It has come to this. A person risks being tagged an eccentric these days just by wearing a suit and tie if he isn’t going to the city and nobody made him do it, but just because he feels like it.
By Tom McDermott
{gallery}ties8.2015{/gallery}
It has come to this. A person risks being tagged an eccentric these days just by wearing a suit and tie if he isn’t going to the city and nobody made him do it, but just because he feels like it.
But, what else am I to do with the two JPress seersucker suits and a tan poplin Brooks Brothers model that I loyally bring up from the cellar each summer as if they were well-aged bottles of first-growth Bordeaux? I can’t simply look at them in my closet and wonder, “Gee, if only the other guys would wear theirs.”
Into the breach, I say. And so, one fine summer day, I was walking along Purchase Street wearing my brand-new navy blue, hand-made in Italy, Ralph Lauren silk knit tie with the squared off end, along with a blue-white stripe seersucker suit. And, throwing caution to the wind, I broke the namby-pamby “don’t wear stripes with stripes” rule, with a pink and white oxford cloth shirt.
It did not take long for the first compliment, then another, and yet another, from both men and women. It seems that all one needs to do is don a suit and tie and walk around town to make a mark. Can it be that today’s Boomer anti-hero wears a tie, rather than a tie-died T-shirt and sandals!
That same week, while searching through a stack of shoeboxes for a long-lost pair of loafers, I came upon buried treasure in the form of a box filled with old ties. Inside were heirloom Hermès – like ones that sell for higher than original prices in Paris vintage shops, a couple of rep-stripes, and even one foulard “cravat,” which may have been leftover from my in-laws’ infamous Sixties’ Hugh Hefner-Playboy bunny party.
Thus was born “100 Ties in 100 Days.” The hard part is not having 100 ties; it’s that quite a few of them are either entirely out of fashion, remarkably unattractive, or, in the case of several, in the “never had the guts to wear” category. Basically, I usually get by with about half a dozen favorites, and, since just about every invitation is prominently stamped “Casual!” or “No Tie, please!,” I am never pressed for choices.
My grandmother traced all human foibles (including several of my own) or annoying cultural changes to the first man landing on the moon. My own demarcation line of human lunacy can be traced to casual Fridays of the 1990s, which begat casual everyday, which, as is well known, led directly to the Dot-com Bubble Burst and the sub-prime mortgage fiasco of 2008.
We might call Casual Friday one small step for comfort, one giant step for sloppy.
Admittedly, wearing and documenting 100 ties in 100 – not necessarily consecutive – days is not exactly a Dylan-gone-electric moment. On the other hand, one can never go wrong with acting on an impulse that makes you, and others, feel plugged into something really good.
A seven-day sampling from our story thus far:
1. Ralph Lauren navy blue silk knit, made in Italy, 2015, with blue/white stripe seersucker jacket, J.Crew pink/white stripe oxford shirt, khakis, brown Vibram-soled Gucci loafers.
2. Black silk knit Brooks Brothers, point-end, made in Italy, late 90s. Thanks to Kim Johnson Gross, friend and co-author of the “Chic Simple” series for reminding me of the importance of a black knit tie in the closet and a suitcase.
3. Burgundy Gucci, with navy/gray stripes with horse shoes and interlocking GG. Most likely mid-80s. Purchased at Gucci NY by a great woman of style, my mother-in-law.
4. Cotton Madras bow tie, from Mark McKnairy-New Amsterdam, a present from my daughter.
5. Polo “Wimbledon” stripe, worn in honor of Wimbledon Finals Weekend to a July 11, 2015 evening wedding reception in New York City. Birthday present from author’s wife, women of impeccable taste in all things, 1990s.
6. Light blue silk Seigo bow tie, from the eponymous NYC tie Mecca, especially for those who favor bows. A birthday present from The Rye Record staff, 2013.
7. Italian rep stripe, blue, green, yellow from Milan flea market. A Polo red/green rep stripe, Christmas present from RL Home Furnishings design studio. Both ’82-84.
