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8月25日 The Celebration ContinuesAnd so do reasons to celebrate. My friend E D Detetcheverrie reports a new job, in fact, "a career instead of just another job." Bravo, and do check E D Detetcheverrie's blog and books. Also, this blogging "tie-guy" heard from a Thai guy, in response to the previous post. Altogether, I feel that I definitely have reason to continue this celebration with neckties until the end of August.
Yesterday and Monday (Aug. 24, 27) the ties take on architectural and geographical themes. Yesterday's tie was a polyester presentation of the Capitol. The label reads "First." Having worn a couple of polyster ties lately, I remember why I prefer silk. Monday's tie is really amazing. What is perhaps most amazing is that it really comes down to the maligned diagonal stripes... although, what stripes! The label reads "Damon | All Silk," and there is a "Maas Brothers | Florida" store label. Imprinted on the back of the tie is "City of Baltimore." The blue stripes are livened by a swirl (almost paisley) of reddish vegetation. The pink stripes have a similar vegetation, broken up by a city scene with a fountain, which, as far as I can tell, is Baltimore's Patterson Park. Where is John Waters when you need to know something about Baltimore... and where can I find a Pink Flamingos tie?
On the 28th, the tie will at least be pink. (I just happened to remember that I do indeed have a pink flamingos tie.) No flamingos in sight, just a rather jaunty gent. (Robert Talbot, silk, printed in Italy, made in USA; with a store label "Atkinson's | California") That tie has a nautical theme although out of the water, while the next tie plunges below the waters - with some unlikely pink. This is my first tie with a live reptile on it, although I have worn ties with prehistoric reptiles. In fact, when I wore a tie with frogs, I speculated that some reptiles, such as snakes, lizards, and alligators, would fit quite nicely onto a tie. I didn't think of turtles. (Wembley Endangered Species, silk, USA) Prepare yourself for a couple of extreme neckties. Be warned: if I say they are extreme...
Just what is that? Are those? Throughout this blog, I have worn and celebrated Countess Mara ties. In a recent post, I recorded that necktie #400 was a Countess Mara tie, complete with the (in)famous "CM" with a crown, the first designer logo ever used so prominently in a design. Throughout the blog, there has also been a much lighter scattering of Structure ties, but this (Aug. 30), is the only one so to celebrate the company's name. (Structure, silk, USA). And then... on the last day of this month, I let it all hang out with a shocking tie that exploits a twentieth century icon, "The Scream," by Edvard Munch. Beyond saying that this tie has a label reading "Vincent and Co. | 100% silk | Made in China," this tie leaves me speechless. Copyright © 2007 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved 8月21日 Necrophilia Nothing says festivity quite like dead celebrities. So, I'll pretty much let these two neckties speak for themselves as part of the celebration of four centuries of ties. Recently, I've noticed - for the first time - some Johnny Carson ties in my boutiques of choice. On the 22nd, I'll honor the companion of millions of insomniacs with an intriguing but tasteful bit of neckware (Johnny Carson, cotton) .
The following day (23rd), it's time to bring on the King... and forget about taste. I was tempted to wear this tie on the 30th aniversary of his death last week, but I had already had my ties planned through this week. (The Elvis Collections by Supersa | "Blue Suede Shoes" Immortalized by Elvis Presley | Recorded by Elvis Presley 01/30/56, silk.) When he died 30 years ago, I got in some trouble by allowing my students to put up a bulletin board in his honor. My reasoning was that it would encourage them to read; isn't that what an English teacher should be doing?
By the way, if the ongoing Elvis cult seems a little too neophiliac, let me refer you to Argentina's Carlos Gardel. You can still see on a decorative tile in the room where I am writing this and hear throughout Buenos Aires that "Cada día canta mejor" (Every day he sings better), although he died in 1935.
Copyright © 2007 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved 8月18日 Beginning of the Fifth CenturyWhat can I say? I am finishing up four hundred ties worn and blogged. It has been a long, strange, but very pleasant journey from that first day on a new job (December 27, 2004 - birthday of that necktie-wearing idol Marlene Dietrich) a little over two and a half years ago, when - to my horror - my new boss informed me that I would have to wear a necktie... at least, four days a week.
About six months later, as I looked through a thrift shop to increase my holdings, I found a necktie bearing images from the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, and I made a fateful almost fatal confession to myself that wearing a tie like that could be fun. My trips to the thrift shops (the only place I can image buying a tie) changed from being searches for necessities to safaris for trophies. I was getting the idea of the blog in my mind when a stunning tie with a Native American design came into my life, and I knew that it would be the first tie of the first year of my blog.
I had a sort of false start in December 2005, as I presented a dozen "fundamental ties" and tried to explain what the blog would be, the blog which in fact started in January 2006. At that time, there was still an idea of a rotation, that I would wear my way through all my ties (as I had been doing in my first year at thise job), and then I would rotate back through them. Since then, however, the number of ties has grown so that there is no end in sight.
