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366 Bow Ties: Day 20

For some folks, this was Bow Tie Friday. For me, of course, every day has become Bow Tie Friday. 20 days of bow ties. Over $500 raised for children in Haiti. Lots of fun.

I started the day off with a blue blazer so I could show off the lapel flower Ellie made for me. That'll have to wait, but not for long. Excited to show you. But I quickly realized I wasn't feeling the blazer, and realized it was time for a pivot to the classic Levi's jean jacket. Not a bad combo with such a rugged bow tie as the Lewis classic--today's bow tie of the day.

Ellie and I spent the morning working, and eating, at Lell's Cafe. It was 2011 the last time I was in there, which is utterly shameful. So I made up for it by staying there through breakfast, through the mid-morning coffee break, through lunch, and through the mid-afternoon coffee break. Hey, it's not my fault I had a breakfast and lunch invitation to Lell's in one day. Just trying to be efficient here.

The jean jacket, they say (rightly), really doesn't work with jeans, unless you're just really, really cool and can't be stopped. I realized the jacket was the way to go because I had first opted for my new Bill's Vintage Twill M3 Khakis. An interesting rule of thumb has developed for me: Rugged down low? Jeans? Go with buttoned-down up top. Silk bow tie, blazer, lapel flower, etc. Creased khakis? Go with a vintage (looking) jean jacket and a heavy tweed bow tie. Some variation of this might indeed be the rule, until now unwritten.

Run on over to the store and grab this very Lewis classic for a slight discount. Or grab the frequently commented-upon and much-loved Lewis Club Diamond point (or any other cut) for now until the fabric is gone.

I hope your Friday included pizza and beer.

Cheers,
Andy

366 Bow Ties: Day 19

What do you do to keep your kids out of your bow-tie-making wife's hair during the rush just before the Post Office closes? On a cool winter afternoon? Why, you  build a fire and roast some marshmallows, that's what.

"Catch them on fire!" Okay, son, if you say so.

A friend called me a pretend outdoorsman upon seeing these photos. That's exactly what I am. I have no ambition of being a real one. Don't care for camping, never been hunting, prefer catching to fishing. But I do like to light up a pipe, sit around a fire, and drink coffee, outdoors, out of my new Stanley thermos (Merry Christmas to me!).

Embracing my identity as pretend outdoorsman allows me to catch up on my reading of Jonathan Edwards for The Dead Preachers Society of Ebenezerville on my iPad. (I do prefer my Yale clothbound edition, but alas, I could not locate it.)

And it allows me to rock the bow tie. In this case, a one-of-a-kind, not-normaly available black gingham piece cut in classic shape and not on the bias.  Available in the store until it's gone, and then very much not available again. Buy this bow tie, or any of the 366, and you're sending 29 odd bucks to enrich the lives of children in Haiti.

There was actually a moment when I didn't think I was going to be able to build a proper fire. A boy scout I was not. My boys were looking on, and I couldn't fail. Thankfully, the thing got going and the whole macho operation was saved.

366 Bow Ties: Day 17

This was one of those days when not having an office to report to for work means not getting yourself cleaned up until 3/4 of the day's work had already been done. Better late than never, though. By mid-afternoon it was unseasonably warm, which seemed to call for leaving the sweaters and tweed--and socks--behind.

By the time I had today's bow tie on, I was in grave danger of losing all sunlight. Since I'm kind of a lighting nazi, it's a good thing the orange ball of eight-minute-old light hadn't packed up for the evening. The sun seems to work banker's hours this time of year.

I pulled out my new Bill's Khakis Pima Cords. Narrow waled, M3--their most narrow cut, and very, very comfortable, and cuffed like grown-up trousers with a grown-up break. I suppose if I really wanted to stick to my high water thing, I could bundle them up a bit. With all this grown-up-ness, I thought I'd be a little juvenile and lose the socks. Birthday Socks, you might call them. Added a D-ring belt for a little more interest and youthfulness. Maybe I'm wrong about the effect of these touches, but it felt right on my end.

Today's bow has been one of our favorites, and a favorite of our customers too. It's a Maxwell rendered in diamond point. Soft wool & silk that won't scratch your neck. Subtle glen plaid pattern. A bit of a purple-ish hue in certain light. This exact one will go up on the store late Wednesday is now in our store at a special price, but you can get yourself a Maxwell bow tie in any cut, or a necktie of the same pattern with a square end or a point end.

Come to think of it, the Maxwell--and this cut specifically--embodies the whole young man / old man balance that seems to keep coming up in these posts. (Hey, that's a clever name. I should start a blog called Young Man / Old Man!) The bow is a bow tie, so it's old man already. It's glen plaid. Old man again. But it's got a little different scale and texture--larger, and with more 'static'--than your grandpa's old 3-piece suit. It's diamond-pointed: an early twentieth century detail, but a mark of youthful individuality and quirkiness in our present setting.

