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366 Bow Ties: Day 46

EDIT: Link to bow tie listing fixed!

I know I'm posting out of order. Valentine's Day bow tie will come later.

Ellie's Valentine's Day present to me was awesome. AWESOME. She set up a very manly dressing area for me. She took my valet and added to it a beautiful mirror, an antique bench, a tie hook, and a shoe horn. This in addition to pretty much overhauling our bedroom--new blinds, curtains, bedside lamps...the works.

It must have been this old fashioned gentlemanly environment getting to me when I reached for the suspenders (or as I should say, in old gentlemanly parlance, "braces").

An, of course, she made me some new bow ties from the pile of old neck ties. This one a 100% silk club diamond cut. I love this bow tie. But I'm going to part with it anyway. It's yours if you're quick.

I should also say that Ellie took these thrift store chinos in a bit in the leg for me. Which makes her even more awesome.

So awesome that, when she says "jump!", I am prone to say "how high?"

Thanks, hon.

Cordially,

Andy

366 Bow Ties: Days 39-43

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

366 Bow Ties: Day 37

We're real high brow, you know? Which is why we hit up Chick-fil-A almost every Monday night for free kids grub. I'm not alone in bow tie wearing when we go, either. There's a gentleman who refreshes beverages that always wears a bow tie. It's probably subconsciously why we crave a Number 7 and a chance to let our boys get all their energy out of their system at least once per week.

Monday's tie: the Dexter. It's been elusive. Hard to capture the color exactly. Blue. Green. Subtle check. Definitely wooly, but soft. Very much wintry. Only one left--part of my personal collection. I'm willing to part with it. You should be very willing to take it off my hands.

Kids playgrounds smell like feet. You can tolerate it for a few minutes, but phew.

The little guy has been very much anxious to participate in whatever nonsense his older brothers happen to be up to. Wrestling before bedtime, and now apparently CFA playground tag, too.

Felt like the blues and browns played nice off each other: blue in the bow, brown in the sweater (looks like I copied Winthrop, our mannequin) blue in the 501s and a tad in the argyles, and then brown again with the Oak Street Bootmakers pennies.

Grab the last Dexter now or you'll quite regret it. There's a reason the fabric's all gone and mine's the only one left--it's a snazzy bow tie.

Cordially,

Andy

366 Bow Ties: Day 34

So I've been doing this silly thing since about September where I take photos of my socks. Why? I don't know. These are supposed to be pink flamingos, but they look more like velociraptors. This is probably me writing a blog post in Ellie's studio.

The bow tie is a new linen from the forthcoming Spring/Summer line, to be released soon. We're trying to make it so you can't stand the wait. Is it working?

100% linen--chalk full of texture and plaid awesomeness. I wore the classic butterfly, so that's the one up for grabs. I've shown these images here with diamond-point cut so you can see the texture.

Get one before anyone else. Get one before the thing even has a proper name. Get a bow tie and send $29 to Haiti. Get this bow tie!

PS--many of you have been after us to re-list the Maxwell neckties. By popular demand, they're back on in our store, available in point-end or square-end varieties. Pictured just above.

Your business supports our children's developing passions. This one has a loud developing passion.

366 Bow Ties: Day 33

Due to the encouragement of our friend and southern style photographer and writer Caroline Fontenot of Back Down South, I've been reaching for the denim jacket pretty frequently during this crazy bow tie-wearing run. It really only works with khakis, in my opinion. Denim head to toe would be a little too ... I don't know ... too much denim.

I know I sound like a broken record, or a One-Note Johnny as one of my professors used to say, but I like the way you can casual-ize things when you throw in a piece like a denim jacket. Khakis and penny loafers (and some would argue, even a bow tie) are already technically "casual". But it's all relative these days.

I could be mistaken, but it appears from Caroline's Instagram feed as though her husband Mark has grabbed a pair of Oak Street Bootmakers penny loafers just like mine. I'm going to be vain and assume that she's coaching Mark on his wardrobe purchases and daily ensembles with a bookmark in my blog series. Yeah right. That guy's got a great personal style.

I should mention that the visual identity of Caroline's blog was created by my neighbor and colleague in all kinds of mischief, Mr. Stephen Crotts. Pretty snazzy logo, don't you think?

