February 13, 2012

AKA, Catch-up post. I'm just going to throw these out there without too much play-by-play. Enjoy!

Day 39. I reached for a new spring TCC bow tie--the Chadrick-- a gorgeous madras thusfar only available to our Bow Tie of the Month Society members. Sometimes you just have to pack the family into the minivan and head off to Moe's. You don't necessarily have to rock a bow tie on such occasions, but if you're going to be interfacing with the world's greatest soda machine, you might as well wear the world's greatest piece of neckwear.

Just this one's available in straight batwing for now ... until the spring line is released to the general public later this month.

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Day 40. A guy has a couple sartorial weapons at his disposal: the carrot and the stick. The stick is loud, obnoxious, GTH. The carrot says "I don't need to be noticed, but don't you enjoy noticing me?"

This is all a bunch of nonsense, of course. I just happened to be having a low-calorie snack when my photographer was available. This is a truly original bow tie: the Alan. It's about as out-of-the-box as we get. Brown with reddish-orange, silver, and tan threads of of different sheen and weave mixed in. I think it looked good with my JandHP lapel flower, dark jeans, ridiculous green argyle socks, longwings, and my favorite Donegal tweed. This very bow tie is available here at a discount.

I used to head to the hospital several times every week. In my newer line of work, hospital visitations are pretty infrequent, and actually constitute a nice break in the routine. Special enough occasion to photograph myself in the mirror-laden elevator, at least.

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Day 41. I keep stealing bow ties from the forthcoming spring collection. This is the Barrett: probably my favorite. It's a simple red linen, which almost looks like chambray. The texture is rich. The fabric is luxurious and costly. Rendered here in diamond-point, this one alone is available to you at a preview discount.

(A classic butterfly cut shown here for a closer look at the color and texture.)

One more wear for my Oak Street Bootmakers penny loafers before they're due for their first cleaning and treatment. These things still smell so dang leathery. A glorious shoe.

The whole family headed to Amelie's French Bakery in Charlotte to meet our friend Caroline Fontenot of Back Down South. All the boys wore bow ties, of course, including Wycliffe. Here he is just before he ripped a bust off the table, which went crashing to the floor and ended up on the counter in a pile, pictured below. Smooth move, son.

Deacon doesn't mind dressing up a tad, though Owen despises it. We had to bribe Owen with "doughnuts" (i.e., gourmet eclairs). Sometimes Deacon can seem like such a grown-up, like when he was patiently sitting in the car waiting to leave.

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Day 42. Ellie raided the enormous pile of death-row neck ties for this yellow silk with purple foulard. She made a beautiful straight batwing shaped bow tie that seemed appropriate for another hospital visit, this time to see our friends' and my colleague's newborn.

Saturday night was the coldest it's been here all winter. It all started just at dusk while we were snapping these photos. Brrrrrrrrrrrr.

You can snag this one-of-a-kind bow tiehere, until it's gone.

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Day 43. Sometimes I go a little nuts and get all the accessories coordinated. Red, white and blue on the straight batwing silk bow tie, the socks, the grosgrain watch band, and the pocket square.

When you pull something like this off, you get a little spunky and start karate kicking the camerawoman.

Grab this one-of-a-kind former necktie-turned-TCC bow tie now, or it's gone.

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And there you have it. 5 days of bow tiedness. All in one post. Almost more than any of us can handle. Don't forget that all the proceeds of the 366 bow ties I wear go to our favorite project in Haiti, helping children in poverty have a chance to be released from its clutches into lives of personal flourishing. So buy often.

Cordially,

Andy