100 Days, 100 Ties

Since St. Patrick’s Day of 2010 was my 3rd blog post (Tie No. 2) of 100 Days, 100 Ties, I was now struck with the need to come up with another Irish-punned subject. This seems perfectly fitting.

I have generally been low on the green ties, since I started, and I had a momentary moment of panicky panic. Did I have a green one at all? Whew, I had found this vintage baby at Unique Thrift Store, my old faithful. Of course, that replaced my old old faithful, the Salvation Army formerly known as the Salvation Army of Kedzie, which met it’s developmental demise a couple of months ago. The Skokie SA is nicer and better organized, but I’ll always have Kedzie, and my biggest (vintage) score ever.

Ok, now my first inclination is to wince at the thought that I’ve told this tale before. It’s not a tie story, but it’s a vintage treasure story. Many years ago…perhaps 8…I found a pair of old Levi’s jeans. I had just started poking around stores for stuff to resell on eBay, and for some reason I knew that, if the little red tab on the back pocket had a capital E in ‘LEVI’S’, they could be valuable. They switched to LeVI’S in 1971 or something. Anyway, I paid $6, and put them up for $19 or so. Without boring you with the ups-and-ups of its weeklong auction, let me just cut to the reveal and say that some dude/dudette in Thailand bought them for $666. Diabolical, yes. Ergo, I will always have Kedzie.

Onward, my Tie du St. Patty’s Jour is from Erday’s men’s clothing store in Geneva, Illinois. ‘Tis of the wide variety, which sometimes can get carried away, but somehow this one works. I hope that the photo shows its green like I know it’s there. I like this pattern so much I may send it off to get a bowtie made from it. In fact, maybe I’ll do that for enough ties to do a Bespoke BeBowtie BeWeek.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Thanks for reading…Brooke

So, as long as I’m alluding to a random flick from the early 80s (starring Peter O’Toole and Mark Finn-Baker), I may as well admit that I almost used ‘Seven Years in Tiebet’, a random Brad Pitt vehicle from the 90s. But, in the end, I went with a film I’d actually seen (MFY was a regular on HBO and Cinemax), and I thought I’d save Brad’s brood-fest until my seven-year bloggiversary.

Shudder. Perish the thought.

Yes, as I have mentioned, today is the 1-year anniversary of 100 Days, 100 Ties. Two hundred and forty-four ties worn and written (about). I cruised right through 100, the original goal, and I also had to churn through some pretty serious bouts of writer’s block, procrastination and good ol’ fashioned lack of creativity/confidence. It has been a part of my life for nearly 1/42nd, and I can’t imagine not doing it.

That said, I’m fairly certain that, if there is a two-year anniversary (well, I guess there will always be anniversaries) there may not be a birthday. Or, at least, there may be some changes to the process. I still have about 50-60 ties that remain unworn, of which about 15 are loaners. I have over 200 ties on the Already Worn hanger, and I’d really like to wear some of them again. Maybe once my Lenten penance of No-More-Tie-Purchases has expired, I will start to have a regular Re-Tie Day of the week. Or perhaps a RePrise Week. I may eventually have to get down to 2 or 3 times per week.

But, ah, shit, who am I kidding? I’ll either forget the post-Easter idea and just keep going like normal, or I’ll go nuts and find some irresistibly charming lot of ties at Unique and extend the madness towards 400. Sheesh.

Regardless of what the future holds, I think I picked a good strip to mark the occasion. This is an absolute stunner from Lee Allison. I found it at the Salvation Army in Skokie, but the sheer quality made look, and feel, like a million bucks. I got so many compliments…it’s as if the class was calling out.

I did manage to get some Guys With Ties today. With this first one, the Tie should look mildly familiar, as may the Guy. The Tie, of course, is today’s TdJ, and the Guy, although it’s difficult to prove, is yours truly. I don’t think there are many pictures of my face on this blog. Probably why readership is so good, nyark nyark. I love how it looks like my two friends are growing out of my shoulders–Lawrence Neisler over my right shoulder (your left) and Paul Hletko over my left/your right.

And this evening was the chamber’s Business After Hours, held at Best Buy Evanston. Howard Kain, one of the principals at First Bank & Trust, was there for a bit, but I got to snap his Pfizer tie. Speaking of Pfizer ties, I have one (on loan from Dr. David Turok) that will blow y’all away.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for your kind words today…Brooke

Well, it’s just been a plethora of holiday-esque days lately. Last week was Mardi Gras and the ensuing Ash Wednesday, followed by Saturday the 12th, which of course was St. Patrick’s Day (observed, and paraded) around here, at least. Today (or yesterday, actually, at press time) was Pi Day. Get it? 3/14? 3.14 (plus a gazillion numbers) is π, of course, which is used in various mathematical formulas to make the SAT & ACT more fun. Or stressful.

