fresh, new

Amazingly, I somehow managed to go all last year without wearing this pink paisley panther of a tie.

(Wall sold separately.)

end of the year

Three ties for the ultimate week of school, in order of appearance. Special thanks to Megan H. for the rightmost, a gift for the last day.

paisley, perchance?

Yes, I have more than one brown paisley tie in my collection. (Here's the other. They're not the same.)

In Florida the palm branches / rustle like neckties

In Washington, the neckties rustle like ferns.



Title cribbed from "The Real Enough World," by Karen Brennan.

state of the union

Somewhere in this blurry photo of a paisley tie lurks a metaphor.

a hot cup for a cold day

What better for a snowy day than swirling hot chocolate? (Whatever other images you see in the tie, I leave to your imagination.)

a slice of history

The paisley pattern may be nondescript up close, but it represents a moment in time: the tag declares, "Bill Blass, Expressly For The BON MARCHE."

Ah, yes... that was the Bon that was.

Then it became Bon-Macy's. Then just Macy's. Somewhere along the way, its soul got trampled in the dirt.

I saw the future

And the future was paisley. (When it swings from side to side, it changes color. How cool is that?)

paisley goes with nothing

Paisley just wasn't enough for Britannia's designers, who had to place the pattern on a fish-scale background (think brook trout). Those swaths of bright color aren't a trick of the light through the blinds. They're woven in.

Purchase the title tome, a male's guide to fashion, here.