There are so many serious subjects to write about at the moment. What has Europe learned by the massive loss of life during WW1 and WW2? That's relevant because today is the 100th annual anniversary of the Battle of the Somme where 1 million lives were lost. The UK's central political establishment is in disarray. (Fortunately Scotland's is not.) We have no real idea what the UK's referendum decision to leave the EU will mean. Will Andy Murray win Wimbledon? And they are just a few. For heaven's sake we need to know whether YP has/will return from Greece. Will Adrian manage to reconstruct all the equipment he's working on? Will any more of Cro's Elderflower Champagne explode?
All this was just too much for me when I received an email from Amazon trying to persuade me to buy a tie rack.
Who buys tie racks these days? Mine was a gift about 50 years ago from the Mum of my oldest friend (we've known each other for 68 years) and it still holds some ties but who wears ties these days? I wear a tie perhaps a dozen times a year. [A dozen is 12. I say that because when I asked for a dozen of something recently the young lady looked at me blankly and asked what a dozen was.]
So I thought that as an anti-dote to serious problems I'd show you the remnant of my tie collection.
The ties that signify belonging: often gifts. Left to right: Amateur Fencing Association Coaches Club; I've been to St Kilda; presented to me by a visiting representative of the Falkands' Government; the tie of Caledonian MacBrayne - Scotland's principal ferry service provider (a reminder of the years I spent negotiating with the Company; the original tie of Comhairle nan Eilean (The Western Isles Islands Council).
A few of the ties that I still wear today (the others are in a wardrobe in Glasgow where I usually wear them!).
A miscellany of ties: New Zealand (I bought for myself). Apart from the yellow dragons which came from Hong Kong the rest are gifts. I occasionally wear the middle one when I go to parties at the donors'.
I just can't see you in that middle tie in the last picture, Mr. Edwards. Just not at all! Your ties are lovely and are "two sides of the coin", I would say. Very sedate, lovely and meaningful ties that you have, in part, earned. Then there are the bright and lovely party ties.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of life will that young lady have....how will she survive.....because if she has no idea what a dozen is, then what is her extent of knowledge about anything? I am assuming it was a young lady and not a three year old who may not have learned that yet.
Mrs Thyme you are absolutely correct in that it's not a tie I would possess or wear by choice but the friends who gave it to me thought it would be très amusant to give me something so out of character. She was, I would guess, in her early 20s. Sad!
DeleteQuite a selection of fanciful ones you've got there! My vote goes to the dragons I think! Or, if a more discreet look is required, the men in black on blue... ;)
ReplyDeleteMonica the men in black are from the picture The Reverend Robert Walker (1755 - 1808) Skating on Duddingston Loch by Sir Henry Raeburn. The one to its left are by Salvador Dali.
DeleteI can't make out what the pattern on the Salvador Dali tie is supposed to be??
DeleteWhere is the one with the "cheeky" lady on it?
ReplyDeleteSpesh is it the one in the centre of the bottom picture?
DeleteNow that cheeky lady tie caught my eye immediately...seriously....you should wear it more often...what an ice breaker at a party.
ReplyDeleteYou have got quite a collection of ties there.
What do the words on the printed tie say?
It's so sad about the young lady...so much education all around us and in most instances free...but yet a dozen is not part of her vocabulary...so sad....bet she knew how many minutes she had left on her cell data plan.
Thank you Virginia. The words on the printed tie are 'O Flower of Scotland'. I know that we have been decimalised for a long time but 'dozen' and 'half a dozen' are still used a lot.
DeleteHmm, a gentleman's choice of tie certainly reveals a lot about him .. novelty ties, particularly.
ReplyDeleteOops. Sorry Carol. Read your comment but not sure why I didn't respond. I certainly thought about it. It probably does say a lot. I always dressed very formally for work....except for my ties. Perhaps a repressed extrovert inside this shy and introvert exterior.
DeleteI honestly can't remember the last time I wore a tie, but it would probably have been my 'old school' one (to a reunion).
ReplyDeleteI've never been to a school reunion Cro but I kept my old-boys tie for years. I've been trying to think what I did with it. It must have gone when I had a grand clear out a few years ago.
