Color

I've been thinking about this Dries van Noten tie for a long time. So long in fact that it is now sold out. On one hand, I love that shade of blue--bright and refreshing. Fuck navy! Go neon teal.
On the other hand, it's kind of gaudy and, with those flowers, a bit feminine, no? And then I think...
... grow some balls and wear it with confidence. According to Dries himself (after his Spring 2008 show), "The only way to make colors believable for guys is to make them as masculine as possible." It's sad that colors have to be "[made] believable for guys." We should not shy away from color. We should own it and wear it proudly.

As for the flowers, I'm a huge fan; they are so bold and graphic, just no-frill, no-nonsense silhouettes in black. I love the diagonal cascade at the top. And the runty little flower just an inch or so below is a cute surprise.

In conclusion, does the tie remind anyone else of tropical board shorts?

I'd like to think I had something to do with this

Huzzah

Mimi Fong Update: Ornate Patterns

I wrote about the above Mimi Fong tie once before a few months back sans a close up shot (Unfortunately, the Mimi Fong website doesn't let you zoom in on the patterns). Now that the tie is on the Neiman Marcus website, we can finally get a good look at it.

I love the ethereal ornate black and white pattern here -- it gives the tie an appealing graphic quality; it's as if someone drew the pattern on the fabric with a pen.

To be completely honest, I don't think this tie is particularly pretty -- but it ellicits a strong visceral response from me; the baroque, almost gothic quality is alluring. Interestingly, the ornate pattern is not light and airy, like the first tie of the post, but dark and thick, almost oppressively so, as if it were made of wrought iron. There are a lot of ties out there that have no personality, no real point-of-view or aesthetic. This tie has loads of it.

Transparency of the Process

Without those little white stitch marks (real or trompe-l'œil, I don't know and I don't care -- same effect) this tie would be pretty bland -- just another simple striped tie. However, not only does the white stitching give the tie some ornamentation and a little visual pizazz ("bling", if you will), it also emphasizes the art of fashion by showing transparency of the process. Fashion begins with the stitch -- and what this tie so slyly suggests is that the stitch is not only functional but also fashionable.

If you don't buy the analytical bull crap, that's A.O.K. with me. It's still a cute tie. Plus, I'm loving the vibrant and warm color choices; the olive green, the warm orange -- it's a very Tuscan color palette. My personal favorite? The plum. Black and purple (especially such a dark shade) is just such a romantic and sexy color combination.

Structure

A note to my readers: I only blog about ties that I love. As in, head-over-heels. And that really doesn't happen very often, because, sadly, ties are rarely the centerpiece of the outfit -- they are mainly there to match the shirt. Lame.

The above Band of Outsiders tie hit me like a train -- the big black & white geometric pattern is bold and masculine. Very Greek-Key. The tie acts like a big visual pillar, giving the model* a strong structural center that is very aesthetically pleasing.

*Jason Bateman of Arrested Development fame!

Photos: Ben Watts for GQ September 2007 Page 387

Fresh off the Runway: Louis Vuitton Spring 2008

Chartreuse? Sky blue? Damn gutsy. Marc Jacobs uses color in a very sophisticated way here. The chunky segments of color with the chunky color progression is, well, besides being chunky, amazingly aesthetically pleasing, especially when it's basically the centerpiece of your outfit (note: I think white/cream is pretty much the only thing that goes with that tie. Anything more and you get color overload). The black stripe at the end is both humorous (completely unexpected) and functional: it serves as a visual contrast to tell you "the tie ends here." Also, note that the chunky parallelograms of color in the tie mirror the diamond patchwork of the jacket (Vuitton's new "spiral" cutting technique).

This tie is almost the opposite of the previous one: not chunky at all, just ridiculously sleek. Once again, Jacobs is using color so well: the silver works as a great highlight, giving the outfit some pop, while the use of ombre (fading from one color to another) to match the black shirt is cool and humorous without being gimmicky.

Photos: imaxtree.com/Alessandro Lucioni

Kiton

Greece. That's all I can think about. Olive branches. That blue.

Canada. Maple leaves. That's all.

In all seriousness, these Kiton ties are gorgeous. The micro-sized pattern, the color scheme (white over base color): it all adds up to a sophisticated, elaborate, and decadent tie.

And with Kiton, you know you're getting amazing quality; afterall, these ties are $172... on Bluefly...