Tomorrow (6/26), we are having a celebration of all the students have done, with their parents invited for dinner.  Nothing could be more festive than this glorious piece of silk that I'll be wearing (from 7:30 in the morning, when I leave home, until 8:00 p.m. or later, when the party shuts down).  I'm almost ashamed, however, to tell you that it is from the "Rush Limbaugh No Boundaries Collection" (silk, US).  That's a tough act to follow, but I'll try, with one of the very finest ties I have.  The subtly glorious flowers are woven into the fabric of this "Tango by Max Raab" silk tie, handmade in China.  

     I'll finish the week with similarly festive ties and high standards.  Thursday (6/28), I'll wear a Countess Mara tie.  I couldn't have a party without the Contessa.  If you look at the bottom of the picture, you can barely see the monogram.  On some Countess Mara ties, it is in a contrasting color, but not on this one.  Friday, I'll turn the closing ceremonies over to Hugo Boss (silk, Italy). 

     On the subject of floral ties, it is interesting to me that three of the four labels on the ties I'm wearing seem to be associated with florals. All the giddy, gaudy R.L. neckties (I can't bring myself to type that name again) have a flower or two or several thousand somewhere in the weave.  (Consider this -the R.L. tie is on the right.)  I believe all my Tango ties have some sort of botanical theme - palm trees, flowers, leaves.  (The last time I went on a tie safari, I found a duplicate of one of my palmy Tango ties.)  And, I only have a few Boss ties, but they all are florals.  Strangely, this week's tie is the only Countess Mara floral I have.

     Oh, well, with flowers, congratulations, and best wishes to a group of really amazing young people - people that I find it hard to associate with the word "impaired," even though they all are "visually impaired" - that have certainly warmed up a Florida summer!

Copyright © 2007 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved  

     Now, for a couple of ties that I'll try to tie to the ongoing theme of the Transition program.  On the 22nd, I'll wear a tie that shows some lovely structures (appropriately, with the Structure label, silk, US), because the kids will go on an outing to downtown Lakeland, which has some lovely old structures.  I'll finish this quartet with a tie showing a horse race.  No, the kids aren't going to a horse race, but they will go horseback-riding (Primavera/Tie Rack, silk, Italy), and I feel that they've all deserved a ribbon, such as that shown floating mysterously on this tie.  

     With these two ties, I come to the final week of Transition.  Lately, however, my calendar is rich with holidays, not only Father's Day, previously mentioned, but also three of my favorites:  Bloomsday (nothing to do with my orchids), Juneteenth (a lovely day in US history, which I - growing up in the pre-integrated South - never heard about until recent years), and the summer solstice.  While I have personal associations for each of these days, I don't commercialize them, keep them in my heart, and enjoy the flavor and richness that each adds to my own book of days.  I don't understand those who are offended by a wish of "Happy Holidays!"  The more, the merrier, say I.

Copyright © 2007 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved

     For Thursday (15th), I'm wearing a green silk tie from The Cotswold Collection by J.S. Blank, and on the following day a polyester tie from Chess King, made in the US, not very well made; the fish are upside down.  Moving right along...

     I'm trying to balance my ties between a reflection of Transition and a comment on my own life.  On Monday (18th), I'm wearing one of my older ties.  No, it's not stained.  That apparent discoloration seems to be a part of the design of the tie.  I'm wearing this old tie because the energy of the kids is making me feel... well, old.  Most of my vintage ties have no surviving labels.  This one has two, the manufacturer's label (Beau Brummell, Rayon) and the store's (Shepard & Hamelle, Burlington, Vt. - a little about that store).  I selected this tie because in a recent post the estimable Will Stuivenga mentioned a peculiar but recurring design on these old ties - a rather random sprinkling of weird little gizmos.  Will has such a great description that I want to share it with you, "smaller postage stamp looking boxes, each with a vaguely floral, perhaps amoeba-like shape enshrined within."  These old ties are exuberant, sometimes not in the best of taste, but always energetic.  It seems as if there were some secret pre-computer program to select a variety of design elements and squash them together with little regard for the overall effect.

     I've been carrying around a couple of Édith Piaf disks this week, not just carrying around, of course, but also listening, and I hear that there is a new film about her.  I do believe that if I held this French silk necktie (Enzo Modena, Lyon) to my ear, I could hear the "Little Sparrow" singing.  I remembered this tie, when I was trying to think of a way to commemorate Piaf, but it was not until I found it that I learned that it not only looks French: it is French.  Enjoy!

Copyright © 2007 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved 

     Next week, the kids are going to a Japanese restaurant, and although I do not have a sushi necktie, I do have a necktie (Christian Dior Monsieur) with a design of fans (6/13).  And, to remind myself that I have a life after work, I am wearing (6/12) a dark square-bottomed knit tie with no labels (hence, an orphan, as I call such ties), in homage to a magnificent film that a friend recently shared with me, Everything Is Illuminated.  In that film, the star, Elijah Wood does not wear his hobbity hairy feet but he does wear a necktie very much like this one.  Although I cannot in good conscience recommend such a tie, I do highly commend the film.

Copyright © 2007 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved 

     First, a confession.  I wore the tie identified above as being for tomorrow (6/4) on Friday, and I'm wearing the tie originally planned for Friday tomorrow.  I had planned to wear that tie on Friday to commemorate the Transition students' cookout, although I was not going.  It turned out that I had to drive about a couple hundred miles to visit a man who is just starting a business as well as a woman who has had her own business for some time (yes, they get services from us, so, yes, they are...).   I really didn't want to wear that goofy tie on such an outing.  So, I swapped a sedate tie with a pattern of quadrangles (Gap, silk, US). 

     Tuesday, in honor of those two wayward whales that captured attention for a while, I'm wearing a tie with little whales on it.  The label reads "John Fredericks" and "Union Made" (the Weavers are surely humming approvingly), specifically ACWA, or Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, which, according to that link, merged with another union and changed names in 1976, so perhaps that gives me a way of dating this tie.

     Wednesday (6/6), I'm wearing a tie appropriate to the Transition students and one of their adventures.  I did not mention when I first introduced Transition that the students also have jobs (work experiences) for part of the program, and they have to deal with dress codes where they work.  (Tell me about it.)  One of the places actually requires that males wear shirts with collars, so it seems like a good time to wear a necktie (Structure, silk) that offers a variety of possibilities. 

     For Thursday (6/7), the tie does not commemorate the Weavers (as far as I know, there is no necktie that commemorates them), but it is another in my collection of ties that are based on songs by the Beatles.  Sorry, I don't have a tie for any of the songs from Sgt. Pepper.  This one represents "Paperback Writer" from 1966 (The Beatles © 1991 Apple Corps.Limited, silk, US).

Copyright © 2007 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved