...Or Maybe This is the Best Tie...

I love the old western ties. Can't really put my finger on it, but I just like them.

Maybe it's the oddness of the thing: who in their right mind would wear a tie with a bucking bronco on it, or a steer's head, or leather stitching along the edges?

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I guess it's the character of the tie, character that few others have. Few ties today have character like the mid-1950s tie shown above. It's tastefully artful and fun without being grotesque, absurd, or childish like so many modern novelty ties.

Not to mention it grabs the eye like none other.

Best Tie?

This may be one of the best vintage ties I've ever owned.

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You just have to love the western theme, and the leather stitching along the bottom really sets it off. This kind of tie has been at the top of my list for some time now. And in New-Old-Stock condition, no less.



Hollyvogue was a quality tie maker back in the day.



Took about 60 years or so for it to finally sell to someone who will wear it. I paid a bit more than 29 cents, though!

Day For Fathers, Day For Ties

With Father's Day upon us we often debate what to get the man who has everything. The simple answer is "get him a tie".



I can hear you groan in agony. "A tie? Everyone does that, it's a bad joke. I'll get him an ugly tie and he'll never wear it. Might as well burn my money."

The thing is, we're not kids anymore. We adults should be able to pick out attractive ties for our dads. No more Bugs Bunny ties, get rid of the sports ties, nix the desire to give him that holiday tie. No one likes them, especially dad.

Encourage his desire to dress up and look nice by getting him a colorful and fun yet conservative tie. Even grown men like color and zest, just as long as it's done in a grown-up way. Try some regimental stripes. Maybe a herringbone. Or houndstooth. Get creative with it.



Heck, ties are cheap, get him two or three. And while you're at it, get him a nice dress shirt. See where it goes; he might actually catch some interest and build a nice wardrobe of his own.


Get dad a tie this year. Again.

Ties of the Week

I wear vintage ties to work. It can be a dirty job at times but I take good care of my ties and haven't ruined any in the 5-6 years I've been wearing them.

So I'm starting something new here on the Houndstooth Kid. Each week I'll try to post the ties I wore (excluding repeats).

So, here are the ties from this week. They date from the late 1940s to mid-1950s. Take note of the colors, patterns, sizes and construction.

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A Man's World

Van Heusen tie ad, 1951.

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I like his thinking. ;)

State of the Blog and a Contest

As a special Christmas gift the Houndstooth Kid hit the 100,000th visitor mark (the 100,000th visitor was from Denmark). This website has had visitors from every state in the Union as well as 140 countries out of 195 in the world. As of this writing there are 49 followers. I consider that quite an achievement.

Of course there could be improvements, both in the quality of the postings and the variety of medium used. I've discussed with a couple influential folks about the use of video in this blog and they have been positive toward the idea. Video, of course, means more time and effort to plan, set up, film and edit and therefore possibly means even more time from post to post. But video utilizes both visuals and speech to convey a message. In this way a moving picture is worth well more the 1,000 words.

Another area of improvement is drawing you the reader into the discussion. While getting and responding to comments beneath each post is good, I'd like to do a post every so often that comes directly from the readers. One way to do this is to answer questions from readers.
So, please use the email link on the right side of the window to send me questions you'd like to see answered in a post. Or if you want to see something of interest. Or want something researched. Any number of things would work, so let me know!

A few other things.
Like any good capitalist I wanted to make a little money off of this blog project of mine. This can be done by adding advertisments to the blog that somehow relate to the topics about which are being posted. However, with commercialism slowly creeping further into our lives (as Christmas so blindingly displays each year) I've decided not to go this route. I've decided to keep the Houndstooth Kid uncluttered, so you don't have to worry about flashing ads and confusing layouts for as long as I can foresee. Rest assured.

The appearance of the blog might change though, we'll see.






And now, onto the main event.
As a 'thank you' for getting us up to 100,000 visitors in roughly two years, I'm having a contest.

To enter merely email me using the link on the right side of this window and tell me:

What is style? Is style timeless? Does style change? What is your personal style? Does vintage play a role in your personal style and how?

You can answer these questions however you want: via a written essay, photos with commentary and/or a video, etc. The length and content is up to you. Send your entry via email by January 15th and we'll pick and announce the winner by January 22nd.

