Juan Gomez, surveying some of the penguiniana at Ramona St. (there is even more at Staunton Ct., where I’m trying to clear things out), noticed this very handsome silver and black tie on display in my living room:
(#1)
(The label says: “MUSEO Hand Made” — made in Korea, as it turns out.)
The tie was a gift from my friend Steven Levine, who has an enormous collection — hundreds — of ties, found in used clothing outlets, estate sales, flea markets, and the like. Funny, gorgeous, bizarre, all shedding some light on odd corners of popular culture and changes in artistic fashions over the years.
So Juan asked what the most unusual tie in Steven’s collection was. I asked Steven, he reflected for some time, and nominated six items. For your thoughtful pleasure, these ties, with Steven’s comments…
1 This one has a theme of “curling”. For that curling fan to wear to work or church? To wear to a game in the days when you wore suits and ties to the ballpark?
(t#1)
2 This is unusual because the front part of the tie is a fisherman in winter, but the back unseen part of the tie is a bathing beauty with palm trees.
(t#2a)
(in a close-up:)
(t#2b)
3 Here’s a shiny tie to celebrate the centenary of Mankato, Minnesota.
(t#3)
4 This tie has a label from Madrid, and it reproduces the “All Is Vanity” painting by Charles Allan Gilbert that looks like a skull or a woman in front of her mirror, depending.
(t#4a)
(in a close-up:)
(t#4b)
5 Strange colorful handpainted tie of grasshoppers fishing in a glass. Is this what the “grasshopper” cocktail looks like?
(t#5)
6 I have no idea who Rest and Zest the turtles are, and Oakton Manor is a park in Illinois at this point. But this may be my most unusual tie, which is not the same thing as my favorite.
(t#6a)
[AMZ: I find nothing about turtles named Rest & Zest, but I do find some sites where the nouns rest and zest are paired, partly to savor the rhyme, but mostly to suggest that you need rest in order to have zest for living. A life lesson in a necktie.]
(in a close-up:)
(t#6b)
(the label:)
(t#6c)
Earlier in this blog: a 11/17/15 posting “Novelty ties”, with two abstract-design ties from SL’s collection.
June 14, 2016 at 6:34 am |
Note on the title of this posting. These are Steven’s selections of the most unusual ties in his collection: most unusual, a true superlative. But most unusual can also be read as an absolute superlative, as in That’s a most unusual tie ‘That’s a very unusual tie’.
October 13, 2016 at 5:40 am |
I LOVE those ties! I’m jealous of you as my funny tie collection comes mostly from Amazon. Sigh
October 13, 2016 at 5:49 am |
Be envious of Steven Levine, not me (though I do have that fabulous penguin tie). What I have is a world-class collection of paisley and floral ties — gorgeous, rather than entertaining.