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.

City of London Rut

Another Sunday, another reason to conglomerate. And I am in a bit of a Ferrell Reed City of London rut. I have been trying to acquire a Turnbull and Asser tie but none of them on Ebay are quite what I'm after. Hopefully soon.

I usually don't like to have my tie be lighter than my suit but today I tried it. It's a pretty simple tie and I was hoping the light blue would bring out the lighter blue in the suit. It didn't quite work. The off-white (ecru) dress shirt did bring out the gold in the centers of the squares on the tie though. One out of two ain't bad.

I'm kind of running short on ties now. I really need to go through what I have worn and not worn so I can plan against repeats as much as possible. Although there are a few that I do want to repeat because they are favorites.

Running Behind

I'm still trying to get used to my new schedule and keep up with my blog. I seem to be running about a day late. Since today, Saturday, is a non-conglomerated day, I have a chance to catch up.

I skipped the casual part of Friday yesterday since I got in a bit of trouble for fully participating last Friday. The positive responses have continued and general acceptance has been the norm. A very nice result.

The tie is another Ferrell Reed City of London. It's a pretty thick, woven gold with lighter gold squiggle things. The background is somewhat of a basket weave design. The blue circles are the reason I selected the blue, straight collar dress shirt. I selected the tan sport coat for no other reason than I had worn the navy one the day before. It works and I'm not sure the navy would have.

Simplicity, Top to Bottom

The fifth of July felt like a Monday so simplicity was key. A white dress shirt is always tops on the list when in simple conglomerating mode. The navy sport coat is the other obvious choice when simplicity is key. So what else would I select to tie it all together than a navy/silver necktie? Honestly, I think it's a fairly nice conglomeration overall, if I do say so myself.

Same Suit, Shirt, Different Tie

Today's suit and shirt are the same as Sunday's. The necktie is quite a bit different and illustrates yet again what a difference a tie can make for a conglomeration. It is another Jos A Bank tie -- regular, not Signature. The lavender stripe picks up the color of the dress shirt really well. The orange stripes add a little contrast for some interest.The purple/lavender basket weave stripes add some interest in texture.

New Suit, Fancy Tie

Today's necktie is somewhat special. I have never worn it before even though I've had it for years. It's a Robert Talbott Sevenfold. I acquired it on Ebay for a lot less than what it was originally priced but I still somehow had that feeling of dread should harm come to it. Silly.

It's a fairly different tie than what I normally wear but still very much in the realm of repetitive geometric. It's more horizontal than I normally care for. The pattern is made up of varying shades of blue and gold. In person it really is a very nice tie and nearly ties itself into a pretty nice knot.

I draped it over a background of an off-white (ecru) pinpoint, spread collar dress shirt. I was trying to pull out the gold a little more because the suit is a cross-hatched navy/blue pattern. I figured there was enough blue already between the suit and tie but I could have easily paired it with a blue or white shirt.

Speaking of the suit, it is another Jos A Bank but it's an Executive collection rather than Signature. It's not quite as constructed (conglomerated?) as the Signatures but the pattern/texture was too cool to pass up.

Supply and Demand

Evidently I am the only supply of neckwear wearing at the new job. My casual Friday experience was what I thought it would be -- nothing special. Except that I was continually asked where my tie was. Several people nearly demanded that I continue to conglomerate. They did not actually say "conglomerate", of course, but that's how I heard it.

Today's conglomeration is all new. I actually started with the shirt this time, sort of. When I picked up the suit earlier in the week I had this purple (They call it lavendar) in mind but I didn't have a tie that I thought would work. I found a similarly colored shirt and the salesman showed me this tie. It has a light gold background with darker gold squiggly lines. What's difficult to make out in the picture are the dots that are different shades of purple. It's a regular Jos A Bank brand.

The suit is a new Jos A Bank Signature. It's a medium gray solid. I had been looking for just such a suit for quite some time so when it went on sale at 50% off, I couldn't resist. Then when it was totalled up at the register, it turned out that it was really about one third the original price. SoI bought another blue suit that should make its debut tomorrow.

After looking at the picture, I'm really going to have to figure out a better way to take the pictures. The flash washes out a lot of the color and textures of the dress shirts. Sometimes the ties too.