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366 Bow Ties: Day 26

The pressure of this project--to throw on a different TCC bow tie every day--has had the interesting effect of causing me to scour the archives. On Day 26, I came up with this: one of my favorite of Ellie's early neck-to-bow tie conversions. Medium-blue (darker than royal, lighter than navy) with red/white polka dots.

This is vintage silk. And by vintage, I mean really old. It also represents one of Ellie's first tries at making a bow tie. It's got quite a skeleton inside: it really stands up to be counted. It's a little misshaped here and there. The silk is a little uneven in wear. But this bow tie looks s-h-a-r-p.

We don't want to hype this bow tie as if it were the a Michael Jordan rookie card or Stan Lee's first issue of illustrating Spiderman. But it is pretty special. And that's one of the neat things about bow ties. Of course we pay close attention to the details--even the details that most no one will ever see. But it's how things look when you show up in the bow tie that counts. They hide their idiosyncrasies much better than neckties. They're all knotted and folded up and smushed together to begin with.

So, if you hold sentimental stock in The Cordial Churchman, and want to have one of our archival pieces, this bow tie is for you. If you're going to wear the thing, this bow tie is for you. If you're going to put this in a mirror-filled display case (not sure why you'd do that) with black velvet backcloth, you should balk. Available only until it's no longer available: get this archival piece for the TCC throwback price of just $23.

Blue bow ties, by the way, are really important. Blue, khaki or tan, and a little bit of red make up 90% of my outfits.

Speaking of khaki, my Bill's Khakis went head-to-head with my 4-year-old's muddy shoes as I pushed him on the swing today. Since these things were originally made for the military, I'm expecting that they'll hold up under these, and much more sartorially traumatic, conditions.

366 Bow Ties: Day 22

Today I went to hear my good friend Andrew teach Sunday School at Ebenezer Presbyterian Church. Dude knocked it way out of the park. So much so that I bought him pizza. (For those of you who're keeping score at home, that's pizza and beer for 3 consecutive days for me. There might be a problem that calls for an intervention. The pizza, that is.) Anyway, I was excited for a good excuse to bust out my new Bill's Khaki's Wool Donegal Limited Edition trousers. Ellie declared that they were "grown up without being 'old man'." Now, I'm no enemy of the old man look, but if what she said is true, sweet.

I reached for a bow tie Ellie made last winter: dark navy (or 'light black'??) silk with embroidered horns from a necktie on one side …

… tartan plaid on the other side. With all reversible bow ties, of course, you want a little of the back side peeking out for visual interest. You can twist and turn them to do whatever crazy stuff you want (like yesterday's tie), but when you're going to a Presbyterian church, probably the 'peeking out' thing is about enough. Never forget the first rule of bow tie wearing: You're Already Wearing A Bow Tie. This rule helps you know when it doesn't matter if you go bonkers with multiple sides and twists and turns and peekings out. And it also helps you remember when to cool it.  (I just made that rule up. Pretty good, huh? Just remember, I'm a professional.)

Ebenezer needed a mug of me for a conference at which I'm speaking there in March. Now, I'm usually pretty modest about being photographed, but for a good cause, I'll concede--but it won't be easy. Figured I'd have Andrew snap a photo of me out in the churchyard. Remember churchyards? All churches used to have them. Especially ones that are 225 years old like this one. That building in the background is one of the oldest structures in the county. An old schoolhouse, I think.

I really like the center court "E." You could play hoops in tweed and bow ties with an "E" like that on the court.

I've heard that there was a day when showing off one's socks was thought of as risqué. I guess because technically they're underwear. While I fully support the judgment that t-shirts are underwear and thus should not be worn (or seen 'peeking through') on the outside, I'm just going to go ahead and wear my foot-underwear for all to see, with the "go bold or go home" maxim being my guiding principle. It's a great way to add a little punch to an otherwise understated ensemble. Or more punch to a what-the-heck-why-not ensemble.

And of course, the socks seem to draw (at least my) eyes to my Oak Street Bootmakers penny loafers. George, the founder, said that the supple leather on these would stretch wonderfully to conform to my feet. They don't need "breaking in" like most leather shoes. They just kind of "make room." Love these shoes. I'm looking forward to some photos of George in our bow ties now. This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Okay, there you have it. Run on over to the store and grab this one-of-a-kind bow tie before it's gone. All of it goes to kids in Haiti. Happy Sunday.

Cordially,

Andy

366 Bow Ties: Day 21

Today Ellie grabbed a bunch of fabrics from this year's winter bow tie offerings and made a very random patchwork scarf. Then she got the idea to do the same for a bow tie. The result is Day 21's "What's Left of Winter" bow tie. You can wear it many different ways. You could wear it every day of the week and tie it differently. You know, if you wanted to do something like that.

Most importantly, you can buy it here. There's only one. Patchwork can be a pain in the neck to make, so if something like this is available in the future, you can bet that it won't be at the incredible price of $29.

I also sported a lapel flower that Ellie made out of the 'Addison' fabric. Dang, she's good. You have to jab a hole in the boutonnière 'buttonhole' on the lapel of your jacket in order to stick the button on the back of the lapel flower through. I've oopsed and sliced outside the lines on accident, but who cares. Since everyone already knows me as the bow tie dork, and the rain boots dork, I'm afraid I'm going to kind of make the lapel flower my thing. It's a good thing.

Ellie was with the ladies for a fancy birthday dinner tonight, so it was pizza and beer night again for the guys. It turns out that as long as the pizza is good, and the beer is good, pizza and beer taste just as good on Saturday night as they do on Friday night. We gents joined all the yuppie soccer moms in Charlotte in wearing rain boots. Transformers for Owen, camo for Deacon, Le Chameau for yours truly. (Somehow Cliffe didn't end up with socks or shoes on. Whoops. Like I said, it was guys' night.)

We ended up at the bookstore, of course, since a man needs a legitimate cup of coffee (and the boys need an M&M cookie) after dinner. The train table occupied them longer than usual, but then we had story time, which is always as participatory as possible.

Speaking of participatory: buy this bow tie. The cash goes to bless children in Haiti who are being helped the most cordial of churchmen and churchwomen. We can't wait to tell you more about how all that works when the details are ironed out. But we can tell you that these first 20 days of 2012 have brought in over $500 for this project.

Here are just three examples of how this baby can be tied.  I don't think we've ever made a more versatile bow tie.

Enjoy your Sunday. Be thankful for the luxuries you enjoy, the rest you're granted, and the opportunities you have to change the world in humble but significant ways.

Cordially,
Andy

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

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.