Maybe we're thinking about this too much. Actually, no. We think about these things for a few minutes when we're putting our clothes on in the morning (or in my case today, in the mid-afternoon). We think about them on either a conscious or a subconscious level when we notice someone's interesting ensemble. We think about them whilst blogging. And boy do we blog. But the goal of getting dressed is not to think about clothes. It's to wear clothes, to present yourself to someone, making an ever-so-swift and quite un-analyzed first impression, to be able to go about your day knowing that the couple moments you spent thinking about what you put on now allow you just to do life without being fussy, uptight, self-conscious, or whatever about your appearance. Maybe a good indication that clothes have received the appropriate consideration and no more is when it feels a little forced to reflect on their appearance, or to articulate what you were "going for" in this or that ensemble. Maybe that's a good indication that you're wearing clothes, and clothes aren't wearing you. If the clothes are wearing you, you're probably not comfortable, and you're probably not putting those around you at ease. It used to be that this was the cornerstone of the prevailing philosophy of gentlemanly style. Not a bad thing to remember.

Okay, that's quite enough for one night. I better quit before I start to sound like a total dork.

366 Bow Ties: Days 13 & 14

Cheating. Two days worth of bows in one post.

[slideshow]

Went with the Chalmers on Friday. A reversible Pendleton style Albuquerque-esque with deep red chambray that is no longer available as such on our store.  (Stay tuned for a non-reversible replacement with the fabric we do have left.)  Spent that day in the mountains near Hendersonville, NC.  Ate at the Flat Rock Bakery, which is always delicious. Played poker with Battleship pegs (I'm resourceful!) very early that morning. Ellie sunk all our battleships. Grab Friday the 13th's exclusive bow tie here.

Saturday the 14th found me in the seersucker reversible wool Puckett bow tie, and found us at Historic Brattonsville for Hog Butchering Day. Deacon and Owen learned all about curing cuts, stewing livers, making pork rinds and Scottish eggs, and how pig fat becomes soap. The evening found Ellie and I in the NoDa arts district enjoying brew from Smelly Cat Coffee and tunes at the Evening Muse from The Explorers Club and Elonzo.

I also wore my new pennies from Oak Street Bootmakers. Simply amazing. There's nothing like the first time wearing leather-soled shoes out and feeling the crunch of the leather against stray chunks of gravel. You'll be seeing these lots in the future. I look forward to doing a few posts about these handmade-in-Chicago loafers. For now, just enjoy the pretty leather.

You can get January 14th's Puckett in classic butterfly for a $4 discount on the store, until it's gone.

Cheers,

Andy

366 Bow Ties: Day 10

The consensus is that this photo turns out to be more creepy than funny. Oh well. Spent some time with some colleagues on the 7th floor of a YMCA in Uptown Charlotte today, and had to seize the photo op with the CPR dummy.

Spent the rainy morning in my Wellies, which garnered the typical equal mix of compliments and funny looks. A stylish black colleague was among the complimenters, and after asking about the boots and how they relate in sartorial history to the bow tie, decided that my nickname out to be Wellie. So if you want to call me that, I'll gladly answer to it. Goes nice and ridiculous with "Ellie", too, huh?

Of course it cleared up and got sunny and warm later. The Wellies, sweater and tweed jacket had to go.

The bow tie of the day today is the Dedrick--a great example, in my opinion, of how to wear madras in the winter. Stay away from pastel colors, and you're legit from my perspective. The one-and-only Jan 10 Dedrick is available right now on the store--at a $5 discount.  You can order one in any cut here.

Thanks for reading,

Andy

366 Bow Ties in 2012: Day 9

I think that if I had a couple pair of Wellies, I could easily live in some shabby place like Seattle.  I've been waiting, ever since returning from holiday vacation in Ohio, for South Carolina to hurry up and be rainy.  I'd been noticing all the ladies around here who have great rain boots, and wishing there were a manly option.  (You may debate the manliness of the entire notion of wearing such things when not gardening or hunting, but you'll not convince me.)  I found these from Le Chemeau, and they're just the ticket. Absurd. Provocative. Utilitarian. Incredibly styling. Classic.  Thanks to Ellie for a fantastic Christmas gift!

But this is about bow ties.  And what a bow tie we have here!  I'm going on the working assumption that whatever I part with, I'll eventually be able to replace with something at least as cool. That assumption is a stretch when it comes to this beauty.

