Teal and Orange

This is my wife's favorite tie from my collection. It's certainly one of my favorites, too. I chose to load it this week be-
cause it is sort of the color reverse of last week's exemplar. While last week's tie was orange with a teal highlight, this one is teal with orange highlights!

It's certainly a gorgeous tie, with a rich brocade background pattern of floral bells and dots, with comple-
mentary sprays at the ends of the stylized orange floral design.

Orange Swordfish

Actually, it's the tie that's orange, not the swordfish. I refer to this tie as the "orange swordfish" tie because it (the tie) is orange, and it has a swordfish on it. The swordfish is more of a teal or turquoise color.

This is definitely one of the more brilliantly colored, some might even say, garishly colored ties in my collection. Originally, it was even more gaudy than it is now, in that the fish was covered with glitter. Over the years, most of the glitter has worn away, and it no longer has quite the sparkle it must have once boasted. Nevertheless, it still manages to shock the eyes, at least a little.

Shades of Purple

This was the first tie I ever purchased as I was beginning my vintage tie collection. During the summer after my high school graduation, my Mom and I went into Portland to find a used typewriter for me to use during college.

Across the street from the typewriter store was an antique store of some sort, perhaps a vintage clothing store, I don't recall. At any rate, this tie was one of a pair of vintage beauties displayed in the window.

I persuaded my Mom to let me go in and buy both of them. I don't recall exactly how much they were, but I'm guessing not more than $3-$5 apiece.

The other tie, a brilliant red one, I later lost. But this one remains one of my favorites, and is almost the only vintage tie I own that comes in shades of purple. You can see that it, too, comes with a beautiful floral brocade pattern woven into the background fabric.

The labels read as follows: "Wilson's W Shirt Shop Inc. 536 Broadway at Alder Portland, Oregon. Fashion Craft SN Cravats" (the "SN" is enclosed in a diamond shape, probably indicating a logo). This is the same "makers mark" label as Dad's blue and red paisley! Most of my ties that HAVE labels, have two: one representing the venue in which the tie was sold, the other indicating the manufacturer or designer.

Dad's Red and Blue Paisley

I became interested in vintage ties during high school, when a fellow classmate showed off his father's incredible tie collection by wearing them to school. As I recall, he even had some zoot suit ties, which were literally as wide as the front of your shirt, and incredibly brilliantly colored.

I promptly went home and asked my Dad if HE had any old ties. And lo and behold, yes, he did! This red paisley on a navy blue background was one of them, and remains one of my favorites to this day. You can also see quite clearly the gorgeous floral brocade pattern in the background.

I had never seen my father wear any of these vintage ties; he had long since given them up for the conservative look of the 50's and 60's. It has always been hard for me to imagine him as a stylish young buck, decked out in a tie like this!

As I recall, there were about a dozen or so. I took them all off to school, and wore them with pride. Later, my mother suggested I let my two younger brothers have some of them, and I reluctantly divided them up between the three of us. Unfortunately, both of them were still living at home when the old farmhouse burned to the ground, and only the three I had away with me were saved for posterity.

The tie's labels read "DOUPE BROTHERS Ilwaco, WN." and "Fashion Craft SN Cravats."

Chess brocade

This is my brand new blog devoted to showing off images of my vintage necktie collection. I plan to post about one tie per week. At this rate it will take several years to showcase my entire collection.

This particular tie is one of the more flashy examples I have been fortunate enough to acquire. It is fully 4 1/2 inches wide at its widest point, and has a gorgeous background brocade pattern of chess pieces, which may not be as visible as one could wish in the scanned image. This is a classic 1940's era tie at its best.