I'm looking forward to meeting Caroline next weekend in Charlotte. They've been gracious enough to do a post or two about us on their blog. I might have to throw the Levi's jacket on again in hopes that she snaps a photo of me. (Vanity! All is vanity!)

Not all is vanity. I'm glad to have friends like Mr Cameron Bunce, bona fide artists, who keep it real for us. Here Mr Bunce is giving a handful of us our fortnightly impromptu art history lecture. Compelling. We were gathered for The Dead Preachers Society of Ebenezerville, and it spilled over into a critique of pop culture superficiality as exemplified in movie posters and DVD covers.

Oh yeah! The bow tie! This is a sold-out Vito, easily my favorite bow tie of this last summer. Ellie found two orphaned halves and reunited them. And now that I wore it, I have to sell it. Buy it, love it, thank me later.

Cordially,

Andy

PS--I mentioned Stephen Crotts. In grabbing the link to his portfolio, I saw this poster that he just produced. And I all but wept. Very good work, sir. 

366 Bow Ties: Day 32

We've talked a good bit about bow tie attitude. The discussion is really a bit overblown, actually. Bow ties don't really communicate all that much, inherently. And yet there is a certain amount of chutzpah required when rocking said piece of haberdashery.

I like to think of it like any other pursuit. You're an individual. You've got peculiar idiosyncrasies, a unique gift mix, particular passions, and a temperament all your own. You've got to take that 'self' with you into everything you do. Half the battle is convincing yourself that you're not a fraud. The other half is figuring out a balance between confidence and humility. It doesn't serve you or anybody if you're a punk; nor does it do anyone a favor if your self deprecation is not so much humorous as a perennially employed defense mechanism.

It's not so much about "image" or even "self-image". It's more about poise, countenance, bearing. How do you carry yourself? How do you respond to different environments? Are you uptight? Are you provocative? Are you pushy? Are you a pushover? Or have you learned to take yourself less seriously, and take others, and your calling in life, more seriously? There's the difference. You can wear a bow tie and still put everyone at ease. (So much for Tucker Carlson's funny line about a bow tie basically being a middle finger protruding from one's Adam's Apple.) Likewise, you can wear jeans and a t-shirt and still immediately demonstrate that you care about things, including your calling, and that you do in fact know what you're talking about. It's not the clothes that make the man (was it Alan Flusser that sort of said that?), but the countenance that makes the man. Same for ladies.

I think this idea goes a long way toward establishing the difference between vanity and personal style. Your poise should put people at ease, regardless of what people's initial reaction to your style may be. It used to be that a man's wardrobe in particular was about gentlemanliness--the art of wearing the right thing at the right time so as not to make people uncomfortable. But in our day, when everything is done with a high degree of self-consciousness, and in which there is no established "uniform" for the workplace, for dinner, or even for the Inaugural Ball, you're going to have to set people at was by your poise rather than your clothes. You're going to be "out of uniform" to someone in any situation these days. You'll have to let your bearing bear you along, and bear others along.

All this from a photograph where I'm looking like a punk. Huh.

At the end of the day, The Cordial Churchman can sell you bow ties. We can't make you cordial. You're going to have to look to another Supplier for that sort of quality.

But we'd still like to sell you this bow tie: a new Donegal Tweed in gray with subtle flecks of awesomeness. 100% wool. Diamond point. Poise not included. When you buy it, $29 goes to help change lives in Haiti.

As Cordially as Possible,

Andy

PS-- My comrade and distance mentor Steve Childers gives some sage advice on how to maintain poise and spiritual equilibrium. We thought it was so good that we put it on our chalkboard in the kitchen.

366 Bow Ties: Day 31

Lots of spring anticipation going around here. Hence the shades and the (formerly Brooks Brothers) berry bow tie. And, I suppose, the pink sweater.

It's funny how, since we deal mostly in non-traditional (read, non-silk) fabrics, wearing a silk bow tie feels odd. I'm going to be doing a bunch of it this year, though---and just yesterday I went through a box of about 200 neckties. I sorted them into 3 categories:

Category 1. "What was I thinking? This is a great necktie--perfect width (not too wide, not super modern-skinny), vintage, etc. Why would I ever demolish this and sell it so some dude on the internet?"

Category 2. "No one should ever, ever wear this tie, ever. But since I don't believe in legislating sartorial morality, these will go to Deacon's Kindergarten clothing drive."

