Last edited by The_Shooman (2009-02-19 08:19:18)

Shooman,

Your questions are all good ones and not twitty at all although I would appreciate it if you use my name which is David. sam will take over the business in due time and you can talk to her then at three she already has an opinion on everything.

1) If they are weaving the dots they are using a Jacquard loom which I believe Film Noir Buff has photos of in one of his articles. the ones that they use in England are fairly modern. In Lyon France you can see the real thing still in action which is large old style looms that are museum pieces but still working. Mostly making beautiful fabrics for French castles and palaces.

2) Ties can sometimes be cleaned but they will never be the same. Ties should NOT BE PRESSED! Always look for a really good dry-cleaner

3) Good ties will have a wool interlining which helps them keep their shape and do not need a lot of rest. A few days perhaps?

4) Good silks equal beautiful silks to me and some light weaves like grenadines or Charvet's silks can get a snag easily. other silks such as heavy English silks can just keep on going for years.

5) Again good ties have a wool interlining you can store them as you like, but be very careful of the tip if rolling and if hanging every now and then move their position on the hanger to avoid creases.

Note that when you are buying a top end tie you should be able to ask the seller if the tie has a wool interlining and the weight of the silk etc if they can't answer.....

6) Making a simple tie is very easy and factory workers can be taught quickly. Making a beautiful bespoke tie takes a long time to get right. Perhaps 2 years. You need to not just be technically correct but you need to be able to listen to the client and the silk to match up the correct silk, measurements etc. You also need to be able to draft a pattern and be organized.

We have a very long backlog of orders and if it was easy to hire a tailor or seamstress and have them start making ties quickly we would do so. Instead we have gone back to an old fashioned apprentice system where we start our seamstresses out by making pocket squares.

Pocket squares are another area where it is easy to make a simple one quickly but very difficult to make a beautiful perfectly balanced one with tight even elegant rolls. But that is a topic for another day...

Then you need to be able to weave silk so that you can make silks for your clients or know how to order them if you want to go traditional like Atkinsons Irish poplin.

We go a step further and will from time to time custom dye and weave a silk by hand for a client. We may possibly be the last bespoke tie makers left in the world who are vertically integrated to that extent. We used to do quite a bit of Mulberry farming to feed our silk worms. Raising silk worms is hard work as they eat all night long and you have to get up to feed them.

But again in the end it is all about the small details....



1). How do they weave those little dots in the Drakes ties?

2). Can ties be cleaned?

3). How much rest should a tie get? 

4). Does tweed ruin/snag good silks?   

5). How should l store my ties, should l hang them first and then roll later?

6). How long does it take to learn the skill/art of tie-making? lt looks really difficult: getting everything alined right and the fine stitching of the various patterns, and lots of other stuff l can't really put in words (l don't know all the fancy `tie talk' and all the special words). l was so amazed tonight looking at my Kiton.

Last edited by Sam Hober (2009-02-19 08:10:49)