I saw that there were lots of references to pie, in the social media stratosphere. That’s more sale-able, at least at places that serve pie.

Anyway. Back to ties.

My Pi Day Tie (or Tie du Jour du Gateau) hails from Italy, according to the labels. From the house of Zanzara, this silk TdJ is from the Carnaval de Venise collection. It’s blue with tiny red polka dots, and I can’t for the life of me remember where I got it. Sorry.

Well, there is something of a milestone coming up, I guess in keeping with Pi Day, and real St. Patrick’s, etc. Wednesday, March 16th will mark my 1-year anniversary of the first tie worn on the blog. Since today’s is Tie No. 242, that’ll make 244 different ties worn in a year. But who’s counting?

Thanks for reading…Brooke

Even though my TdJ has a tiny bit of green in it, that’s not why I conjured one of the ultimate chick-flicks with my blog title du jour. Some more of my ties (A-W, or already-worn, of course) have graduated to bigger and better things. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Anna (aka Little Green Pixie), barista-extraordinaire at Other Brother Coffeehouse, had used about 4 of my ties to make a dress. Well, a few days later, she said she was looking for some strips in the brown and green families to make a skirt. I checked the new A-W hanger and found three that were fitting.

I will now saw this woman...and her tie...in half!!

This evening (it’s Sunday, at press time), she published the ‘Stage I’ section of her skirt-creation description. I feel so proud to say that one of my ties is depicted, after going under the knife. Or scissor or whatever. Either way, thanks Anna…it’s very fun seeing these ties go to some use.

My plaid, wool tie (which goes smashingly with the suspenders/braces, wouldn’t you agree?) was a wonderful gift from my wonderful friend Jenny. She was proud to say that it cost only $1.49 at a thrift store; I, in turn, am proud to say that I felt like a thousand bucks wearing it. It’s from Pendleton, the celebrated maker of woolen clothing. Celebrated may be a stretch, but they are very famous. Sheep know to avoid going to work for them.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

Unfortunately, this won’t be a treatise on the situation in Egypt, where thousands of citizens revolted against a reviled and revolting, multi-billionaire murdering dictator. I’m just not as informed as I’d like to be about that.

But, one of my friends, David Tognarelli, just went there for a few days and had a blast. He said the curfew made for some earlier nights than he’d planned, but, hey, I’d be willing to give up that last couple of beers if you’d get home safe and soundly un-bullet-riddled.

David works at the First Northern Credit Union, where my (lack of) money resides; he’s also on the board of the Young Professionals of Evanston. So, if you’re young, professional and are in or of Evanston, check it out.

Anyblahblah, David is a GWT alum, and has kept tabs on 100D100T since the early days. He found my Tie du Jour in Cairo, and thought it’d be a worthy addition to my collection (or addiction, as it turns out to have become). It’s brown and tan and warm gold, and it fits right in with this textured shirt I had. The label says Elenio, but the good part is on the tag. There is a small guide on how to tie ties, but the way it’s described is pretty funny: WEAR WAYS OF TIE. As in, these are the ways you can wear this tie. Loved that.

But, thanks David! Now that it is in the already-worn, just let me know if you need to borrow it.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

Well, shoot if I didn’t think of that subject header earlier, when I was actually choosing my Tie du Jour. I had a 4-lane highway just waitin’ for a reason to be worn. Next time.

My Mardi Gras was pretty tame, by common New Orleans standards. I did not ask for, nor did I receive, any flashings of any body parts, and it was not because of my dearth of beads. My little girl was sick today–too much Cazzie P Day celebrating into the night, no doubt…so that made my TdJ more of a Tie du Couple du Hours.

I mentioned my found treasure trove the other day, thanks to the Salvation Army. My Hermès of Monday (which will be going up on eBay very soon) was followed by a sweet Lee Allison strip, which was only part of my SA bounty. And, gosh darnit, if that isn’t the most out-of-focus picture. I felt a little bad…I emailed Lee and Trideep over at Lee Allison, to tell them I’d be sporting one of their ties (and another very soon); Lee said it was slightly bittersweet since he had to think of his creations being shipped off to serve in the Salvation Army. I just think there’s an interesting story behind ‘donations’ like these: either someone exiled them because they were pissed off at the owner, or maybe someone got a new job and won’t ever need ties again. I mean, despite my crapiPhone camera, this is an absolutely A-1 quality tie. I would never in my right mind give it up unless it had soup on it (and even then, I’d make a pocket square out of it).

Before picking up Julia, I was able to make it to a couple of meetings, the first of which was with the guy who actually told me about Lee Allison and his tie company: Patrick Hughes (a GWT alum) is spending a month in a month-long intensive Executive MBA program at Kellogg. He’s basically at summer camp, except the riflery and canoeing are replaced by macroeconomics and marketing strategy. And there’s no poison ivy. Probably not, anyway.

Thanks for reading…Brooke