Last edited by Miles Away (2006-07-02 07:24:46)

Marc,


Romance and poetry are important in life so I understand and share your feelings about Marinellas ties. I am sure that many if not all of Marinella's custom made ties are made in their workshop. So please enjoy your weekend.

Oh, and by the way we have been in business as silk weavers in Thailand for over 100 years. Does that count as romantic?

Drakes has a nice workshop setup and they use a lot of hand labor, but they will never get the small touches done as well as Marinella's custom workshop. Drakes uses power tools to cut around 12 layers of silk at a time etc..

When you work with a bespoke tiemaker such as ourselves each new pattern is a conversation. We do not use power tools. We draft your pattern by hand. etc.

"I have both, and, curiously, the Marinella ties make a different knot than the Drake's ties--go figure."

It is hard to really comment without the two ties in front of me (if you are a skier you can show me the two ties, the next time you pass through Denver). But assuming that you are talking about printed silk there may be a difference in the silk, although, usually there is not. Marinella generally uses English printed  "36 oz' silk which is really around 3.6oz per yard. "36oz" is a marketing term. I am not sure what weight they use for their woven silks.

If you were to speak to the designers at the English silk mills you would be told that most of the designs are done by the silk mills and approved by Marinella. If you were to speak to the Marinella family they would tell you that they design every silk.


"The Drake's tie makes sort of a square compact knot, the Marinella ties make a slightly longer, fluid knot, if this makes any sense."

Yes, your comments make sense. The word fluid makes me think that perhaps there is a difference in the silk as you suspect. If you were to use terms like weight, size & drape I would suspect a difference in interlining.


"Your custom ties interest me because ready-made Marinella ties come up a bit short on me and Marinella custom ties are, I think, excessively priced at $250."

Looking at the ties on their own, yes they are overpriced, but the romance of Naples and maybe more importantly many different designs in limited editions are what drives their price.

I would be happy to send you swatches of our June and July English printed silks.

AA illustrations show idealized clothes worn by idealized humans, maybe that's why some people idolize them. To get the trousers and jacket sleeves to drape that way, as if carved out of a single piece of wood,  at least  20 oz cloth (not practical today), heavily starched, would be needed. Plus, the wearer would have to go to the gym quite regularly. As rendered, the trousers are too short and a tad wide to be considered elegant by today's standards. The trousers don't look that bad in the idealized illustrations, but the subjects are posing still for the most part. If they were walking, going up the stairs, etc.,  they'd show too much hose. That was the fashion of the 30's and 40's, anyway, but that was +60 years ago. On the other hand, I find the style of some of the jackets and combinations of patterns and colors inspiring, nicely adaptable to our current times. That is the whole point, using the illustrations as an inspiration for making smart combinations of colors and patterns, but adapted to modern times and to your own personal style, which, hopefully, takes inspiration from many other sources.

On a related subject of Esquire, has anyone seen the Encyclopedia by them on 20th Century Men's Fashion under the author/editorship of O.E. Schoefler? What the devil is in there that justifies paying between $600-1000?

This will strike a blow at those of a conservative disposition.