#challis

[inthedarktrees]

Elizabeth Taylor wearing a quilted skirt of Merrimack cotton velveteen with a rhinestone-buttoned blouse of imported Swiss challis, Vogue 1948

[ker-bee]

[roughridingrednecks]

Challis

[artbythibeault]

earth texture challis 

[historicaldress]

Riding Habit, 1890s

Lightweight grey challis habit for summer, double breasted with silk covered buttons, matching skirt

[dansar04]

Diplomatic Ties part 416: Poszetka.

Wool challis is hard to beat as a fall fabric for a tie. Especially in such saturated colour as this one.

Jacket from Fallan & Harvey, Drake’s shirt, tie and ps from Poszetka, Berg & Berg pants and shoes from Tricker’s.

Also check out our new, revamped website: Diplomatic Ties. And if you are interested in music, check out: All Kinds of (Good) Music as well.

[woollenhulls]

Review: Poszetka Ties

It’s not so long ago that great ties were hard to come by. There are posters on Styleforum who reminisce about wiring money to a stranger in Naples and hoping he’d send them some ties from E. Marinella—and that they wouldn’t get lost in the post.

Thanks in large part to the internet, there are now many more small brands making lightweight ties in interesting fabrics, with delicate handmade construction. They are, however, generally fairly expensive. Not necessarily poor value when you consider the cost of sourcing small batches of cloth and the extensive labour involved, but the prices do make them strictly luxury goods.

At the other end of the market, mass retailers (such as Charles Tyrwhitt and T.M. Lewin in Britain) have started to pay more attention to fabric, offering wool flannel and silk grenadine ties, but theirs are often too narrow and made with spongy synthetic linings. (Not to mention that if you use their mail order you will be receiving catalogues until the day you die.)

Between these two extremes it’s always interesting to find makers offering luxury ties on a budget, such as Poszetka.

Poszetka is a small Polish company that has been operating since 2010, selling primarily ties and pocket squares, but also shirts and leather goods. I’ve been a customer of theirs for a couple of years, and have had a lot of use out of an unusual grenadine silk black bow tie which, not having the sheen of a satin silk, also holds a knot much better.

I recently had the opportunity to sample some of the new range of untipped wool ties, and picked out two wool challis prints and a classic shepherd’s check made from Vitale Barberis Canonico wool suiting. (These ties were provided for review without charge.)

The designs strike a good balance between being interesting and being unusual to the extent that you wouldn’t wear them. The colours are intense enough to work casually, but the surface is chalky rather than shiny, giving them a fairly subtle appearance. Formal ties are far easier to come by—every major retailer can make a decent stab at a silk twill—but these fit nicely in that crossover space: casual enough to work with odd jackets (and tie-optional environments, as so many places are now) but reserved enough to work with suits outside of the most formal settings.

The construction is solid. Handrolling on the tips is consistent, although not as tight as it could be. There is a thin piece of wool interlining in the body of the tie, enough to guarantee a knot with some substance, without disrupting the natural drape. You might plausibly want a longer tie than this, but it’s also the standard length of Drake’s and other major makers, 140cm. The 8cm width is a good balance for most people, looking neither old-fashioned or skimpy.

For people in Britain and America, it might be tempting to see Poszetka as a kind of Polish Drakes. They are small boutiques aimed at enthusiasts, focus on similar items, and have a similar aesthetic, with subtle use of colour and an emphasis on casual tailoring and accessories, but this is to miss the interest they have in their own locality and heritage, Silesian and Polish. The product ranges are also different: Poszetka doesn’t offer suits, but sells a handful of shirts and some attractive looking leather accessories.

Value is obviously in the eye of the beholder, especially when we’re talking about a largely decorative item. Nevertheless it’s worth noting that the ties featured are between €54 (for the VBC wool) and €72 (for the challis), making them between two thirds and half the price of other specialist retailers. There may be some reasons to demur: on the purple tie, you might notice that the printed medallion is not quite perfectly inked, and that the blade could have been cut slightly higher on the cloth in order to better line up the design with the tie edge. Hand-stitching for other makers is sometimes a little neater. But it’s really a personal choice whether these kind of things matter, and whether they matter enough given the price differential.

Regardless of the comparisons between brands, it’s pleasing to see another small family business prospering by focusing on products for the enthusiast, and prioritizing interesting designs and detailed but labour-intensive methods over mass production.

Disclaimer: as stated in the review, I received these ties without charge, although I have been and will continue to be a paying customer too.

Ties Reviewed:

Olive untipped wool challis

Violet untipped wool challis

Prince of Wales untipped wool VBC

See Also:

In review: pique dress shirts

Review: Canali Kei Jackets

[motelinteriors]

Wallpaper, Microwave & AC Controls - The Village Inn Motel & Restaurant - Challis, Idaho