Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette!
Today, I'll show you my bow tie collection and I'll tell you the story of how I built
it, what bow ties I'm always looking for, what colors, how I wear them, and anything
else you wanted to know about bow ties.
So most bow tie wearers love them because most other men don't wear them.
Up until maybe 10-15 years ago, bow ties were just a fraction of the sales of regular neckties.
Personally, I love to wear neckties and bowties but it wasn't always like that, however, that
all changed when I started wearing bow ties more frequently.
In the beginning, it was slightly uncomfortable but I had seen other men pulling it off in
a very sophisticated and elegant way and sometimes, you have to do things that make you uncomfortable
to improve your style and grow.
One thing I noticed at first was that most bow ties all had pretty much the same shape
and size.
While I was going through my archives of vintage men's fashion magazines, I saw that there
were hundreds of different shapes and also different sizes.
If you read men's style books, most people will tell you that a bow tie should be proportionate
to your face and they show like the width of your face, should be about the width of
your bow tie.
Personally, I don't adhere to that theory.
I believe that you can wear different bow ties, different sizes depending on your mood
because after all, it's a way to express yourselves and if you go back in history, you see men
wearing different bow ties and different sizes as well.
So without further ado, here's my collection.
Let's start with the red tones because red in bow ties is one of the most popular colors.
Obviously, I have a bunch of them and even in our shop, we have quite a few Fort Belvedere
bow ties in red, however, before I started designing our own bow ties, of course, I had
my own collection.
Probably the most common pattern is a micropattern; it's what I'm wearing here right now and it's
basically a red background with either dots, little paisleys, or small motifs that are
repetitive on the bow tie.
They are so popular because they're easy to combine with striped shirts, solid shirts,
as well as solid suits, and it just add a little bit of pattern to your
outfit without being overpowering.
If you're a follower, you know that I only wear self-tied bow ties and so everything
in my collection is self-tie.
The bow tie I'm wearing is made of a red madder silk and you can find it in our shop here.
It has those diamond ends which are pointed which allow you to tie your bow tie in a way
that always looks a bit non symmetrical which is exactly what you want to achieve, otherwise,
it looks like a pre-tied bow tie and that's the hallmark of a schoolboy.
This one is made out of wool challis in a very muted red.
This shape here is slightly bigger with a somewhat more shiny silk but it has a chalky
grip.
This one here is lightly a madder silk.
It has blue and silver tones, very subdued works well with Blazers.
This one has yellow tones, it's more contrasty, I like it in this summer.
This one is more chalky again which is great for tweed outfits.
This one's a classic red with a standard micropattern that is spaced a little more apart.
This one is a very dark burgundy with paisleys and it's a good option if you want to wear
a bow tie without standing out too much.
These dots here are very bold and it's only something if you're willing to make an even
bolder statement other than just wearing a bow tie.
If you want to top it off, you can even go with this kind of a bold spot but it's really
only for people who are comfortable with what they wear.
Another pattern I like quite much in a smaller size with a larger pattern is this one.
A typical vintage English madder silk and we still offer that kind of silk in our shop.
It's a process that takes much longer, is more expensive, but I think it's worth it.
This is kind of a bold paisley tie.
Paisley is a traditional pattern with origins in India that you can find all over in classic
menswear.
this one is oversized so you don't see a full repeat in the bowtie which is rather unusual
which is why I added it to my collection.
Here's our paisley with kind of an all-over pattern.
this one here is quite cool because of it's unusual geometric pattern.
Another favorite of mine is this bow tie.
it's a red tone it's a mix of wine and maybe purple.
it is very unusual and hard to find.
also the motifs on it appear like they're circling and repeating.
this one here is more repp striped inspired very classic something you'd wear with a preppy
outfit.
this is a red velvet bow tie which is a prototype from Fort Belvedere which I like to wear for
evening occasions and it's different than a black bow tie yet it's very festive and
it sparkles in the light which is just beautiful.
this one is another one of our designs.
it has a very bold houndstooth pattern it is made out of a matte silk bourette silk
which is very hard to find because most of the time silk bowties are shiny and at Fort
Belvedere we always try to be different and add things to your wardrobe that are not just
run-of-the-mill.
this one here has a classic stripe that you might know from a repp bow tie but we use
a very soft shantung silk with blue and red as a background so it has a very nice color
depth and it works well with any kind of blazer outfit or business suit yet it's a bit more
casual because of its texture.
next up let's talk a bit about my black bow ties.
black bow ties for most men are probably the first bow tie they wear because it's something
they need maybe in a prom and a wedding or whenever they wear a tuxedo or the dress code
requires a black tie.
to learn everything you need to know to look your best please check out this video here
and we also have a free black tie PDF guide.
we even went so far to create a guide about what black bow tie is best for your requirements
so you can check it out here.
so my collection obviously includes all the black Fort Belvedere bow ties which are quite
a lot.
