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366 Bow Ties: Day 4

Isn't a bow tie enough? Why add a kelley green cardigan? is it St. Patrick's Day? Or did you have a Guinness in the shower instead of coffee this morning?

To answer your question, a bow tie is definitely enough. I wouldn't normally be so peacocky. But the problem is, I have a green cardigan, which I like a lot, and I'm doing this thing where I have to wear a bow tie every day. I'm already foregoing neckties for 366 days. I'm not going to add kelley green cardigans to the abstention list.

Hence, outfit.

The bow tie is the Malcolm, rendered in Club Diamond (a punchy bow tie cut, of course. Consistency!). It's silk tweed. Which makes it, and you--if you buy it--automatically awesome.

The Malcolm is available regularly on our store for the affordable price of $29. But this one, and this one alone is available for the throwback Cordial Churchman price of just $23.

With all that punchiness up top, it's brown from the waist down. Except for the socks, of course, which goes without saying.

366 Bow Ties: Day 3

Today's bow tie is also one-of-a-kind.  It's a leftover from a batch we made a little over a year ago from scruffy blue chambray, most of which were diamond pointed and ended up going to Times Square and the Meatpacking District where Levi's promptly sold out of them.  I stumbled upon a butterfly version and decided it called for an old cable-knit navy sweater I also just rediscovered in the back of my closet.

I had the privilege of a BBQ lunch meeting with a cordial churchman and friend. This gent has a doctorate, and has just recently finished reading the entirety of an even more cordial churchman, mutual teacher, and friend's 7 volume history of preaching.  Needless to say, I was all ears when he offered some constructive criticism on Sunday's sermon.

Bill Spoon's Barbecue was delicious, and delightfully low-brow, as all such joints should be.

I moved on to a more high-brow Charlotte establishment, the one and only Fairclough & Co. Clothiers.  I managed to avoid the Alden shoes and got off pretty cheap, relatively speaking (see below).

I am always more and more impressed with Charlotte.  I know it's not supposed to have any character, history, and soul.   So maybe I'm shallow.  But Charlotte is great.

I was on a no-jeans-because-jeans-are-for-manual-laborers kick for a while, and actually went an entire year without ever wearing blue jeans.  It started by accident, and then became a stupid personal challenge.  What was I thinking?  I'm compensating now by wearing the Gold Standard almost every day.

The real test of any bow tie is:  when you un-do it at 6:00pm as you're greeting your wife at the door, does she think you're hot stuff?  Causation is pretty hard to prove around here, being as Ellie makes the things herself--she could just be admiring her own work.  But once you take the baby off her hands and disappear, you instantly become hot stuff---but especially with a bow tie.  Make sense?  I'm rambling.  The point is: buy this only-one-of-it's-kind-left blue chambray bow tie today, or it's gone forever (unless we happen upon more of this fabric).

Right: so, about how I escaped from Fairclough:  With this.  Genuine man.  Perhaps even Old Man (all the better).  There were some sissy scents available that Ellie might have liked better.  But at the end of the day, you've got to go with Bay Rhum.  Can you believe the packaging on this thing?  A wax seal?  That paper!?  That crown?  Glad I finally got me some.  I'm inhaling right now.  It smells legit.

Cheers until tomorrow.

-Andy

PS--Sorry about the whole Andy-standing-with-Ray-Bans-in-front-of-buildings flavor of this post.

PSS---Sorry also for the hyphenate-the-crap-out-of-everything flavor of this post.

366 Bow Ties: Day 2

Used to be a beautiful scarf from The Hill-Side. Now, its a beautiful bow tie. Until The Hill-Side starts making bow ties, I'm sure they won't object to your buying their scarves and having The Cordial Churchman convert them.

Went out to my buddy's family farm in McConnels, SC today with another good friend. Had bacon and peanut butter paninis and talked about the beauty of polycultures.

There was something enjoyable about walking around avoiding animal dung in my Weejuns.  I narrowly avoided having January 2nd's bow tie ingested by the lovely beast in the foreground.  (They both also made a pass at my Kent Wang pocket square, which Ellie gave me for Christmas last year.)  Today's bow is  available in our store, but is utterly gone--poof--forever, once it's sold. But you won't be nearly so sad as I will be to see this once-worn linenesque cotton beauty go.

Plans to give away all the proceeds are coming together nicely. We are excited to tell you more once everything's in place.

Happy bow tying.

EDIT: How could I have forgotten to post the photo of the peanut butter & bacon panini?  Thanks, Erin from A Low Country Wedding for reminding me of the glory that was that sandwich!

Gay Apparel Donned

Here are the contestants. Click any image to get a closer view and a slideshow. Tell us (by indicating the number) who deserves a free bow tie. Be compelling. We have veto power. Ready: go!
[gallery]

366 Bow Ties: Day 1

Happy New Year!

Today is Day 1 of 366 consecutive days in which I will be wearing one of The Cordial Churchman's own handcrafted bow ties. Every day of 2012, I'll wear a new, different bow tie handmade by us here in Carolina.

