This post features my collection of 1970's era vintage ties. Many if not most of these are 100% polyester fabric, thick, and heavy, with big knots when tied. Some of these I owned and wore in the 70's myself, and some I acquired later, mostly as gifts from folks who knew I was a tie collector, and I kept them as representative exemplars of the period.

Nowadays, I regard this period of tie-making with some degree of consternation as having been quite extreme, and over the top. The heavy thick fabrics were not really suitable for ties, and this was certainly not an example of fashion at its best. But it's kind of fun to revisit the era in a tongue-in-cheek manner, and to realize that yes, we wore some of these hideous exemplars at the time.

These three to the left all have labels proclaiming them to be from the design firm of J.B. Ernst. However, since Ernest Beale, the founder of the firm, sold the company in 1970, my guess is that he himself had nothing to do with the design of these examples. See my earlier post for more representative ties from this designer.

 The tie on the right in this picture is like crocheted (but machine not by hand, I'm sure), with tiny holes in the fabric, that show the black lining behind the bright orange. The tie in the middle has a metallic sheen that makes its gold and turquoise colors seem to shimmer depending on the angle.

 Two of these ties, the butterflies and the tiny flowers, were ties that I actually purchased myself and wore in the 1970's.

 The tie in the middle of this photo is one that my mother actually hand made for me in that period. I think she made a pocket square to match, but currently, I'm not sure where it is.

 The tie on the left should be the brightest, hottest pink color you ever imagined or ever saw, but the photograph does NOT do it proper justice, color-wise. It's a very thick, heavy almost fuzzy polyester fabric.

The tie in the middle, with its embedded red dot, is another tie that I purchased and wore during the time period in question.

The orange, navy, and white design on the left is one of my favorites, although this tie was not acquired in the period, but later. It's 100% acetate, according to the label. I enjoy the complicated design. The tie in the middle is off-white, not pure white, like the one a couple of shots up. The fabric could be more natural than many, perhaps a combination of cotton and linen. Almost classy. The purple exemplar on the right is the widest tie of this entire collection measuring only a tiny fraction shy of 5 inches in width at its widest point.

Here is a selection of my Christmas tie collection. This is not the entire collection by any means, but apparently these are the ones I managed to wear to work during the season last year. I'm not sure if these genuinely qualify as "vintage" (given the name of this blog) as the majority of them were undoubtedly manufactured during the decade of the '90's. Is that vintage? It's 20 years ago, now. 

According to an online definition: "Furniture and small appliances tend to be considered vintage anywhere from 25 to 50 years old and beyond. The term vintage, however, is highly subjective. Vintage clothing, particularly couture styles, might be less than ten years old."

So, according to that definition, most of these ties could probably be described as "vintage," although these ties are hardly "couture!" The ties depicting snowmen could be of a more recent vintage. In that last sentence, the word "vintage" is merely used as a synonym for "age."

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Square-ended tie closeups

The problem with posting my "off the wall" tie pictures (taken while the ties are hanging on the outside wall of my work cubicle) is that you don't get a good idea of what the designs and patterns really look like close up. So this post is an attempt to remedy that for the ties shown in my previous post. This group of pictures shows close-up views of each tie. In at least a couple of cases, there are a couple of images for a particular tie. Getting these pictures to line up in decently arranged rows is incredibly tricky in Blogger.

More Square-Ended Ties

 These pictures show a major portion (though not quite all) of the REST of my collection of square-ended ties, besides the classic J.B. Ernst ones featured in my previous post back in September. Actually, starting from the right (that's the order in which I wore these ties to work), the first 5 ARE Ernst brand ties, then there are 3 Ernst "wannabe's" two more genuine Ernst, and one more Ernst imitation.

The Ernst ties shown here deserve some explanation. The three wide examples, one gold, one orange, with a plain brown example between them, are quite clearly ties from the decade of the 70's, wide, polyester, with big knots when tied. Since Ernest Beale sold his company in 1970, he almost certainly had nothing to do with the design of these ties. They probably represent an attempt to conform to the style of that era, and (in my view) a vain attempt to take the company in a new direction without the influence of Mr. Beale himself.

The tie on either side of the 3 wide 70's era monstrosities, are examples of Ernst ties with patterned fabrics, unlike the more typical horizontal stripes featured in my previous post. These may be Ernst's own designs, or not; I really have no way of knowing for sure.


The next 3 ties are what I assume to be a rival attempting to mimic the unique Ernst style.Then, 2 more Ernst, the first one patterned, and the last narrow, blue one, one of the VERY few ties I've ever seen with purely vertical, albeit, somewhat subtle stripes. I'm afraid they don't show up very good in the picture.

The rest of the ties are "just" other square-ended ties that I've found and acquired over the years. Some are classic 60's design. Others are woven, usually of wool or cotton blends. Some have interesting features, most of which are difficult to observe in these photos.  

 The first tie in this picture, for instance, starting again, from the right, silvery in color, has two red spiderish creatures depicted on it. Virtually impossible to pick out here. The next two ties, the first blue, and the second, plaid in shades of tan, both feature glitter in the fabric. Quite stylish!

There you have it. I've been wearing these ties to work ever since I previously posted the classic Ernst square-ended ties. Now the wall is full again, so it's time to take these down and start over. Between now and the end of the year, I'll be wearing my Christmas ties. Look for the next post showing those sometime early in January.

 The plain colored knit ties in this picture and the next one probably date from the 1980's, when knit square-ended ties had a resurgence. I even bought knit ties of this sort during that time period, but these are probably some that I picked up later, as they're slightly fancier than most, sometimes with linings sewn into the back of the ties.