It's no secret that mens clothing and accessories of different brands are often made under the same roof. A good portion of silk knit ties are made in the same place, as well as grenadine's. A lot of the nicer Polo Ralph Lauren (made in Italy) stuff is made by Coreliani and so on and so forth. There's a lot of re-branding that takes place and some label-associated mark-ups that would truly make heads spin.
I mention the above because lately I've run across a lot of different ties from the same era that all bear a remarkable similarity to one another. None of these labels are ultra high-end, but starting prices on them (at least at time of retail) had to vary a fair amount. Note the ties in the aforementioned picture and their prints. They'll all fairly similar repp stripe ties with alternating colors, all of the same width, with the weave of the silk all running in the same direction.
Flip them over and the labels tell a different story. The discerning eye probably caught that the Brooks Brothers tie had a slightly different print (the thick bars being more narrow than the other two), but it still gives the same overall effect. If that weren't enough, check the following Lands' End tie (which I tried to give away several months ago on Style Share):
Another almost exact match, at probably a slightly lower original price-point than either of the aforementioned.
The moral (as always) is not to sweat the labels too much. If you like it (and it fits), and it's not complete crap quality, the only people who are going to make a big deal out of the difference are those who you don't want to hang out with anyway.
It's ironic actually, just yesterday I was going through my closet and organizing my ties. I came across a rep tie that was from Brooks Brothers and one from Liberty, they both were the same pattern and fabric. I had forgotten that I had the BB and I must have bought a Liberty a few years back.
ReplyDeleteThose are all modeled after the brethren's #1 repp tie model. Like many other things, Brooks got there first, then others often emulated. I guess who's to really know if Brooks came up with them or not. They just happened to be the one that did well.
ReplyDeleteNice post!
ReplyDeletei wonder if Yves Saint Laurent polyester ties are made of a better fabric than the same ones by lesser brands?
ReplyDeleteI think the Lands' End tie is fairly nice, im surprised it wasnt snapped up. guess the weak coffee beige is a bit dull for most people