We have styles in a classic silk satin which is a very high-end satin from Italy we also
have a barathea which is more matte we also have a fine rib grosgrain and a really wide
ribbed grosgrain which is very unusual and hard to find as well as velvet bow ties.
all them come in different sizes and shapes and we're also one of the few stores that
offers them in a single-end bow tie which was something that very elegant gentlemen
wore particularly in the thirties and in the 20s.
one thing that sets our black bow ties apart from others is they come with a fixed neck
size.
most bowties today have an adjustable sizer which is quite handy and it's also better
to stock things otherwise it gets quite expensive.
now we go to the extra effort to offer you a fixed-length because it's a traditional
way and when you untie your bow tie and take it off you can see and you can show that it's
actually made for you just like a custom piece would be made for you.
also if you wear a wing collar you don't want the adjusters to be visible which is why you
want the continuous neck band.
before we offered our velvet bow ties, I actually had quite a few prototypes made from different
fabrics and I still always keep it and I wear them because I test them but ultimately what
ends up in the shop is only what we like the most.
So other black bow ties that I like that are pretty cool is this one it's kind of a pointed
end with a somewhat asymmetrical shape and it's a vintage tie I think from its Carconi.
this one is a vintage moire a silk out of a very fine fabric.
it's called moire because sometimes you see that effect on screen if you have a very small
pattern and it's also called watered silk sometimes.
To achieve this effect you take two layers of fabric and run them through a press it's
a special process and you don't find it very often.
the shape you see here is a very classic shape it's like rectangular and when you tie it
you get a slightly thicker knot.
if you use a thicker fabric sometimes a knot can be too big so this works best if you have
a thinner fabric.
personally my favorite evening bow tie shape is this one here which is based on the 1930s
model and it has just wonderful curves and it's very elegant.
Another cool bow tie is this one from the Gatsby collection from Brooks Brothers.
it has white tips, as well as white areas, were you knot it so when you knot the bow
tie you have white at the ends as well as in the knot and it's like a vertical white
strip so you have four vertical white strips which is quite dashing.
next up let's look at the blue bow ties.
Again just like with the regular neckties blue is so popular in menswear that a lot
of bowties also come in blue.
here we have some bold spots again which is not something I'd suggest if you are just
starting out with because it's quite loud. for a beginner and something like this one
or this one would be much better.
once you have the small micropatterns covered, you can slightly move in size and go with
something like this one here with green and red or this one here out of a more twill kind
of jacquard silk with red and white accents or you could get something with smaller items
but a higher contrast.
However, you can also find them in other colors such as here with kind of a cream with the
green which really changes the overall look quite considerably.
of course, it's also good to have some repp stripes
or you can go with checks like in this bowtie as you can see this bowtie has an asymmetrical
cut it was a prototype we made and we still have some bow ties in this shape they weren't
quite as popular with people I think they didn't quite understand the big advantage
is you can tie them in two different ways the rounded part can be up or down which creates
a different look and people can't quite tell it that's it but it's exactly the effect you
want to achieve which is not being too symmetrical.
obviously these are also more unusual colors this is kind of a very faded light brown.
this is kind of a purple that works really well in summer
Another good option for summer is a linen bow tie such as this one which is very light
blue
another favorite of mine for summer is this one here which is very dark with some red
background so it peeks out and it's the same stripe you can see here on a mannequin it's
just a different color
most of the time, striped bowties are angled, kind of a 45-degree angle so we try to do
something different and created this one.
it's not something I wear a lot but I wanted to have different things for different occasions.
this one here came with the vintage tuxedo I bought and it's navy blue it has a diamond
shape it's kind of a barathea but for black-tie you should always go with black bow ties even
if the fabric is midnight blue.
here we have some navy velvet prototypes in single end and regular.
Another great color for bow ties is purple so this one here has white dots which are
quite contrasting
this one here is from Fort Belvedere it has much subtler paisley patterns and because
of that I like it a lot it works well with gray or navy charcoal but you can even wear
it with green so it's quite versatile.
it is different but it's not super loud a wonderful addition to any gentleman's bowtie
closet in my opinion.
this one is also cool it has kind of a very subtle butterfly shape so the knot looks different
and because of that I wanted this bow tie.
as you may have seen we also have bowties for white tie ensembles and I believe it's
the largest selection you can find in the world.
of course they're all either single end or come in fixed next sizes because when you
wear white tie you always have a wing collar and an adjuster would always show.
