How to Look Dashing!

 

Yesterday, HTBS received an e-mail from our dear friend Louis Petrin from Downunder. Louis just wanted to let us know that he had received his HTBS tie that he had ordered. He writes, ‘Please excuse my poor attempts at creativity but it was exciting and I wanted to do something to put the tie and the HTBS blog in context.’

Looking at Louis’s photographs, ever since I meet him, I thought he was a handsome-looking fellow, but with the HTBS tie on, he looks dashing!

Louis is looking smart, isn't he? Behind him, we can catch a glimpse of his rowing book library ~ very nice.

If you, dear reader, also would like to look smart, order your own HTBS tie, there are only a few left, as a matter of fact.

The HTBS Tie is Here!

Ever since HTBS posted the entry about Madeleine Johnson’s ‘rowing tie’ company Old College Ties, ‘Fancy Rowing Ties’, on 1 September this year, I have been dying to get this blog’s own unique tie. I consulted with my HTBS co-fellows, the gentlemen Greg Denieffe and Tim Koch, about their thoughts on a special HTBS tie. Of course, both of them being members of the Henley Stewards Enclosure, they do not mind at all to wear a necktie, so I did not have to convince them at all that a HTBS tie was a good idea; as a matter of fact, we all thought it was a brilliant idea.

The HTBS tie at the factory.

I contacted Madeleine Johnson, who, as the nice lady she is, immediately understood HTBS’s need to stand out in the blogging world. I mean, after all, how many blogs, rowing blogs and non-rowing blogs, can brag that they have their own unique tie to offer their readers?

So, not only can you be a reader of HTBS, you can be a handsome readers of HTBS. The HTBS tie, which is designed by Tim Koch, has a navy-coloured base with two horizontal stripes in light blue and yellow, which will go nicely with a white or a multi-coloured shirt, together with your blazer, or sport coat. The narrow part of the tie is in plain navy, and the tie has a grosgrain ribbon, in yellow with white dots, which stops it from sliding around under your collar.

Now, to truly make this a unique HTBS tie, it also has its own special HTBS label. To take advantage of having the Italian family-owned factory, which has produced knitted ties for international luxury brands for three generations, and which is hand-making the ties for Madeleine’s Old College Ties, the HTBS tie is in the finest quality of 100% cashmere wool with fine texture, and it is strong, light and very soft.

The luxury brands are selling their cashmere ties for prices starting at $125 and up. However, HTBS is not a business (yes, really, we are not!), so we are selling our unique tie for $75 (that’s £47) per tie. (Not including packing + postage, and we are not making any money on that either.)

The HTBS is truly a limited edition, though, we might consider ordering another batch from Madeleine if you readers go all crazy about them!

Send an e-mail to me at gbuckhorn –at– gmail.com ; please write ‘HTBS tie’ in the subject line, and I will tell you how to pay me via Paypal or U.S. cheque (payment in US dollars, please).

HTBS Tie: $75 (£47) per tie.
P.P.
USA $3.00
Canada $4.50
U.K. & Scandinavia (and most west European countries) $5.50
Australia & New Zealand $5.50
Other countries I have to get quotes from the post office.

Maybe you were so inspired by this that you want to order a unique tie for your rowing club, group or organisation? I can warmly recommend Madeleine and Old College Ties, contact her here. You will also find a link to Old College Ties under the list 'Buy Rowing Stuff' on the right.

Update 6 Nov. 2012: In an e-mail, Madeleine tells me that Paul Stuart is selling their cashmere ties from the same Italian factory that is making the HTBS tie for $198.00, so our tie is a real bargain!

Fancy Rowing Ties

Those HTBS readers who have been around for a while might remember that I have a weak spot for ‘neckwear’: ties, bow ties, day cravats, you name it. Early on this summer, I received a nice e-mail from Madeleine Johnson, an American lady who lives in Milan, Italy. She was wondering if she might use images of two old cigarette cards that I had posted in one of my blog posts ‘Notes from a Rowing Tie Snob’ on her own website. Of course, I said yes, being happy to accommodate someone who was interested in ties, and, I would like to add, had a grandfather who was a Swede in Minnesota.

