Spring stripes.

Monday April 14, 2008:
I should actually be happy that the weather is having fits, because if you consider the alternative - instant sticky warmth - I would take blustery every single day. Today's mixture epitomizes such weather. The tie is one that ended up in my collection through happy accident, ie my mother. Sometimes things just appear in my collection and this was one of those things. This JCrew selection appeared somewhere between 2004 and 2005. Yes, I know I am usually exact on the procurement of my ties, but this one eludes me. One of my better combination was this selection with white stripes on a spring green field paired with a lilac colored shirt and my seersucker suit - this was for a spring horse race so I figured this was going to be the only opportunity for that sherbety mess. Today's shirt was my blue J. Nordstrom French cuff shirt and my newly rediscovered suit from Banana. Shame on me for thinking I was going to do away with that suit.

Pink day.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008:
Today's selection was inspired by yesterday's entry regarding the balance of pink in your tie. Today's tie is a Brooks Brother's tie I bought at the outlet in Woodburn, Oregon. I was on a shopping excursion because I swore I needed a pink tie for my young collection. There is a little story here, and a slightly embarrassing one at that, that can explain the inspiration for this purchase. It goes like this: During my senior year at Colorado College we watched a lot of Will and Grace reruns on the WB (now the CW). Also on the WB was also the banal family series 7th Heaven. On one particular evening there was a spot of 7th Heaven and it showed some party and one of the characters, the young guy who marries one of the preacher's kids, was wearing this pink tie with rep stripes in a dark navy (think pink and ink) or black. Anyways, I decided at that moment 7th Heaven was going to help me let pink be OK and perhaps be a masculine tie color. It wasn't the clincher, for sure, since I had to privately try it out and then seek approval from a bona fide feminine source. Needless to say it all worked out and I am not sure as to why I really needed to share that. Oh well. I was really tired of wearing gray suits and lucky enough when I was digging in my closet I found another suit. Yes, I know. No need to tell me I'm a glutton. Remember, I am blogging about my 60 ties. I am very self aware. Anyways, it was a wool suit I bought two years ago at the Banana outlet and it is a gray with a rough texture and there is a hint of blue. I don't know if it's real, but I believe it's there.

I would also like to share Scott's selection today. I have noticed this selection before and I have to say that I am impressed by Mr. Olson2. Stripes are hard to pair together, especially when they are the same relative width. Scott's bold striped tie, and I think it's City of London, is paired with faint stripes. I really like the match here as the intensity of the shirt really does balance the tie out. Way to go Mr. Olson2.

More Stripes

Tuesday, March 25, 2008:
Today's selection was a striped tie that I found on the bed at my parent's house when I arrived for a visit. I believe it was lying next to the vintage YSL tie I wore on February 12, 2008. I kind of fell for this tie because of the color combination: It has a green and yellow stripe (rather Duckish) against a dark inky navy, almost midnight, background. It's a Brooks Brothers, and I imagined if I had found it in the store it would have been on the clearance rack like all of my other finds. It is really nice up close. Also, I have decided that my brown herringbone cotton/wool suit will now be treated as a neutral since I seem to be pulling off wearing it with just about every tie I didn't think I could, so I am pretty pleased.

Solid blues

Tuesday, March 18, 2008:
Today's tie was all business. The tie, a solid blue tie from JCrew, was purchased along with the shirt at the JCrew outlet in Leesburg, VA. It's a very simple story, really. The tie was heavily reduced in price, and I really like the way JCrew shirts fit, and so one for $30 that will get a lot of wear is totally worth it in my mind. I put the tie on the shirt, it gained my approval and Katherine's nod, so I figured it was good to go. The tie was $19.99 and sometimes when you pick up a tie you know it ties well - I think it's in the stiffness of the fabric. For someone my height and shape (short with a short torso and long legs) vertical lines always appeal to me because of their lengthening effect. I'm still not 5'6", but I'm getting there. I like the solid blue tie as an anchor to the stripes and it is really nice under a simple gray suit.

