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...

The Way I See Things

You've probably noticed from my "profile" picture (and any other pictures of yours truly) that I favor aviator-style glasses. I developed a taste for these back during my days working at Bausch & Lomb.

I recently received an interesting piece of correspondence from one of our catalog subscribers, wherein it was suggested that my glasses must be several decades old and that I should perhaps consider switching to a more current style to woo younger customers...

Being a man who has stood by the fashion statement of bow ties through thick and thin, I'm not one to lose sleep over the trendiness quotient of my eye wear. In fact, the glasses I'm pictured in are current, new frames - and I went to rather great lengths to obtain the "vintage" aviator style I prefer. Anyway, who's to say the aviator style won't be the next big thing in retro?

Brazilian Beauties!

No, this isn't post about sunbathers in Rio di Janiero... Got a great picture from one of our customers in Brazil. Turns out he had his picture featured on a billboard advertising the UNIEURO University in Brasília, where he is the Dean of Research and Graduate Studies. Professor Barros is also well-educated in matters of style, as his bow tie attests to.

My Snowy Valentine

In case you haven't checked out the national weather in the past few days - here's your intrepid correspondent's front line report from Vermont regarding our Valentine's Day nor'easter. (Finally, a proper snowstorm like we used to have!)

Beau Ties as it appeared from the parking lot on Thursday morning. Decided I'd be going in the back way.

Good thing this drift was a few feet to the right of the back entrance...

...But not so good if you were hoping for a view out of this window! (That's a bit of sky peeking through in the upper right corner).

The drifting wasn't quite as dramatic at the cafeteria door...

Here's a view out the front door over towards the shipping entrance. Looks like there's still some shoveling to be done!

Bloggers with class

I came across a nifty site (blogpulse.com) that let me explore the so-called "blogosphere" - an search for other bloggers writing about bow ties. While there weren't as many results for my searches as I'd hoped for, I found a few folks who'd recently become Beau Ties customers. Naturally, my curiosity was piqued.

Turns out both fellows are teachers (I've always suspected the smartest bow tie wearers choose Beau Ties). M. Sanford, a Canadian teaching French linguistics, was planning to wear his new ties with suits to lend "stylistic credence" to his "academic regalia" (I have to say I'm rather taken with his English linguistics...). The other gent, Fat Jack, had quite appropriately chosen our American Cursive and "wore it proudly with jeans and a sweater vest" as a "diversion from the biker me," as he puts it.


It's nice to know that bow ties are used for such disparate reasons in similar contexts - all part of what continues make to every day here at Beau Ties so engaging. Also, I was delighted to know that both fellows were happy with their ties: Thanks for your kind words, and links back.

Vive le noeud papillon!

Movin' West

Don't worry - there's no threat of a move from Vermont: I just moved in a westerly direction a stone's throw down the hall to another office here at Beau Ties Ltd. HQ a while back. My new digs are situated adjacent to our call center, so I get to see (and hear) first-hand what a great job our Customer Service folks do in making sure everyone gets the Beau Ties they need.



I can also look out into our production area from my new vantage point, and see our seamstresses plying their craft.



I actually made the move before the holidays, and after witnessing our annual Christmas rush at such close range I just have to say how great it is to see the pride, care and personal touch that goes into the fulfillment of each and every Beau Ties order. I could watch from the incoming call to the order being handed off to our seamstresses, to the tie being created and all sewn up in the production area and then being packed off by shipping to complete its journey to its new owner. We've come quite a long way since our first days in the spare rooms in our house! Whatever the case, I'm enjoying the new perspective that comes with my new office - reminds how much of a homey, family operation we still are.

Excellent news

I just got word from Liz, our Custom Sales manager, that a scarf we produced has won a Gold Award in the Service Industry Advertising Awards competition. It's great news to me because it validates the quality of custom work we can do. This was also the first time we had been asked to design a custom scarf; usually, it's ties that customers request.




The scarf was created for the philanthropy department at the Lahey Clinic in Massachusetts. It was a long and very involved process, but as you can see, the end result was beautiful. (We also designed a tie that complements the scarf.)

Here's Liz modeling the award-winner. Doesn't she look elegant?