I remember that there was controversy in the year 2000 about whether it was the last year of the 20th century or the first year of the 21st. Let's consider my current entry, ties # 400 (obvously, the last tie of the fourth group of a hundred) and # 401 (just as obviously, the first tie of the fifth group of a hundred). Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I present the two epoch-marking cravats:
How, you might ask, did these two win such places of privilege? First, they are two beautiful and very noteworthy ties. Tie #400, moreover, bears the monogram of Countess Mara (at the bottom of the image), a device which has been seen frequently in this blog. As I was fretting over the selection of a tie for this special day (once again, I sound in serious need of getting a life), a friend of mine who, under the designation of my "Designated Shopper," showed up with this beauty. DS plus Countess Mara plus splendid tie equalled a sure winner. (Countess Mara, silk, New York, with a store label, John Irwin | Boca Raton | Palm Beach, FLA.)
Not too long afterwards, I was visiting one of the people I work for as a rehabilitation technologist at the Tampa Lighthouse for the Blind (a name for which I never provide a link to emphasize the independence of this blog from that worthy organization). After he asked me about my hobbies, and I had mentioned collecting and blogging neckties, he left the room and returned with the hypnotic beauty that starts the new century.
A few technicalities are in order. Obviously, I cannot and should not accept gifts from "clients," to use a word I hate. But, this gentleman comes across as a friend - and, yes, I really wanted this tie. To avoid hurting his feelings, losing the tie, or possibly losing my job, I turned the tie in to a co-worker as a donation to the Lighthouse from a gentleman who must here remain nameless, then purchased it back at a price even higher than the price I no longer pay at a chain of thrift shops that have raised their prices too high for me. (Amore Pace, Designed in Italy, silk, Made in Korea.)
My ties are more than just pieces of cloth that I tie around my neck. Each is a vestment that I wear as I carry out my vocation, my calling, in a work that is almost sacred for me. The ties are both a blessing and a sign of blessings - my work and the good people in my life (be they friends, co-workers, "clients," or some combination of those labels.) Truthfully, however, these two ties were something of a curse to my scanner. There are colors showing on the picture of the Countess Mara tie that are not on the tie itself, and the other tie would, I believe, defy any attempt at representation.
I am going to tie this entry up with "A Simple Loving Kindness Invocation," about as festive a conclusion as I can think of:
May all beings be free from enmity. Copyright © 2007 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved 8月13日 Generation Gap - 6 (Final)Although many vintage ties are thematic, with bright pictures, as you can see at K.N.O.T. few of my older ties are representational. But, I'm concluding this examination of old and new neckties with similar images with a couple of vintage ties (and corresponding newer ties) that portray animals.
Swimming into the first slot are these fish. The newer tie (Salamander, polyester, Taiwan) is on the left. The older tie, on the right, has no identification, except, imprinted on the back of the tie are the two words "Hand Painted." The colors, by the way, are perhaps the most popular among vintage ties. The birds, Asian boat, and mountain, are pleasant bonuses.
And, we finish this series of old and new ties with a couple of beauties. It seems that the designers of the older neckties were careful to keep them decidedly "masculine." Flowers were few, but fish and pheasants (to be hunted, of course) raised no eyebrows. The older tie is on the left (again, noice the palate of brown, orange, and red), with no identification at all. It has, unfortunately, been cut down to a narrower width. On the right, there is a modern three-bird wonder (Hathaway, silk, US). That takes us up to #399. Stay tuned...
Copyright © 2007 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved 8月4日 Generation Gap - 5I have one more entry after this one in this series of old ties and new ties that have some connections in their designs. This time, instead of having a group of variations on a single theme, we have three pairs, with a theme joining the members of each pair, but without a theme linking the pairs.
This pair, for instance, share a basic pattern of round thing-a-ma-bobs. (Pardon my technical jargon.) You can probably tell that the necktie on the left is the older, because it shows (as do some other older ties) a sort of stain that just is not there to the naked eye (even the naked eye clothed by a magnifying glass). Like many other older ties, this one has no labels surviving. The newer tie (on the right) looks vaguely primitive to me (Executive Silks, silk, US).
This second image also has some problems, but with the newer necktie (on the right), which shows a strong moiré pattern (which showed up in all three scans that I made of this tie). Both of these ties hark back to the vertical designs of the previous entry, vertical designs broken up in these ties. The older tie, again, has no labels. The newer tie (Giovanni Seta, Studio Collection, silk, China) is a wonderful piece of fabric, with a palate of subtle colors. There is a heavy, swirling brocade, as well as a deisng of fine, almost metallic lines. The lining is a heavily textured green silk that would itself make an attractive tie. I'm afraid that it was all just too much for my scanner, alas.
And we finish up for this entry with these two ties with their gorgeous rhomboids. The tie on he left is the newer one, and it has been seen on this blog previously, as one of those twelve fundamental ties that caused me some trouble counting. It was one drawn from my then meager selection; I had worn it in times past, but not during the time of the blog. It is a necktie that I described as "a homage or a counterfeit of the grand old Art Deco designs." Unfortunately, it has a store label (Dunphy Clothiers, which is in St. Petersburg, Florida) and a label identifying it as silk and made in Italy, but I don't know what manufacturer/designer can claim credit for it. The old tie, with its richly repeating brocade, carries a frayed label, "Resilient Construction | Bonaire." By the way, I am going to visit my mother, and so, I shall wear a necktie on Sunday the 12th, will be off Monday the 13th, and shall return to my knotted ways on Tuesday the 14th. And so, we come to necktie # 395. Copyright © 2007 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved |
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