What good is a contest without some loot?
The winner will have their essay/photo commentary/video posted on this very blog as well as receive several very nice vintage ties dating from the 1930s-1950s, free of charge or shipping costs. Contestants must live in the Continental United States, sorry, no entries from out of country.

May the most stylish and well spoken man win!

Motherload

I found quite a bit of stuff during my recent travels, which I'll show in upcoming posts.

How about 34 ties?

click photos to enlarge

Most are from the 1930s or before in varying condition. There are some very neat ones in there.

Here are some of the more interesting ones.


Two things about this tie: (1.)Fruit of the Loom didn't just make underoos and (2.) it's pink!

Bovis was a high quality tie manufacturer. Love the colors of this one.

A National Recovery Administration (NRA) tie from 1933-1935. It's lined, which is a bit strange for a '30s tie.

This tie is made of somewhat rare "sandpaper" fabric. Needs a good wash.

Who said the 1930s weren't colorful?

Details

Late-1940s Anson tie clip.

What I Wore Today

Trying the Bold Look today. Warm but windy.

*1940s Champ
*modern Halston 100% wool suit
*1950s(?) dacron tie
*late-1940s tie bar
*brown AE shoes

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What makes this look, in my opinion, is the tie. The wide stripes and funky colors speak of the Bold Look. It's an oddity, being 100% dacron polyester and while that might turn some people off let me assure you, dacron is not your father's polyester from the 1970s. That topic is for another post.

This tie is very soft and pliable; feels like a modern silk tie and not at all like those awful ties from the disco days. The large ribbing, like the rest of the tie, is a little unusual but it's growing on me. I'm developing a fondness for this tie.

What I Wore Sunday

Click to enlarge (don't mind the wrinkles, modern light-weight fabrics can't take what vintage fabrics can).

Really old U.S. military buttons turned into cufflinks a while ago. These are old.

What I Wore Today

Happy Easter!

*Vintage Champ
*Modern shirt with French Cuffs
*Vintage cuff links and tie bar
*1940s tie
*Modern full-cut trousers
*Modern suspenders
*Bostonian spectators
*Repro ATF M41 jacket
(No, I don't smoke :P )

Death Nell of the Tie?

Ties are arguably the most hated piece of men's clothing today. Often referred to as a noose by men who hate to feel constricted, a tie can either make or break a nice suit.

The critics of the tie have one fact right: they are merely for looks and are in no way functional. But this fact does not matter, for if every piece of clothing we wear was purely for function this would be a bland world indeed. Sometimes the 'hassle' of a tie should be outweighed by the ability a tie offers to communicate personality and mood. Vintage ties are morsels of bold personality and character rarely seen in the subdued ties of today. Art deco, tartan and plaid patterns were the rule of the day and, as seen below, they could be both spectacular and ugly at the same time. Ugly in a good way.


But the patterns and scenes were not the only points where vintage ties blow away modern ties. The fabrics used were incredible, most ties being made of incredibly smooth, soft and flexible silk, though many were made of cotton and even wool, as seen in the tie below.


Modern ties, while sometimes made of similar fabrics, are fat and much less flexible, making them more difficult to tie into anything other than a fat Windsor knot (named after the Duke of Windsor, though he denied creating this more modern knot type). The small-knotted half-Windsor was prevalent throughout the 1930s-1950s and definitely goes better with vintage long-pointed collars with medium to no spread than does the obese Windsor knot.

Vintage ties are unique. Generally, ties from the 1930s and 1940s were very wide while in the 1950s they began to shrink in width, though the patterns remained classical art deco throughout the mid-1950s. It was the late-1950s and early-1960s when ties began to thin to an extreme extent. Perhaps this visual of the thin tie tightening around the wearer's neck is the hearth of the tie 'noose'.

Whatever the reason, ties are becoming rare animals, especially those of such vintage character when a man's mood could be determined by what tie he put around his neck that day. The casual business day took its toll on the tie, nearly banishing it to the drawer. Even Peter Fleischer, an executive of Google, rejects the decorative neck-hanger for T-shirts since he believes they restrict blood flow to the brain, are conformist and deny a man's masculinity


But what better way to show ones masculinity than to wear a nice tie?