Mixing and Matching

Monday, March 17, 2008:
Today I had more meetings that I remembered so I was glad that I wore a comfortable sitting suit. I love my cotton/wool herringbone suit. Anyways, as I've eluded to, I am getting down there in tie selection and in order for me to keep on schedule I need to continue to push on through, and therefore leave behind all apprehensions. For some reason I have had a fear of mixing patterns and stripes, but a wise bird told me if I chose two patterns at different scales then everything will work out just fine. Breathe easy, I think she said. The tie I wore was a selection from JCrew that I bought in high school - probably junior year. I had convinced my mother that I absolutely needed this navy tie with red stripes on it and that it was different than anything else I owned. Totally different. I swear. It is, and I have to say that as far as striped ties go, even navy and red ones, a little different and fun. And it ties really nice, even for being so old.

Guest ties!

Since the beginning of this process I thought it would be fun if I had a "Guest Tie" section, however I thought it weird, especially where I work, and who I meet with, to take snapshots of ties. Yeah, it would be weird. However, I did find two right in our own office and they were proud to pose for me.

Scott's flowers:
Scott works with me and covers foreign affairs (in the places in the world that speak romantic, slavic and germanic languages), the judiciary, telecom and housing, along with some other areas. Scott is from Astoria, and he likes orange. I like Scott for his like for orange. Orange is a hard color, but Scott does really well with it. Scott's tie is by Pronto Uomo. The tie is made of two oranges, one slightly lighter than the other, which disguises a really nice fleur de lis pattern unless the light hits it. It reminded me of the wall paper in the Mansfield Room on the Senate side, and several other rooms of the Capitol. The wall is plain vanilla until a flash of light hits it to reveal a very intricate pattern. Really cool tie.


Dennis's stripes:
Dennis also works with me and the tie I photographed is one that I have been interested in for a long time and is very "Dennis". It's a striped tie made of a series of different stripes over an orange background. The stripes, upon closer inspection - and I have stared - is made out of various colors like gold, purple, a light blue and a dark blue. The really good stripe is made up of a series of circles. Not to disparage the other stripes, they are fine, too. Dennis tied it with a graph checked shirt which works because of the different scales in the pattern - the thinness of the lines work really well. Yes Dennis, I stare at your tie, but don't worry, I listen to every word you say.

This was fun. I should do more of these. Maybe I could just take screen shots off of CSPAN for the more entertaining ties.

Kennedy Center debut

Friday, February 29, 2008:
Tonight I took Katherine to see one of our favorite groups, Pink Martini, at the Kennedy Center. A couple months ago I was procrastinating at work and was on the band's website where I found out they were going to be in town on February 29, 2008. Since I did the calculation that Katherine and I going to see Pink Martini at the Kennedy Center on February 29 wasn't likely to happen again anytime, soon I made the rare executive decision to buy us tickets and Katherine, who likes to be taken out to fancy things, easily compiled. Not to denigrate, since I love fanciness, too, and so we make a good pair. The show was simply fantastic - they played with the National Symphony Orchestra and did one of my very favorite songs "Brazil" as an encore which left people dancing in the aisles. We had seen them once before at Wolf Trap but we were WAY out in the grass, regardless the music and the people watching was priceless - and we had bought all our parents tickets for their New Year's Eve show in Portland - my father could not stop talking about it for the better part of a week. So anyway, I chose to wear a tie that I had purchased during my trip to Boston to see my dear friend and old college roommate, Carla. We walked on Newberry Street (fancy) and that's where I found Frank Stella Men's Clothier (fancier still) - how could I not go in? I had seen a tie in the window that I really liked, but when I went in and found their complete collection, I decided I needed this one. One quick consultation of the rule book, where I didn't find any mention of prohibitions on purchases made within the time allotted of blogging, I decided to buy it. The tie is a purple-ish navy field with burnt yellow, fuchsia, and emerald leaves drifting across left to right in loose stripes. I wore a blue french cuffed shirt from Nordstrom with cuff links purchased in Williamsburg with my initials on them - made by one of the resident craftsmen down there. I wanted to be worthy of the venue and the concert. After the show Katherine and I stood in line for autographs and we got our programs signed and chatted nervously with these great performers. I had commented on the guitarist's tie and he nicely returned the compliment, only to receive a jibe from the bassist about how I hadn't commented on his tie - they had actually done a very good job of coordinating that night, which we all laughed at. Then, for some unknown reason I blurted out that I had this blog, and in her unmeasurable good humored way, Katherine backed me up in explaining it. They were totally into it, and the guitarist asked how to find it on the web. So I told him. Looking back, I should have probably have written it down for him on something, but I hope he remembers it. Either way I can put this in the same column as riding an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, being told "Good Morning" by Speaker Hastert, meeting Lucy Liu and being introduced to Carl Castle by the President of NPR. God I love this town.