I have all of them in my collection and I wear them whenever a dress code requires white
tie but I also have different ones that are vintage in different sizes.
for example this one here came in cotton in a different shape kind of a medium size
this one here on the other hand was much smaller in a Marcella cotton.
now if you compare the sizes of those two, this one is from the 30s, this is probably
more 60s or 70s inspired.
that being said, probably in the 30s no one would have worn a bow tie that big but you
definitely found difference in sizes a man would wear from very small to medium size
just somewhat larger.
Another underrated color in bow ties is green and it's underrated in menswear in general
so you can check out this video here if you want to learn how you can incorporate green
into your wardrobe.
so here is a very summery green bow tie with a vertical stripe from Fort Belvedere and
it was a limited edition fabric so I don't think we have it anymore but sometimes when
you have bow ties especially if they're in a coarse weave such as a jacquard weave and
you have a beard you will find little threads pulling on the bow tie.
just think of it like your beard being sandpaper next to a very delicate fabric and over time
you will get pulling threads.
now you can cut them off I use our nail clipper from our set because it allows me to get very
close and be very accurate so I don't accidentally cut into the fabric it's always good to have
in mind when you wear bow ties try to shave beforehand it's good for your bow tie and
if you have a beard definitely go only with printed bow ties because they have a much
finer tighter weave than like a jacquard woven bow tie where you can actually see the weave
because that was much more prone to pulling threads
I have different greens like this forest green
a striped green
kind of a medium green paisley pattern
a classic houndstooth bourette pattern from Fort Belvedere
as well as this unusual kind of turquoise repp stripe style silk
last but not the least I have a bunch of bow ties that are all a little bit different there
are tones of brown yellow and orange or interesting patterns.
first it's like this tartan pattern here which is something that works really well for Christmas
parties
this one here is a bold dotted stripe made out of a limited edition silk by Fort Belvedere
that we don't offer any longer
this one was a prototype out of a knitted bow tie it's
a knitted wool but I found it was much too soft and flimsy
this one I thought was quite cool because again it has this super large pattern on an
unusual kind of creamy yellow background
this one here is a summery pattern from Fort Belvedere that we don't offer anymore it's
kind of Madras inspired and you can learn more about the Madras fabric in this guide
here.
Another cool bow tie with a really large oversized pattern without repetition
and then another Madras bow tie in a slightly different color scheme
this one here I like a lot because it has this pale beige or buff background with elements
of blue orange and green very unusual but easy to combine
this one here is much bolder and kind of a bronze tone with blue dots
this one is more yellow and has white dots but it looks very different than this one
even though both are dotted or spotted bow ties
this one here is a brown and pale blue Paisley one in a very bold diamond shape
this one hereI like to wear especially with light blue shirts it provides contrast it's
a great option for summer it lightens up your putfit
and then of course there are other silk bourette ties from Fort Belvedere which I'm a big fan
of at the moment, of course, I have all Fort Belvedere bow ties in my collection but I
didn't just list them here because we've mentioned them in other places.
for a full selection please go to our shop and check them out here
obviously this is a larger bow tie collection and it took me years to build it.
I've had great luck at estate sales because people who are into bow ties tend to have
a lot of them and since not many are interested in them, you can pick them up at a very inexpensive
price point.
so if you want to build a bow tie collection my tip is take it slow think about what you
have in your wardrobe get different pieces with different textures different colors and
different patterns and build something that works for you overtime.
if you like the glimpse into my bowtie collection chances are you also want to continue this
wardrobe tour and check out my boot collection shoe collection cufflinks rings and so forth
In todays outfit I went with a classic blazer combination with a twist first of all the
top part is part of a suit it's a lighter shade of navy it's double-breasted and I paired
it with a Winchester shirt that is striped in gray and white and added this red micropattern
bow tie from Fort Belvedere it's made out of silk and you can find it in our shop here
it has diamond ends makes the overall look very casual yet still sophisticated my pocket
square is linen it picks up the blue tones from the bow tie as well as the red but it's
quite contrasting and it still stands out from the blazer without being too flashy when
you wear a bow tie, it's already louder than a lot of other things so it pays to tone the
rest down a little bit for my slacks I opted for a small summery wool linen blend it's
kind of a little houndstooth pattern so from afar it looks like a lighter gray when you
come up close you can see the pattern it also wrinkles in a certain way especially if you
sit all day but that's part of the linen optics and that's good for summer to tie the whole
outfit together I opted for burgundy Derby shoes and I combined them with a great pair
of shadow striped socks because they're solid with a clock pattern on the side which always
goes well with patterned pants Last but not the least, my cufflinks are from Fort Belvedere
they are gold with lapis lazuli again you can find them here.