The Skull & Crossbones motif has been very hot the past few years. So hot, in fact, that I was hoping it had finally jumped the shark. I'm sure some of you will say it already had, which it did; but, that doesn't mean it doesn't still sell, which, to a retailer, means it hasn't yet run its course. 

All of a sudden, Somali pirates are all over the news, and we could be in for a few more years of skull-themed ties, belts, cufflinks, and pendants. News casts have featured words I am pretty sure I have never heard uttered by professional anchors, including but not limited to "Indian frigate" and "pirate mothership". While I can't find the audio I heard, Wired wrote it up here.

I shouldn't be making fun of it, really. But the pirates say they're strictly in it for the money, and it's hard to read that interview with a real live pirate and not ponder the notion that one man's pirate is another man's Coast Guard (no disrespect to our customers that are U.S. Coast Guard). In their defense, they (the Somali pirates) did just release a Greek ship they seized over 2 months ago with all 25 crew members unharmed.

It is the time of year when many organizations buy gifts to reward their top performers. Given the year they've had, perhaps we'll add Somali pirates to our growing list of corporate customers...

The necktie industry has never seen so much press. 

The buzz began when news came down that the Men's Dress Furnishing Association, which used to boast 125 members but was down to 25, would be disbanding. Certainly, the demise of a "trade group", especially one that has been around for 60+ years, is an important signal that things might not be hunky-dory in necktie land; however, the group contends that consolidation is the primary reason for the declining membership. 

The Wall Street Journal threw fuel on the fire with a front-page article declaring that the tie is dead. It cited a recent Gallup Poll showing that only 6% of men wear ties to work, down from 10% in 2002. Whether or not this was "news" is debatable. While there has been much written in recent years about a return to professional attire in the workplace in the aftermath of the dot-com bust, many have argued that that was the work of PR firms hired by suit & tie manufacturers to push that narrative. I have yet to see evidence that between 2002 and 2008, there was an uptick in the number of men wearing ties to work.

Well, apparently, nothing gets Ben Stein's boxers in a bunch more than a declaration that the necktie is dead. He penned a scathing defense of the tie that seems to be available only to subscribers of the Wall Street Journal, but you can read it in its entirety at A Suitable Wardrobe.  

I will be publishing my own, evolved thoughts on the necktie, its demise, and why that is a good thing, in an upcoming post. If the Wall Street Journal is lucky, I may let them reprint it.

Any casual reader of this blog knows that I am a news junkie (wearing all black today to mourn the loss of Tim Russert). A prominent political website had a large photo from the AP of Barack Obama wearing a tri-colored, equal-width stripe in navy, light blue, and ecru. Immediately, my mouth dropped as I am fairly certain it is the Lee Allison Sundae Stripe Tie.

The Sundae Stripe Tie has been one of my favorites from Lee Allison for quite some time, since it comes in 3 beautiful colors, but always with the light blue and ecru stripes. While Obama has chosen to wear it with a white dress shirt, I actually think it's a better fit with Ecru, except that colored dress shirts seem to be a third rail of American politics (Al Gore, you may remember, was lambasted for experimenting with earth tones during the 2000 campaign).

To fuel the fire, Lee Allison is based out of Chicago; Obama is the Senator from Illinois. The ties are made in the USA, rather than France, Italy, or China which would ignite controversy over the candidate's "elitism" (the New York Times wrote that John Kerry was forced to ditch his Hermes neckties for Vineyard Vines novelty ties in order to quell attacks that he was "effete"). Lee Allison regularly sends ties to Rahm Emanuel; Emanuel is a Democratic Congressman also from Illinois. One of Lee's friends often provides wardrobe help to Michelle Obama; Michelle Obama is Barack Obama's wife.

Will Obama's ties to Lee Allison -- who has a number of skeletons in his closet -- become a campaign issue?

Yes, we know they’re back (and for some of us they never went away). It seems everybody from college grads to corporate swells have discovered this nifty accessory. Although we’re all for smart dressing, we cannot endorse this trend wholeheartedly for one simple reason: pocket square abuse is rampant, especially in the media, where anchors like Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly commit the most heinous of sartorial crimes: they match their pocket squares with their ties, a tell-tale sign of the amateur.

It is our informed opinion that the pattern of your pocket square should not replicate the pattern in your tie. It should serve instead as a complement to it.

This of course is not easy to do and there are no simple tips to help you achieve sartorial harmony in this area, except for maybe one: when you’re contrasting patterns in your shirt, tie, and pocket square, make sure they are all in the same tonal range—i.e., they should all be of more or less the same color intensity.

But even this dictate can be tweaked to good effect. Andre Benjamin and Cedric The Entertainer do it all the time. But one must know the ground rules before one can venture beyond them or else you end up looking like all those TV anchors—children set loose in a fancy menswear store. 

Bill Clinton, David Beckham, Jay-Z, and Prince Michael of Kent walk into a bar...

Actually, why even try to finish that joke when the title of this blog is already so clever. It's based on an article I wrote for the Financial Times noting the recent resurgence of thick tie knots. While big, thick knots have been the norm in Italy for the past few years, the trend has slowly crept stateside. It was something I noticed but didn't feel the need to write about until I saw Bill Clinton stumping for Hillary with a giant orange knot under his giant red face. Given the absolute lack of personal expression in most politicians' wardrobe choices -- navy suit, white shirt, red tie anyone? -- it struck me as something worth investigating. You can read the article in full here.  

How to tie it

The fashionably fat tie knot can be achieved in two ways. The first, and easiest, is to buy a tie constructed of a thicker material. The second, opting for the full Windsor tie knot, might require a bit of practice.

Here's how: Drape the tie round your neck so that the wider blade of the tie is about a foot longer than the narrow blade.

Loop the wider blade under the narrow blade on your right side. Slide the wider blade under the narrow end. Bring the wider blade over the knot and under the narrow part on the right side of your neck.

Pull the wide end down and cross it over the narrow blade. Bring the wider blade under the narrower part of the tie on the left side of your
neck, then slide the wider blade tip through the knot. Pull the wider blade down. Tighten the knot snugly against your neck.