Madeleine request was not simply to satisfy her interest, no it was more than that, she has founded a company to make fancy hand-made knitted rowing ties! It all started when she wanted to present a gift to the Groton School’s varsity crew where her son is rowing. As it happens, Groton (in Massachusetts) has a rowing coach who is famous, Andy Anderson. Although, a splendid coach for the school, Andy is probably more ‘famous’ or known as ‘Dr. Rowing’, a columnist for the magazine Rowing News. ‘Andy has been a huge help in my little business’, Madeleine writes in her e-mail. He, for example, wrote about Madeleine’s company Old College Ties. If you have missed Andy’s, ‘Dr. Rowing’ piece, try to track down the April issue of this year of Rowing News – a most entertaining article.

But back to Madeleine’s ties. She writes to HTBS: ‘They are handmade in a historic factory here in Milan where I live. The factory makes ties for brands such as Gucci and Ralph Lauren, so the quality is high and the ties can be worn for style as well as spirit. The minimum order is 20 and they can be made in silk, cotton or cashmere and wool. The price ranges from $30 for cotton ties to $45 for silk. For an extra charge, we also do a nice commemorative label with the club’s name.’

Madeleine’s ties made their debut at Henley Royal Regatta this summer as Brunswick School (in Connecticut) varsity boat was wearing them, and so were Groton and Tabor Academy, the latter also from Massachusetts.

Brunswick School’s handsome varsity crew

The questions are now – how is HTBS going to round up 20 people, and which should be HTBS’s colours on its tie?

Notes From A Rowing Tie Snob

Call me a snob, but I like to wear a neck tie. I guess I got it from my father, and, at least in that sense, I am a chip off the old block. I take every opportunity to wear a tie, and if there is no real reason, I wear one anyway. And to be really honest, living in America does not make it easier. Few places or occasions here demand something around your neck, unless you are going to a wedding or a funeral.

On certain occasions, I have being seen wearing a bow tie or even a neck scarf, a day cravat (what some people wrongly call an Ascot). But being a “tie fellow”, I presume that the nice people in my surroundings are indulgent towards my behaviour and shrug their shoulders and explain the whole thing with a “well, he is from Europe, you know…”, or something to that effect. “But, blimey,” you might say, “what does this have to do with rowing? Has the Swede gone bonkers?”

Well, being interested in neck ties, I find it fascinating that some rowing clubs around the world have club ties. This is especially true in Great Britain where every rowing club with self-respect has their own tie in the colours of the club. I am sad to say this is not the case in Sweden. I tried, unsuccessfully, to introduce a club tie for my club in Malmö - actually using my old British school tie, which is in the same colours as my rowing club’s colours, black and yellow – but my idea was turned down by the club committee. In the 1990s, when I was a member for some years of the Upper Thames RC in Henley-on-Thames, England, I received the organization’s club tie as a gift. The tie is dark blue with Isis and Tamesis in white - Isis and Tamesis are sculptures on each side of the Henley Bridge. (See photo of the tie up on the left; and, if you wonder, yes it is tied with a Half-Windsor knot).

During the first decades in the 20th century, many tobacco companies put a premium card with the pack of cigarettes or box of tobacco. In 1934, Churchman's Cigarette Company in England came out with a card set called “Well Known Ties”. Two famous rowing clubs, and their ties, were featured on two cards, Leander Club and Thames RC. In the illustration (see top of this entry) the Leander tie looks more red than pink, or if I may correct myself, cerise. The old Putney waterman, at one time the King’s Bargemaster, ‘Bossie’ Phelps once corrected an Australian oarsman, who happened to call Leander’s colour pink: “Half a moment, Sir, let’s get this straight; it is not pink; it is cerise.” The story is printed in ‘Jumbo’ Edwards’s The Way of a Man with a Blade (1963), and I will not re-tell the whole story here as it is actually rather mean to our Aussie rowing friends.

A colour combination that I personally really like is Auriol Kensington RC’s green and pink (or is that also cerise?). Anyone who is interested in the skill of tying his tie more than one way should immediately get a copy of Thomas Fink’s and Yong Mao’s The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie (2000), which will show the science and aesthetics of tie knots. A book a true gentleman, rowing chap or not, should not be without.