances at big tournaments (like, say, the World Cup…I’m writing this within minutes of their 4-0 destruction of favored Argentina).

Despite years of dining at the internationally corporate trough of ABN AMRO (a bulbously overrated Dutch bank that was embarrassingly broken up and sold off), I have held an affinity for the Oranje, the national side of the Netherlands. Historically, they have been up there among the contenders, but never have hoisted the World Cup. They snicker amongst one another, on and off the pitch, but they can string together fantastic performances with their total voetbal concept (that you can read about in Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football, by David Winner) that seems innate.

Anyway, yesterday (I am very late on this entry) they were set to play Brazil, who’s only the most powerful football country in the world–5 World Cup titles, building a new trophy case for the 6th, yadao yadao. In my World Cup pool, however, I picked the Netherlands to get past Brazil and win the whole darn thing. My Tie du Jour was chosen in support of the Oranje, as you can see it’s all, well, orange.

I guess it worked. Well, that and my cheesy, clad-in-orange-and-white soccer picture from 1984 (or ’83 or ’85), that a former colleague said was good luck. The Netherlands scored twice in the 2nd half to overtake the Brazilians and send them packing.

And, so, this tie is up for grabs, being the Friday Freebie and all. Send in your comments…special dispensation will be given if any Dutch folks vie to win. It should be worn on Tuesday, no doubt, as they will take on Uruguay in the semifinal. I can’t wear it…nor can I fit into that 25+ year old soccer jersey.

I believe this tie may be Tie No. 75. Thanks for reading…Brooke

The Clawwwww…

Yes, I know I berated myself for seguéing into soccerblog territory last night, and yet I feel that I must exit my tie blog mentality, albeit temporarily, to comment on Toy Story 3. Great, great movie, a fitting ending to the whole Toy Story franchise. The genii at Pixar upped their game, not only with the 3D (barely necessary), but with the story. Sure, they stole a bit from the first two TS flicks, but people like it when they do. Moreover, they realize they’re speaking with a large amount of young adults who watched 1&2 DOZENS of times, so they didn’t hurry it through or mail it in, like some live-action Part-Three-of-Threes (I’m talking to ye, Johnny Depp and yer blasted Pirates of the Drug-Trippy Caribbean). Lastly, the only good thing about the 3D is that the glasses kept Julia from seeing that I was crying at the end. Yes, the toys all die. Horribly. Oh, spoiler alert, sorry.

Back to ties. I went kind of simple in the tie department today; a nice solid navy to go with my plaid-patterned shirt. There is some texture on this strip, as you can see in the smaller picture on the right. It brought out the blue, and with my blue suit w/pinstripes, it was all good. Its label says ‘Cognizanti’, which may be a mark under the Beau Brummel line.

The google search of Beau Brummel found some interesting history. One of the earliest ‘Dandies’ in the late 18th/early 19th centuries, Brummel claimed to take 5 hours to dress. That’s just insane. What was he doing?

What’s your favorite thing to wear? Shoes? Jeans? Cut-off shorts? Come on, let me have it, let me know what you really look forward to putting on in the morning. What do you get most excited about finding in a store? I want some dialogue here, little reminders throughout the day that you’re reading 100 Days, 100 Ties.

Well, that’s all for tonight…thanks for reading. Brooke

“I feel the need…the need for speed!” –a giggling Tom Cruise in Top Gun, to an astounded Anthony Edwards (as in, how the hell did Meg Ryan get cast as my wife!)

Amazing writing. That’s what I apparently felt today as I cruised to work in my minivan, as I broke all land-speed records, exceeding the Skokie speed limit by over 50%! It sounds a bit better, but in reality I was clocked–ALLEGEDLY–at 46 in a 30. Slow enough that I could honestly say, “Wow, officer, I didn’t realize I was going that…fast?” Does ‘fast’ really belong there? Should I have inserted ‘speed’? Or, “Wow, I didn’t realize that I was going that…slow. And, again, wow, can you honestly tell me that when you were a little boy and dreamt about becoming a policeman, that you sported a nightstick whilst thinking about pulling over minivans after 200 yards and a lane change?”

Okay, well, here’s what I was wearing as I was pulled over by “The Man.’ My Tie du Jour is from Bachrach, which I will forever associate with my fellow fraternity brothers, who fell for the lure of the Bachrach siren’s song. I found this at the Unique Thrift Store (yes, another one…get used to it, there are a lot of ’em). It appears to have several Ralph Lauren Polo insignias on it, but it’s nowhere on the label. Oh, well…

The TdJ has a pink undertone, but it’s more earthy. Nice tie…

Well, folks, my brush with the law have made me sleepy. It’s nice to be home in bed, and to have been released from the icy grip of the Skokie traffic cop. I will be accompanying my dad to the Cubs-Pirates game (he’s been a Pirates fan for 5o years now), and will try to get some GWT pictures. Wonder if I can bribe the photo-ees, so their bosses don’t find out that their ‘stomach bug’ has cleared up just in time for beers, sun and baseball.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

If it felt like my previous post just went out, that’s because…well, it did! Was a little behind, but am catching up.

It’s Friday, and I was back to my mini-forgetful ways. I picked this tie without recalling that it’d be up for grabs to the best commenter, as the FFF (Featured Friday Freebie). Lucky for me, it’s not a family heirloom, at least of a family member that I like(d). Oh, who’s kidding whom, I like all my relatives. Relatively.

The Tie du Jour/Friday Freebie is a really cool vintage repp-style strip. It has nary a tag, so I can’t even poke fun at a cheesy brand name or a phony-sounding synthetic fabric (which it most certainly is). I bought it at Unique Thrift Store a couple months ago, after 100 Days, 100 Ties started. I really liked the tone of blue, as well as the olive/off-white complementary stripe. This hangs on my smaller rack (that’s what SHE said) of vintage ties, which will be part of MMTW (Mad Men Tie Week) later on in the project. The 4th season of Mad Men starts July 25. Wow, what a coincidence, one month from today! I didn’t plan it, swear…do you think my brain could actually accomplish that?

A little on the Mad Men phenomenon. I really like the show…the style, the acting, the writing, the time-specific situations. The fashions can be so simplistic, but yet so unbelievably complicated…as in, wow, how does one find a suit so singular in color, with a tie to match? Well, the color wheel was barely round back then, and folks stood out WAYYYY too much if they got away from the basic blue-or-gray suit, white shirt, dark tie. I get stared at enough for some of the tie/shirt/suit combinations, and that’s withOUT throwing in the pocket scarf (it’s a pocket square!) and tie bar and cufflinks and socks that match. These guys in the 50s and 60s were so hamstrung by convention that they went years, decades even, maintaining an abnormal norm. I like my 40 shirts, I like my 8 suits and I like my 140 ties (by the way, those numbers are all grossly understated…I have a problem).

Speaking of numbers, go count your ties. Let me know, by commenting, how many you have…

Thanks for reading…Brooke