This means that we'll be pulling old ill-fitting shirts out of the back of the closet, raiding my necktie vault, and grabbing every piece of interesting fabric we can get our hands on to make 366 different bow ties.

And of course, sometimes--like this morning, for instance--I'll simply raid The Cordial Churchman studio and grab a bow tie that's available in our store.

But either way, you'll have a chance to purchase the Bow Tie of the Day for yourself, whether it be a unique one-of-a-kind piece, or whether it be one of our best selling ties. It will come to you, authenticated with the date it appeared in this project. You'll be the envy of all your bow tie aficionado friends.

What a frivolous, perhaps even narcissistic, New Years Resolution, you might be thinking. Well, besides the fact that I don't believe one should ever feel obligated to apologize for rocking a bow tie, there's another angle on this. We're still ironing out the details, but The Cordial Churchman will be donating the proceeds from the sale of each Bow Tie of the Day to an exciting, reputable charity that changes the lives of impoverished young people in the developing world. It's our hope to give away $10,000 this year. More details to come.

In the mean time, spread the word. Keep your eyes peeled for daily posts. Interact with other shameless bow tie enthusiasts on our Facebook page. Follow the insanity on my Tumblr. Grab hold of The Cordial Churchman's Twitter feed. Keep up with the project on Instagram (@arstager).

This is going to be a difficult project. It's going to be hard not to wear neckties for a whole year. It's going to be tough to only wear some of my favorite bow ties once this year. (Like the Theodore diamond-point herringbone wool with mohair I wore today. A friend asked me if I had a white dog. I gave him a textile education.) But this is going to be loads of fun.

Cheers,

Andy

A Crazy Idea Brewing

We're putting together a crazy idea. It may or may not involve someone wearing a different Cordial Churchman bow tie every single day of 2012.

In the mean time, a bow tie for Boxing Day 2012.

Free Bow Tie Giveaway! Plus, Girls in Bow Ties

Our friends at Back Down South have quite the Cordial Churchman bow tie collection going.  Yesterday, they showed off their collection, did a little Q & A with us (I love Q & As!  I get to be long-winded!), and THEY ARE GIVING AWAY ONE OF OUR BOW TIES!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Caroline and Mark's Cordial Churchman collection"][/caption]

Last Christmas they knocked it out of the park with their festive attire and TCC bow tie.  Wow.

Caroline also rocks the bow tie.  I think she single-handedly convinced me that bow ties look fantastic on at least some women.  She looks fantastic anyway.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="343" caption="This bow isn't ours, but we approve anyway!"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="This bow is ours. By the way, Caroline, is that chewing tobacco in the front pocket of your skirt?"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="More girls in bow ties. Source, Fred Castleberry"][/caption]

Back Down South documents the present state of southern style, which, whether you're a midwestern transplant like me, or simply want to put a little south in your swag, will prove instructive and inspiring.

Be sure also to check out Caroline Fontenot's photography homepage.  She does exquisite work for all sorts of clients.

The Cordial Churchman sponsors great things.

We here at The Cordial Churchman like things. Bringing these liked things to people who may also be numbered among their grateful appreciators is a recent delight of ours.  This week we'll tell you about two events that we sponsored mostly because we're proud to stick our name alongside these bits of well-crafted culture.

The first event was held at Friday Arts Project's Space 157 in Old Town Rock Hill. As most of you know, Ellie has written, recorded, and performed songs for a decade and a half now. Along the way, she's performed alongside some very talented, full-time touring musicians. Two of our favorites, whom we have had the pleasure of watching mature into bona fide troubadours, made new fans after performing with Ellie at this special intimate concert.

After Ellie opened the evening, backed up by our friend and banjo player Mr. Stephen Crotts, the lovely and talented Hannah Miller made eardrums very happy with her set from recently-released EPs Journey to the Moon and O Black River. You may or may not be aware that an exquisite music video from the former features a dozen or so of our own bow ties.

The main event was a man who figured that Dallas really was that bad and moved to Hartsville, SC.  Dylan Sneed explored the tension of home and the open road, the familiar and the adventurous in an hour of pure American straight-up, knock-down audible boo-yah.  If you haven't heard of this fella and have yet to hear Texodus, change that as fast as possible.

The audience gathered in the very spot where many of our fine bow ties are produced---fitting for the first concert sponsored by our humble haberdashery.  We hope that many more will follow.  We don't anticipate that many will top the first.

Muse Fest VIP Gala

Above, Mr Rinehart of Rinehart Realty picks out several bows to add to his massive collection. This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

It's been a pretty phenomenal VIP Gala for Muse Fest at Gallery Up in Rock Hill. We're proud to be citizens and entrepreneurs in this town.

Made By Ellie

I've started a new Blog over on Tumblr.  It's a concept I've been thinking of for a while, and now thanks to the iphone, it is really simple for me to post and maintain.  It is a daily (hopefully) log of things I've made.  Of Course, there will be bow ties because that's what I make most, but I hope to share lots of other things as well. And you never know, you may just see a picture of your custom order up here.  So subscribe, add to your reader, share with your friends and enjoy.