This was one of the first bow ties Ellie ever converted from a necktie.  Vintage silk. Teal blue with a red & white floral foulard pattern.  Diamond point. Bursting with throwback personality. Don this to an audition for Bagger Vance II, and you're not going to be an extra; you may just replace Will Smith.

The great thing about being a "bow tie person" is that people already don't know what to make of you. That is incredibly liberating, allowing you to wear delightfully ridiculous things like Wellies. But the first step is to get yourself a bow tie. Start with this one. Available until it's no longer available, at our store.

Cheers,

Andy

Amazing Things are Done in our Bow Ties

Take, for instance, this:

Mr Brown is doing a new yo-yo trick every day for 2012. Kudos to him.

366 Bow Ties: Day 8

It's week two. Our bow of the day is the Morrison, named for my good pal. Houndstooth in blues on one side, olive on the other. One of this Fall/Winter's best sellers, and easily one of my favorites. Rendered here in narrow butterfly.

When you're just learning how to put a more traditional men's ensemble together, you can get pretty intimidated about what goes with what. Lots of people write to say they think they've got the guts to try a bow tie, but don't know what to wear with it. Here's the first thing to know: anything goes with a white or light blue oxford shirt, a navy blazer, khakis, gray trousers, or a gray suit. Get each of these things, and you essentially have a traditional wardrobe.

But at the most basic level, find a bow tie that looks appropriate for the season, put it with a white or blue Oxford and a blue blazer, and you're at once traditional and oozing personal style.

Today is an example of a variation on the basic bow tied uniform: a university stripe Oxford with a houndstooth patterned bow tie. Uni stripe Oxfords--especially blue--go with almost anything except ties that are striped in the same scale. Mixing up the pattern scale keeps things from getting too busy, but adds a level of interest that isn't achieved with a solid shirt.

We enjoyed a fantastic dinner today prepared by the first ever Cordial Churchman employee, Kay. It's hard to imagine having been able to sustain a business had we not had Kay's help and enthusiasm. Nowadays, she's running an international aid ministry, which makes her the most successful survivor of the Cordial Churchman sweat shop. Her agency will be the recipient of all the proceeds of our 366 Bow Ties sales. We look forward to telling you more about the partnership as it develops. It looks as though we'll be focusing our help on Haiti, perhaps with an opportunity to visit there later in the year.

Kay and Heiko and their 3 children spent a decade living and working in Berlin, and they have lots of neat Deutsche paraphernalia around the house. Kay is one of the most amazing non-professional interior decorators on the planet, I'd wager. Their home is beautiful without being even slightly pretentious or extravagant. Like in clothes, a good eye, a few basic principles, and a developed personal style seems to be the key.

So run over to the store, grab yourself a Morrison bow tie. Grab this one in narrow butterfly. Or grab one in another style. Grab one for your boss, your assistant, your preacher, your professor, your husband, your son, your girlfriend, your dog. Stick it with a blue or white shirt--or a uni strip, and make your an everyone else's world a little more interesting, and a little more classic, all at the same time.

Cordially,

Andy

PS, we had a Downton Abbey premiere party this evening. I "dressed up" to go as a period bicycle repair man. Ellie looked as fabulous as--nay, more fabulous than--Lady Mary.

366 Bow Ties: Day 7

Bow ties on Saturdays are going to be tricky. It was incredibly warm for January, perfect for my boy Owen's backyard birthday party. So I picked something that was kind of summery, but not seersucker or linen.
This used to be called the Patrick when it was a reversible bow tie with another fabric on the reverse. Get this for St Patrick's Day. Madras and bold, but not "loud". I write from the Chick Fil A playground, which stinks worse than a high school locker room. But the boys can run off their sugar high.
Run over to the store and grab today's tie. More interesting prose promised tomorrow.

366 Bow Ties: Day 6

. Buy it or it's gone.
Found both a corduroy shirt and a knit wool zip-up sweater in the back of my closet--in the "I'm Too Fat For This, But Someday" thrifted pile. Navy and gray gave me another shot at yesterday's Solidarity Palate. The red velvet doesn't really hint at brighter days, though. Instead, it embraces the bleak midwinter and meets its frosty throwdown with a cheap shot of luxury and warm elegance. What is the deal, however, with these ridiculously long sweater sleeves? Tuesday's sweater's sleeves were also much too long, but this is just nuts. I cuffed them 3/4 of the way to my elbow. It's a "detail"--right? Put that on Tumblr...let's start the next big thing.
Ellie tailored these trousers for me this morning. Wow. What a woman. More on this in another post, I hope.

Loving these Made in USA longwings--can't tell who by. But they were affordable!

Happy first Friday of 2012. Go put on a bow tie and head out for some pizza and beer.

Cheers,
Andy