Peacock stripes

Friday, February 29, 2008:
I continue to be amazed with the ties buried on my rack. It's actually fun to find these lost treasures and bring them out and be surprised with how much fun they are. I try to buy ties that exist on the edge of ordinary while still being professional and I think this one is definitely one of those. I remember buying this tie early after I had moved to DC. My clothing collection exploded once I got here because I felt an enormous amount of pressure not to consistently wear the same thing over and over again and that's hard since you have to come to work ready to represent the office and look professional and I think, memorable. The stripes are in peacock greens in a herringbone pattern against a steel blue background. Not only is the green eye catching, but the herringbone adds so much to the experience. The tie is from Banana, and since I couldn't see this tie compete with anything I just wore a gray suit and a new white shirt I got on a recently shopping spree.

The one that started it all.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008:
Today I chose to wear one of my favorite ties ever. No surprises it is a Ted Baker creation. This was also my first Ted Baker tie. I bought it in the spring of 2006 at Nordstrom, and I remember being so excited, but at the same time a little astonished that I spent the amount I did (a lot). But after I wore it and liked how abstract the tie seems at first glance, but how it actually is stripes made out of what look how a child would draw fireworks in the sky. I liked the playfulness of the color selections of fuchsia, green, light blue and purple set against a very dark background. I also paired it with a red striped shirt because I have found myself wearing safe solids, and it turns out that it looked nice.

Muted stripes

Monday, February 25, 2008:
To keep up with the number of striped ties I own and the fact that it is a droopy Monday I decided to step out with one I bought pretty shortly after I moved to DC in the winter of 2005. I remember when sought out H&M in downtown DC I got very lost. Knowing now where I had headed towards I get a little nervous, and also a little silly since I clearly had no sense of direction when I stepped out of the Metro. I had never been to H&M before and I ran around the store for a while looking at all these things I had never seen before: very slim clothes in interesting colors, and pretty inexpensive suits - I had just seen the 2004 Jude Law version of Alfie and I thought that Alfie and Helmut Lange wanted everyone walking out would be rail thin and pretty close to the metrosexual/homosexual line. I found a couple shirts that I like, as well as this tie. It had muted colors of light blue, a steel blue, a khaki and a raspberry - I clearly hadn't caught the pretty east coast bug yet. It contrasts very nicely with all the brightly colored stripes I have in my closet. I paired with my favorite blue shirt from Banana and my navy JCrew suit which I am not convinced fits me properly. I liked the whole look, the tie may be a little too narrow and the suit a little big on the shoulders, but I liked the color palette together.

Bright Stripes

February 7, 2008:
Some labels say bright vibrant color and creative designs, and some don't. I think that Brooks Brothers falls into the latter category. While extremely classy and well made, Brooks Brothers is very conservative in its fashion. Brooks Brothers prides itself in its conservatism shaped by double breasted blazers, bankers collars, French cuffs, and pleated pants, along with the upscale Eddy Bauer-ness it tries to do in its sportswear collection. Variations on the "old man" theme. Sometimes I feel like they could do much more then they do, and it's a shame. However, one bright spot is this silk tie in all shades of purple and blue. I bought this tie at the Brooks Brothers outlet in Castle Rock, CO. It was deeply discounted as it probably was undesirable for the normal crowd. There is no repeating pattern in the stripes, in fact, there is no consistency in the width which is the fun of the tie, $20.00 of fun.

Stripes!

Monday, January 28, 2008:
I have always liked stripes because I have always liked the way the designer can put on a show with juxtapositions of color and even pattern to bring a little light and life to a plain suit, and a plain day. Today I wore a bright yellow tie with a green striped flanked with navy and white, as well as a similar set up of a red stripe flanked by navy and white. As an added bonus, there is a light blue stripe that separates the two larger motifs (you have to look close). The tie is from Carlo Palazzi Studio and was a gift purchased at Benetton in Georgetown, and it was because I didn't have a yellow tie. It's bright, and it should be worn with a dark suit so it's free to be seen. I think it's a nice play on the plainer world in which I live and work. It's shiny-ish! I need this kind of thing on a Monday.