The Way I See Things (pt. 2)

Seems that I'm not the only fashion-forward thinking individual who favors the aviator style glasses I mentioned in my previous post, "The Way I See Things". While reading my morning paper (USA Today), I ran across a piece quoting Junior Pence (an exec at Luxottica): "When they wear aviators, they tend to be mavericks or individuals who live by their own rules." Couldn't have said it better myself!


As it turns out, I'm in the rarefied, star-studded company of such aviator-wearing glitterati as Brad and Angelina, Jessica Simpson, and Victoria Beckham. It's heartening to know that they've come around to my way of seeing things.

Now if only Brad, David and Jessica's beau of the moment would all continue following my sartorially savvy lead and start wearing Beau Ties as well...

The Moose Is Loose

For those of you who may not fully grasp what a wild world the bow tie business inhabits here in Vermont, I thought I'd share these pictures of a visitor we had earlier in the week here at Beau Ties Ltd.



That's right - I looked out the front door and spied this young moose loping across the field across from our facility. By the the time I'd gotten the camera fired up, the moose was a good distance off, eventually disappearing behind the building across the street. So, please pardon the "bigfoot sighting" quality of the images, but there wasn't much time for dilly-dallying around.





Anyway, I'll let you know if our newest neighbor stops by to be fitted for a bow tie (I suppose it will have to be a custom pattern - or at least a long neck, Butterfly cut).

Pick of the Day

A while back, we added a new category to our beautiesltd.com website called Bill's Pick of the Week. The ties featured in this category are very limited editions - on the order of a only dozen or so ties being made from each fabric. The fabrics themselves are extremely short yardages that we've acquired, and only allow for short runs of ties. Since they were interesting patterns, it seemed better to create these limited editions, and make them available as Bill's Pick of the Week.

Last Friday, however, we mentioned my latest Pick (which had been put up on the site that morning) in our email newsletter. Turns out Pick of the Week was something of a misnomer in this instance - all 13 of these "Yorkton" ties had sold out by sundown that same day.

So, as it turned out, last week there were two Bill's Picks: "Yorkton" for the day, and "Dance With Me Polka" for the remainder of the week - if it lasts that long.

The Better Bow Emoticon

I was logging into aol the other day, and while my mail page was loading, I was treated an to emoticon (one of those little smiley faces people put in their emails, like :-] and so forth). I guess this is aol's idea of educating us on the latest, greatest variants of these curious little combinations of typography. Whatever the case, it got me thinking: Why not a bow tie emoticon? I did a little tinkering, and came up with this:

;-) }{

(You can adjust the smile and wink to suit your mood...)

A bit of research uncovered that variants of :-)8 and :-)X are already in use, but I'll remain steadfast in my defense of the braces (a.k.a. "curly brackets") that I've used as exhibiting more of the panache synonymous with Beau Ties Guys. Anyway, it seems like it could be a great sort of "secret handshake" for all of us Beau Ties Guys to use in our email correspondence.

Barbaro By Mail

In an even more personally touching chapter in the unfolding relationship between our "Derby Line" tie and the late great champ Barbaro, I recently received a lovely postcard from the horse's owners, thanking me for the "kind words" about Barbaro in our Late Spring catalog. I'd just like to say in return that the pleasure was all mine, and I too am delighted and honored to have been a little part of the positive things that have come from his all-too-brief life.



The postcard is a reproduction of Nick Martinez' magnificent painting Barbaro (check out his site nickmartinezart.com for more).

Remembering Barbaro

Several weeks ago, a fundraiser celebration was held at Delaware Park for the late Barbaro, the beloved winner of the 2006 Kentucky Derby. A painting by Nick Martinez entitled "Fearless Vision" (inspired by Barbaro's fighting spirit) was unveiled. The painting itself was donated to The University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine at New Bolton Center's "Laminitis Fund" (Laminitis is the illness the claimed Barbaro and Secretariat), and proceeds from a limited edition of prints were also donated to the fund.


Several hundred FOB's (Fans of Barbaro) were in attendance, and I've received numerous reports that more than a few of them were sporting our Derby Line bow ties and neckties. This news was great to hear - striking a personal chord for me, given that we'd just recently introduced the tie in our Late Spring catalog as a tribute to Barbaro. We'd received many requests from our Beau Ties Guys for a "Derby" tie (especially since Barbaro's victory last year), and I'm glad to hear that this tie was not only a hit with them, but moreover that it became part of a great cause and many memories of a noble racehorse.

Are Bows Taking Off Again?

It's always nice to open up one of the many fashion magazines I read and see a bow tie gracing a young gentleman on the first page. Actually, it turned out to be not one, but several bow ties that put in appearances in a multi-page spread from Polo in a recent GQ.

Of course, I'd prefer to see a ten page Beau Ties Ltd. ad spread, but this sort of extravagance is still a bit out of reach for our little homegrown Vermont company's ad budget. But, as the saying goes, there's no such thing as bad publicity, and to see Ralph pushing bow ties for spring can't hurt us.

Given that reading the trades was proving so enjoyable, I continued thumbing through other publications, only to discover that other designers were showing bow ties this season as well. DNR reported that the LA runways (at the LA Fashion Week, not LAX) were graced bow ties from Christian Audigier and Nautica.

Are these all signs that bow ties are taking off again in '07? We're always accepting advance bookings here at Beau Ties Ltd...