u/049AbjectTestament_

I really need to press my shirts....

Another bold one today!

I wanted to make sure this tie made it out before summer ended! Trousers are a cream wool/silk/linen blend from Cavour. Shoes are FAM santoni, medium brown antique captoes.

Tie is vintage Ferrell Reed. They produced some phenomenally textured ties before I was born—I've been working to hunt down a few.

Jacket: vintage PRL, silk

Tie: Dion, garza grossa

Square: ????

Shirt: ?????

Pants: Borrelli worsted summerweight charcoal

Vass brown suede chukkas

Some of you might remember that a few weeks ago, I sent off eight ties to Tiecrafters. Well, $168 later, they're back!

Tiecrafters has a reputation for truly miraculous tie restorations, and I certainly went to them with high hopes. In fact, I sent them two ties I fully expected to be beyond saving, just to see if they could pull off something incredible.

They couldn't.

In fact, not a single tie returned "perfect." I'd say four returned still completely unwearable.

Now, make no mistake—quite a few of these ties were going to be *hard* restorations. I do not especially fault tiecrafters for the results.

Here's what I've learned:

• PRESSING DAMAGE IS CATASTROPHIC. If a silk tie has been pressed to the point that folds are visible or the silk has changed sheen at all, you should consider it lost. I will attempt a silly hail-mary on two Drake's with tiny blots of mineral oil in a final attempt to temporarily restore sheen, but I do not expect much. That's a serious heartbreaker.

• EXPECT ONLY THE PRIMARY ISSUE TO BE ADDRESSED. If your tie has more than one issue, it's likely the cannot deal with both. If your tie needs work, get it in ASAP. Do not wait for a tie to accumulate multiple issues.

• SERIOUSLY, DON'T ATTEMPT ANY HOME REMEDIES ON SILK. There's a fair chance it'll make a recoverable situation unrecoverable.

The final results:

• Turnbull & Asser Satin Blue— stain significantly reduced, but still present. Pressing marks still visible, though significantly less so.

• Paul Stuart (Holliday & Brown) Macclesfield Neat— Water stains rectified. Tiny oil stain still present.

• Paul Stuart Grenadine Blue — Giant white stain is gone. Faint oil based stain seems to persist beneath. Still wearable.

• Drakes Soporific Neat — Stains significantly reduced—one tiny one still present. Very much wearable.

• Polo Light Blue Stripe — No improvement. This was a tie I fully expected to be destroyed, so I wasn't shocked here.

• Ralph Lauren Purple Label Pink Stripe — No improvement. I strongly suspected this tie was ruined too.

• Drake's Green Repp Stripe — Very little improvement. Pressing marks remain obvious. A big disappointment.

• Drake's Red Repp Stripe — I think the pressing mark may actually be worse than when I sent it off. A huge disappointment.

To be clear, I am not saying Tiecrafters is bad. I think Tiecrafters is *good*. The reasons behind failure here were likely to my giving them an extraordinary challenge, while tiecrafters is instead extraordinarily good at dealing with *ordinary* challenges.

An outstanding piece sourced from a poorly translated Italian eBay listing. Colors are even better in person. Stoked for cooler days so I can wear it!

They were sitting at the bottom of a bin and looked very nice, but I hadn't realized how absurd they were until I saw the "750" on the bridge. Suffice to say I bought them immediately and flipped crap in the car.

I hadn't even heard of Lotos before. Very stealth wealth. Obviously the material is opulent as all hell, but the craftsmanship is exquisite too. The engraved brand markings are tiny and only easily visible under a loupe. Can't make out a model number.

Not sure what I'm doing with them yet.

The standard internet hivemind advice of classic menswear for cleaning or restoring ties is "just send it to Tiecrafters". Local dry cleaners rarely have the means or know-how to deal with finicky neckwear, and the results of their efforts can sometimes be disastrous.

However, once shipping is factored in, tiecrafters is inarguably expensive. For nearly $20 per tie, plus shipping, it had better be good—and yet, we haven't seen much in the way of detailed before/after results online.

So, I'm biting the bullet and dropping close to $200 (once shipping is factored in) to get seven ties professionally cleaned and restored.

Most are secondhand finds that have stains, botched dry-cleaning attempts, or both. One is an all-time favorite Paul Stuart with water spots.

I'm not an expert, but I believe the restoration difficulty in this batch ranges from relatively trivial to "I'm honestly not sure if this is saveable".

In fact, I stuck three ties into the mix specifically to see if they could save them.

So, let's see some before shots and details!

Tie 1 — Turnbull & Asser, blue satin.

* Pressed by an overenthusiastic dry cleaner.

* Faint stain on blade.

* Worn corner that will be visible if re-shaped inattentively.

Tie 2 — Paul Stuart (Holliday & Brown) Macclesfield neat.

* Water stains.

Tie 3 — Drakes, navy soporific neat.

* Stains at knot and on blade.

Tie 4 — Drakes, handrolled sevenfold stripe (red)

* Pressed by overenthusiastic cleaner.

* Pressed stain that seems to have set very hard.

Tie 5 — Drake's, handrolled sevenfold stripe (green)

* REALLY pressed by an overenthusiastic cleaner. God I hope they can save this poor thing.

Tie 6 — Polo Ralph Lauren, light blue stripe.

* Comprehensively stained—very badly. Let's see if they can save it.

Tie 7 — Ralph Lauren Purple Label, pink textured stripe

* Severe stains

* Poorly pressed

* Edge wear that will be conspicuous if re-shaped.

They're packed, I'll send them tomorrow. Let's see what's what!

Oxxford is also Drake's. Private label manufacture. Not pictured is a tasty Talbott Mogador stripe.

​

Nothing available.

On a totally unrelated note, I suspect I have undiagnosed autism! 🤣

Left-to-right:

1. Hard formals. Neat houndstooths, glen plaids, satin solids, neat twills, dots, classic reps.

2. Fall/winter ties. Wools and cashmeres.

3. Formal Macclesfield neats. Clearly I must fill this drawer!

Row 2

1. Fun weaves/textures. Grenadines, knits, linens, etc.

2. Bold silk paisleys,fun prints, bright summer neats/stripes/plaids, shantungs, summer textures.

3. The current storage solution. For the curious, it's a vintage Westnofa gentleman's chest/highboy.

My latest acquisition is the tie on the right.

A 2000s Burberry—made by Drake's. I've been trying to find the combination of big dots + sparse scale for a while.

Of course, these are just simple weaves and prints... Clearly I need some mattes and crazy textures next!