Sunday, July 22, 2007

Switching to a Weekly Post



Monday's conglomeration began with the Robert Talbott Best of Class necktie. The background is a black herringbone weave. The larger squares are gold but bordering on a copperish shade. That's what really sold me on the tie in the first place. The smallest squares are white. The mid-sized squares are light blue and the reason I chose a blue shirt. The sport coat is a silk/wool tic(?) weave I've had so long that I don't even remember where or when I got it. It's got several colors with black and tan the most prominent.




This conglomeration is very similar to one from early May noted in a catchup post here. The necktie for Tuesday's conglomeration is a Paul Fredrick instead of a Roundtree and York. I also went with a Four-in-hand instead of a half-Windsor. I like the Paul Fredrick tie much better and its counterpart helped me simplify the fifth of July. To top it off, the navy sport coat, of course. I'm still on the lookout for a navy/red/white striped necktie to try out with the navy/red windowpane dress shirt.



Paisley ties are fairly rare in my collection. This one is a Ferrell Reed City of London so that's its first step in the right direction. The second would be small, tightly grouped paisleys. It does not look like a paisley pattern from much of a distance at all. A white shirt and gray sport coat round out Wednesday's conglomeration.



Friday's conglomeration began with the dotted Jos A Bank necktie. I really had no idea what I was going to do with it. I would like some sort of olive colored sport coat some day and that's what I would have chosen for this tie. Olive can be a difficult color to pull off. I did wear olive trousers with the tan sport coat and ecru dress shirt. Trousers are one thing and a jacket yet another. That's really the reason I'll never have an olive colored suit. The jacket will have to be just right. A sport coat means that I can conglomerate other things much easier than if it was a suit.



Today's conglomeration actually began with the white Charles Tyrwhitt dress shirt. I can't really wear it to work so it's going to get a lot of church duty until it's not my favorite anymore. I suspect that will take quite some time. The blue suit was the second pick for the day because I hadn't worn it in a while. The necktie is a Ferrell Reed City of London. It's a navy/red in sort of a basket weave pattern. I tied it in a half-Windsor because it's an extra long tie. That's what happens when an Ebay seller doesn't mention all the details. I still like the tie just fine all the same. I matched up some navy/red silk knots to hold the French Cuffs together. I'm still getting the hang of those things.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Something New to Conglomerate



The dress shirt and necktie are both Charles Tyrwhitt. The tie is one of their sevenfold models. It must want to be knotted because it made such a good knot with so little effort on my part. The shirt is a 180s twill and is by far the best shirt I own. It's so soft and comfortable that I really didn't want to take it off after I got home today. It's also my first French cuff shirt which allows further conglomerating:


I used silk knots rather than cuff links because silk knot allow a little more freedom to conglomerate in some color. I got several different colors because it's a white shirt that I can wear with nearly any tie.

The pocket square is a Carot and Gibbs that has a navy and red paisley pattern in the middle but I only wanted the blue border with gold trim to show. So that's how I folded it. Pocket squares are a bit of a new art for me and it will take a little time to get that part of conglomerating in line.

Stripes on Stripes

Another Talbott Best of Class conglomerated over a blue stripe dress shirt. The small, navy stripes in the middle of the larger tan stripes called for the navy sport coat. A good thing for a Friday. The tan stripes also worked well with the tan trousers I conglomerated in with the rest of the, uhhhmm, outfit. And tan trousers are definitely a necessity when one owns a navy sport coat. That's what "They" say anyway.

Simplicity For Conglomerating's Sake


Rather than conglomerate a blue and gold tie with the charcoal suit, like I normally do, I decided to conglomerate a blue tie with a slightly gold shirt. It works pretty well and I like the idea of simple when conglomerating. Sometimes. The tie is a Paul Fredrick and it's woven in a herringbone pattern that adds more interest than a plain solid.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Conglomerating Block


I really have run into a bit of a roadblock with the conglomerations. Today's is no exception. The necktie is a Paul Fredrick woven with a silver/gray background, black, diagonal window pane and light purple outlined, black paisleys. It is one of my favorite ties and I do like to wear it but the purple (lavender) dress shirt is a sign of the color rut that I'm in right now. Hey, purple is pleasing to me at this point in time so I'm going with it. The other thing is gray suit yesterday, gray sport coat today. Oh well. At least the conglomerating does not feel like a chore. It will be a sad day if that happens.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Purple and Blue


I've been having some fun trying out purple and blue combinations lately. I'm not sure what brought it on (probably the colors on a tie) but it's getting to be a habit. I think it started here.

Today's conglomeration tries the lighter shades of purple and blue. The necktie is another Jos A Bank Signature. I guess it's officially colored lavender. There are bigger, white rounded boxes and smaller squares in two shades of blue. I selected a light blue dress shirt instead of the darker blue. That relates back to what I said on Sunday about trying to keep the tie darker (or at least as dark as) the rest of the conglomeration. I topped it all of with the gray, solid suit. I think it works fairly well.

I've gotten a bit into conglomerating socks too. I just don't have it in me to blog about those though. Maybe some day but not just yet.

Monday, July 9, 2007

The Ordinary Striped Tie


What would the neckwear world be like without striped ties? Less ordinary is my guess. I do like striped ties though because, generally, they're easy to conglomerate and they also make it easy to coordinate and contrast at the same time. Generally and today is no exception.


The burgundy background is the contrast to the suit (and shirt too, I guess) and the blue stripe is the coordination with the shirt. Nothing like stating the obvious, I guess. Oh, and the white stripe on the tie corrdinates with the white stripe on the suit? Yeah, I'm pushing it a bit.


I also guess that I'm running out of things to write about. A Summer lull maybe. A muse is what I need. A new tie maybe. Maybe I ought to go down to Denver this weekend and check some thrift shops for something out of my norm to shake things up a bit. Definitely an idea with merit.