DeleteMostly done now, I'll be looking for a new project towards the end of next week.
ReplyDeleteIf Andy Murray wins or loses then Sturgeon will call for another referendum. Silly woman.
Good for you Adrian.
DeleteAn interesting collection of ties. How do you keep them nice and straight without a tie rack?
ReplyDeleteRJ has somewhere around 140 ties, and they are all colour-sorted on six or seven tie racks. When I work at his office (and not at a customer's office), it is usually one of my jobs to sort last week's worn ties back onto their respective racks. I like that kind of work - it pays surprisingly well :-D
I like a well-dressed man with a perfectly bound tie, but I am glad that, as a woman, I don't ever need to wear them. Especially in the summer, it is a definite advantage to be a woman at the office - one can keep cool and look nice in a dress or skirt and short sleeves without appearing "cheap".
By the way, I enjoy your escapist posts. Plenty of serious stuff going on elsewhere.
Thank you Meike. I like escapist posts too. As for ties I had many many ties when I worked and a good collar and a well-tied tie was very important to me. I do have a tie rack: it was a present over 50 years ago. It only hold a dozen ties though so most of my ties sit on tie-rails on the backs of my wardrobe doors.
DeleteI honestly cannot remember the last time I wore a tie or even a suit for that matter. I gave up wearing them when I realised that I was hired for what I knew and not for what I looked like.
ReplyDeleteThere is though in my possession one solitary Concorde tie kept as a memento for all those years spent in the design office.
I had the sort of job, Heron, and at a time (several decades ago) when to have appeared without tie would have been unthinkable.
DeleteMy husband hasn't worn a tie in ages. he too had a collection but they all went in the bin except for a few just in case. Your collection is both sedate and way out. I like the fruit salad one.
ReplyDeleteDiane I can't recall the story of the fruit salad tie but I know that I had two the same. I wore it quite a lot with a Harris Tweed sports jacket.
DeleteI find it veyr hard to find half-decent ties. Some of yours rival those of John Snow, Graham!
ReplyDeleteIt never ceases to amaze me how many ties companies like Tyrwhitt offer but they are all rather boring. But the so much depends on one's job. In court if a lawyer went in with, for example, a tie that the judge considered too gaudy he might simply say to the offender "Mr X I cannot hear you.".
DeleteExcellent antidote. I dote on the fruity ones. I would wear them if I was a man.
ReplyDeleteI rather enjoyed wearing them too Kate.
DeleteIs that the "skating man" on one of the ties? I'm trying to remember which painting it came from.
ReplyDeleteI think it is an awful shame ties have gone out of fashion, some of them are so creative.
Yes Jenny it's The Reverend Robert Walker (1755 - 1808) Skating on Duddingston Loch by Sir Henry Raeburn. I like ties but even when I go to a concert these days I sometimes feel overdressed when I wear one. Mind you that doesn't stop me wearing one if I feel like it.
DeleteWith Djokovic's own brexit from Wimbledon it's anyone's guess who will take this year's crown. As I commented on your previous post, I'm not a fan of Murray. I'm not a fan of our own Kyrgios (who meets up with Murray today/tonight) or Tomic, either....I'd rather disown both of them!
ReplyDeleteI do, however, like ties. And once upon a time I liked wearing them with certain outfits that suited wearing ties. I was hopeless at tying ties, though...so once tied, I would then just slip them over my head when they were needed to enhance an outfit.
Lee I do support Murray. He's actually a very decent guy. I used to know a girl who had a splendid collection which she wore very loosely tied with a blouse and she looked the bees knees I have to say.
DeleteYou can tell a lot about a man from his collection of ties. The first lot suggest a staid and upright citizen - like a parish councillor or something. However, the next two pictures suggest a libertine, ploughing his own path through the world of fashion while no doubt consuming handfuls of "purple hearts" and other mind bending drugs.
ReplyDeleteWho invented the tie? All my teaching career I had to wear the damnable things - like nooses around my neck.
You can indeed YP tell a lot about a man from his ties. However how one interprets what one learns may be open to question. I actually enjoyed wearing a tie although I rarely have done since I retired from public service.
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