Category 3. "Okay, this is a nice necktie. But we're in the bow tie business, and the cash is going to Haiti. It's maybe a little too wide, a little funky in this way or that, not perfect. Much better possibilities as a bow tie. Besides, these guys on the internet aren't that bad.

By the way, isn't this kid of mine cute? Doesn't he make you want to buy this bow tie? It'll be posted on the store as soon as I can wrest the computer from the Church Belles, who are frantically packing and printing shipping labels, trying to get lots of orders in the post before it closes in 10 minutes.

Cordially,
Andy

366 Bow Ties: Day 29

When you get a new pair of blue jeans, you kind of have to wear them every day for a good while. Even if it's Sunday. With a new pair of 501s, blue jeans were my Sunday's best.

Throw on a bow tie, some longwings, a sport jacket with a crisp, linen, TV-fold pocket square (hand-rolled by Ellie some 2 years ago), and you have a respectable Sunday swag going, regardless of what my former Presbyterian self would have told you.

Sunday's bow tie, known as The Jackson, is available in our store. This is the very last one left, unless we happen to stumble upon a stash of lost Jackson fabric in some recess of the studio (which, if it should occur, would probably be approximately a decade from now). In other words, if you like this (which you should), get it like right stinking now or you'll regret it for the rest of your life. Do you really want to live with that sort of regret? Think of the money you'll save from avoiding the therapy....

366 Bow Ties: Day 28

Saturday was (again) unseasonably warm, so I threw on a never-before-seen bow tie from our upcoming Spring/Summer line. It's luxurious. An organic cotton & hemp blend. It's got the texture of linen, and the look of seersucker, but without the pucker. As part of our premium selection of bow ties made with rare fabrics, this will be priced at $38 when it becomes available in late February. But for one privileged bow tie aficionado, this (and only this very one) will be had for $35.

I am straight-up loving my Oak Street Bootmakers penny loafers. In fact, I decided it was time to put the penny in penny loafers, literally. One shiny one, one weathered one.

I'm quite happy with how these look when paired with denim. Loafers are an essentially casual shoe, so it makes perfect sense that they'd complement a dark pair of 501s quite nicely.

And the great thing about the weather is, of course, that it was a sockless day. I love socks. But I love not needing them, either. I usually don't wear socks at all from April through September.

It turned out that this was the perfect chilled out bow tie for the occasion: Beneath the Surface | A Forum on Beauty. I pretended to be artsy for the day, and in fact did have a semi-sophisticated discussion with a professor from Appalachian State University about the evolving social and religious significance of tattoos.

With all my many talents, I was reduced to just one: Pastor...

...which of course is a great honor. It's just that, as usual, my wife is way cooler than me.

I leave you with some images from the event. A grand time.

Cordially,

Andy

366 Bow Ties: Day 27

I tried my darndest (sp?) to save this--my favorite spring/summer bow tie right now--for when spring or summer actually arrived. But since this January Carolina day has been about as springlike as a May Ohio day, I figured I'd go right ahead. After all, we've got lots and lots and lots of new linen coming up in our new spring lineup. (Sneak peak below!)

But back to this tie, which happens to have an exquisite name. A name that means "manly". Andrew. Fitting. It's a dollar off the regular price, just for this one, just until it's gone. Then you'll have to pay full price, which a'int so bad anyhow.

Had the opportunity to share lunch at Lell's Cafe with The Cordial Churchman's illustrator, the masterful Stephen Crotts, and one of our most talented customers, singer-songwriter and producer Jeremy Casella.   Stephen and his studiomates are putting on "Beneath the Surface: A Forum on Beauty" this weekend in Rock Hill, and Mr Casella is headlining the concert that opens this exploration of beauty. I'm running sound. Mr Kirk Irwin, theologian and arts advocate (not to mention dear friend and eventual bow tie wearer) is the keynote speaker, and the provider of beauty in the form of legal, tightly rolled Dominican smokable leaves for our friends while he's in town.

I usually walk to meet Deacon at school and walk him home. Today I was a bit early, so I enjoyed some reading underneath a barren (and, due to the unseasonably warm weather, very confused) tree.

It's Bow Tie Friday if you're not joining me in wearing a bow tie every day of 2012. Why not celebrate with this beauty?

Cordially,

Andy