Sunday, May 28, 2006

Elongated Ovals

Browns, rust, orange, these seem to be popular tie colors for 40's era ties. This one is a basic brown, albeit with warm overtones, featuring yellow highlights. The little cross hatched lines in groups of three add interest through their business, as do the tiny ovals found in the fabric pattern itself, in larger patches of dark on light, and light on dark. Only the dark on light spots show up well in the scanned image.

This tie has an interesting label which reads:
Hollyvogue
Resilient
Made in California
"Hollyvogue" is certainly an unusual brand name, but as a quick Google search showed, the name is still in use today. In fact there is a HollyVogue.com web site, which states that
We are a family business that has over 40 years combined experience in the fashion industry including designing and manufacturing in both wholesale and retail markets. Our products are manufactured domestically as well as in Europe and Asia. Our family company name was Hollyvogue and we have now carried that name forward to our web site. We take pride in the quality of all our products as we have since the company's inception.
You can see the current line of HollyVogue neckties online.

I also located a site called Jabot's "HollyVogue" Vintage Boutique which boasts that it
is devoted to bringing you the finest quality authentic vintage fashions on the Internet. Shopped by some of the Finest Swing Bands in the Country! Our inventory ranges from the Victorian era all the way through the 1960s for men and women. Dry Cleaned and ready to wear!
Here's a link to their men's ties page.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

White Crysknives on Red

This tie makes a bold statement with its pattern of white on a deep red or maroon color.

Unfortunately, the equally rich brocade pattern is not visible in the scan. You have to look really closely at the tie itself to make it out. Unless the light hits it just right, the brocade pattern is invisible on the tie itself at a distance of more than a few inches.

The brocade pattern is very similar, though not identical, to the shape of the white crysknife patterns that cover the tie itself. The use of the term "crysknives" is a reference to Frank Herbert's famous science fiction novel, Dune, in which the "natives" fashion knives from the teeth of the giant sandwords that inhabit their planet. That is what the white patterns reminded me of, and I couldn't think of anything better to call them.

The tie has a label sewn into the narrow end that reads, simply:
ARROW
MADE IN U.S.A.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Tropical Bird Plumage

So far I've put up ties with floral images, one tie depicting a fish, one with lanterns, and just last week, a tie that shows a folk scene from the Mexican countryside. But the majority of the ties have featured designs of a more abstract nature. Even the floral
images have been more decorative than realistic.

But continuing the theme from last week, if the theme be depictions of things that exist in the real world as opposed to abstractions, I present this fanciful peacock, illuminated by the glorious light of the moon.

One could debate, I suppose, over last week's image. Is that too, the moon floating overhead? Or is it the evening sun, sinking into the west? Whatever the case there, this is surely intended to be the moon here.

In order to display the picture in its entirety, I had to cut off the pointed tip of the tie, something I would ordinarily avoid. But I think it was justified here, as not showing the full image in all its splendor would certainly detract from the effect.

Notice that the small middle part of the tie is red, rather than navy, such that the knot would appear red, complementing the reds in the body of the bird, and the red feather highlights.

Inside the large end of the tie is the seller's label which reads:
J.S. Williams
San Jose
Calif.
Inside the small end we find the maker's tag which reads:
Tropical Bird Plumage
Cheney Cravats
All silk

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Burro, Sombrero, and Hay Wagon

Friday was, of course, Cinco de Mayo, which is NOT Mexican Independance Day, but celebrates a great victory over invading French forces in 1862. That this is a holiday worth celebrating in the United States is due to the fact that the French were supporting the Confederacy, and the outcome of the Civil War could have been different, had the French won in Mexico.

Anyway, in looking for a vintage tie to post today, I thought of Cinco de Mayo, and tried to find something to celebrate all things Mexican. The best I could do was this charming folk image of the plucky burro, pulling the hay wagon, on which reclines the sombrero-wearing farmer, taking his justified rest from the labor of loading all that hay.

In the 40's, as now, tie makers often manufactured the same tie design in several different fabric colors, as shown here. For collectors, finding more than one of the colors is rare indeed, all these many years later. Here three colors are demonstrated, although I had to use the narrow end of one of the ties, in order to fit all three onto my scanner.

How did I come to find all three? They were part of an estate, where the gentleman who had owned them obviously liked the tie, and undoubtedly purchased all three at once. I found them at a vintage clothing store at Pike Place Market in Seattle, in 1991, the year we traveled back from Texas to attend our 20-year high school reunions, Arline at Auburn Academy, and me at Laurelwood. Somewhere in there, we found time to visit Pike Place Market, and I snapped up these ties, along with several others. There is another set of three matching like these, which I will post at a later time, and tell the rest of the story about the original owner of the ties.

None of the ties has a label in it. They must have been popular with their original owner, because they show some staining and signs of wear.

Enough for now. I'll just say "¡Viva Mexico!" and let it go at that.