Tie By Tie 28 (Black and Lilac, FTW!)

Two days back I wrote about the soft and nice tie that worked well with a number of shirts due to its having a number of colors in it.

Today's post will show that sometimes soft is nice but not "as" nice. Here I show the same tie, with the grey check shirt and a black suit for better contrast.



For something different I swapped the purple check square for a green with purple paisley. (email for purchase Info)



Which looks like this:



And as we were talking Lilac with Black and Grey here is one more option, the Lilac Paisley Tie.



And in case you were wondering, FTW is the current web slang for For the Win! :-)

Have a great weekend all.

Tie By Tie 27 (Like Edelweiss)

Just like edelweiss, from the song in "The Sound Of Music" this particular tie is "soft yet nice" .   Available in the seven, and four fold s well as the regular construction.

As it has multiple colors in it, from grays to blues and lilacs, I chose to show it together with a grey shirt, a blue and finally a lilac as well. In real life the lilac short is not that strong. I just find lilacs a difficult color to photograph. In all cases, the charcoal suit with purple square is shown.

First the pale blue shirt:



With the square detail,



The grey check shirt:



And the lilac stripe:

The Black Catena

I know it sounds like a cheap b thriller, but bear with me :-)

As mentioned in the previous post the catena will usually determine to the hue of your tie.  That being the case it should govern what it can comfortably pair with.

In the case of this purple tie the black catena gave the purple a blackish slant, making it ideal IMO for a black or charcoal suit, and not the best for a brown one.

Here are all three suits, First the Black, then the charcoal finally the brown again:  For a close up high res of the black suit with the tie click here.  Some may not like the fact that the square I used has similar shapes to the tie but as they are not the same size it didnt bother me.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="460" caption="Black Suit"][/caption]

Swapped out the square for the naysayers for this one.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="460" caption="Charcoal Suit"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="460" caption="The Brown Suit"][/caption]

Finally, once we had the charcoal suit out I brought back the tie we had out from yesterday, illustrating a nice combo, Charcoal Grey and the lilac/purple family.



As always, what you have read here is just one man's opinion :-) , and I would love to hear yours!

Purple Stands Out Too

Purple and lavender are pretty much in the same family.  Not quite twins  (Unless you are thinking Ahhnold and DeVito) but definately distant brothers if not cousins.

The same can be said with black and charcoal or better yet gray.

I like gray with lavenders.  So following the progression along we can probably say the same with purples and blacks.  You just need to bring the brightness or contrast bar in any of the photo editing programs and you will get from Grey and Lavender to Black and Purple.  But that wasn't the challenge that was thrown out.  There was a more difficult request which was the square as well.  Till now in the black theme we have been using a white square which makes the tie an easier feat.  However as the request was for a dark purple square the tie becomes somewhat harder.  Again, its not impossible.  Before we look at the pictures its important to mention that the darker the square is its going to be harder to notice it on a dark suit, which is as you realize (hopefully tomorrows focus) the whole point of the square.  On a lets say very dark purple square  unless you resort to the shinier fabrics to reflect the light the square will go almost unnoticed.

Take a look at the pictures here.  I will work them backwards from the darker to the lighter because I do feel that the ensemble looks a heck of a lot better when you allow for more contrast and as the suit is black invariably less dark in neck wear and accessories,  is more.

Enough from me.  Lets let the pictures do the talking: (this is the darkest purple tie that I had and the same with the square.  Of note to show that the black and purple idea is not off if you flip the square inside out you see that the field of the square on that silk is actually black)



This comes together looking like this.  Yeah its somewhat monochromatic but that was the goal / question wasn't it?



If we seek to lighten the shade of the tie while keeping the square you will get a nice combination of lavender and purples.


Here I gave you a better view of the tie because I wanted to show that it works nicely with the black.  Its a pretty tie and the somewhat wrinkly nature of the fabric is intentional.  It adds character.



Finally a light ivory field with lavender vines floral.  A real beautiful tie and here you get the contrast that I am referring to.  I am gonna have to retake this shot so you can see how nicely it works.  Maybe better here would be a satin square in a violet.  We'll see.

Lavendar and Grey

Just to get things started I am gonna throw up some pics and see where we take it. Of course comments welcome (not that you ever listen to that...).

The shirt is a soft lilac and the square is from the vintage group. The tie is from the spring collection.


Or these parts... (here this square is from the new arrivals that arent yet on the site but will be soon).  Long story about this square though...)  Which is made up of this tie (which is ncie cause it is Black and Lavendar (warp and weft) which gives it a depth.)



Which together look like this: