The New Crop Is In

If you have stayed the course with me, you are about to get rewarded. A new crop is in in Kid’s and Men’s with new pricing as well (Buy one, get the second with some restrictions at half price). The sad news is that I am skipping next season in the men’s department due to the kids business pulling at me in a good way. I also will probably adapt the blog to more complete ensembles for kids as well which will not limit this blog to ties and squares but in general a color blending blog. Stick around and you can still learn something. Heck I learn something every day in color/texture combinations.

The first group is the starburst collection. Available in 5 colors, (if you count white as a color). Blue, Pink, Red, Green and White.

The ties are paired with a tan linen blend suit from Detomasso, our children’s line of suits made in Southern Italy and a house brand cotton spread collar made in Italy shirt. The tan and Blue work well together with the green tie in the first few pics adding a fresh color that works well with both. The square is also new in the first group as a multi color which I will add and update on the site later tomorrow.

Here is a better shot of the tie against the shirt and suit.

For those that are less comfortable adding too many colors, here you have the same pattern in blue against the blue shirt. Definately safe.

And the full shot here.

As always, your comments are welcome.

Buildup to Spring Summer

As we enter into the final month of the calendar year and head into the Winter (which doesn’t actually start till December 22th,) its always nice to focus on the bright spots of the future. With that in mind I bring you a buildup to Summer called so as I ran the pics here in a buildup of how one might get dressed.

Shown here is the first delivery of Spring 2011 from the Hickey Freeman His First collection for TuesdaysChild.com and the Brick and Mortar store.

Shirt (Blue, Yellow and White Medium stripe):

Shirt with Scrolling Vines Tie (also from Hickey Freeman.)

Shirt and Tie Paired with Hickey Freeman Wool and Cotton Sportscoat in a Whitish Blue.

Looking to give a little oomph of color to the ensemble I threw in the striped square.  Very vibrant and rich colors here which all work back to the shirt and ensemble as a whole.

Finally your finished product here.  Sharp and Elegant.

And oh…I happen to love the Winter 😉

Vlog, Shmog

So here we are trying something new. It seems that the Video Blog i.e. VLOG is the New Blog. Here is FTWU’s forst foray into Video Blogging. I think though that until we get the lighting and etc in place we will still take some pics. Especially of finished product.

Meanwhile though here you go. Please take the poll at the end if you liked the concept.

The end result should be this:

Vote!

IP Man

Sometimes you see something in passing (IP = In Passing) that strikes you as done well even if it wasn’t intentionally done so.

After working with a customer a few days back some of the shirts and ties that were left in disarray were the lilac shirt with this blue and brown stripped tie lying on top. I thought it looked lovely together and came up with this look.  Pairing it with a navy striped suit, unfortunately the exposure of the camera doesn’t correctly reflect the blended look of the ensemble but as I was mainly trying to show the combination of the lilac shirt with the blue and brown of the tie I let it slide.

First I show the tie and shirt together showing how it works.

Next with the suit without a square:

Finally with a pastel floral square:  This particular square picks up the lilac of the shirt and matches well with the blue of the suit.

If you felt the square was a little too Summery I show a darker one here.  The browns of the square Winterize the look and i like the brown burg of the square with the suit. (The pic is not as clear as I thought it was, pardon me)

In play here:

Finally, as I am sure some of you were expecting something from the movie IP Man (amazing Martial Arts film) here are two great scenes from the movie:

 

A Little Bipartisanship (Election Day 2010)

On this mid term election day of 2010 with the Dems retaining the senate and the GOP  taking the house I thought it worthwhile mentioning that bipartisanship goes a long way shown here in the Blue and Red colors worn well together:  Suit, and Shirt, Hickey Freeman.  Tie, FIH made of Monterra Italian Silks with squares made of vintage italian fabrics:

This following square is bothering me a little together with the shirt.  The colors may just fight with each other.

‘

Shown in play here:

With a small floral neats pattern:  I prefer the red in this tie to the first.

And for those that can never think in bipartisan terms I offer this:

 

Cheers!

You Talk Too Much

It seems that in my absence due to being quite busy I garnished more views and picked up more supscribers that when I was actively posting which leads me to believe that I should just shut up 🙂

Here are some new items from the Fall collection. Shirts are Hickey Freeman, Ties are FIH and are all available on (here’s something new) the Men’s part of the Kids Site.  The Fall Scarf Collection, (Alex Begg, Colombo and FIH Wools)  is there as well.

And in the spirit of the post name…heres a blast from the past.

RunDMC   “You Talk To Much”:  Enjoy (the song…The Video is meh…)!

Things to come

Hello ye faithful…I have been busy. Very busy.  But regardless, I missed you.

Late today I got a chance to snap a few easy shots of some of this Falls collection. I call them easy shots because in all cases the background didnt budge. White Shirt, Black Suit and White Linen Square with light Blue trimming. You could have done the same in all three ties with a navy suit and achieved the same results. Clean and classic looks.

This season there were two groups that I did. Your typical wovens which included jacquards and satin weaves and for something new I did a run of silks from the world renowned Mantero Seta the first of which you see here. Vivid and wonderful prints.

Looking forward to getting back in (and I am probably hiring a new person in the store so that will allow me a little more time to work on other things).

PS:  Some New Hickey Freeman items in for Men this season.  Lets see how that works.  🙂

Still Alive

Was it Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) that had said that “The
reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”?

Same here :-). But I am working myself to the bone and spare time has been few and far between.

To prove I am alive and well… Here is a Hickey Freeman suit from the kids like, with a twill hickey freeman shirt and Vines Tie. Very elegant tie I think and brightens up the shirt (which I intentionally chose dark due to the tie)

Later in the week, new ties arriving! Dont give up on me just yet!

A Belated 4th of July

Greetings to all FTWU readers.   Its good to be back home but the perfect storm in the retail industry which is what happens when the buying, and selling season as well as many changes in our business is upon us.

Here are some shots that will pretty much cap off the Summer season for me (unless requests are made) that I took and intended on posting from abroad, but you know the saying “the best laid plans of mice and men” and as it turned out, despite the wireless connectivity in the room, I was unable to get FTP access and therefore was unable to upload photos from there.

Not quite the red white and blue that we all know but the tones are there and while the first two ties are red, I prefer the boldness of the first one.  The green square in the first two ensembles is laced with red and adds more color to the outfit.

3 For the Little/Not So Little Guys

Greetings all!

After a very enjoyable and restful weekend I gear up for an Italian Trip this week for our kids shop Tuesday’s Child but not before Fall/Winter gets underway in the store.  In fact UPS quantum view tell me that 21 boxes of Diesel will be rolling in tomorrow which promises for a busy day.

Here are a few items that came in from our Hickey Freeman Fall Line. I left out the pocket squares simply because they are less used in kids wear.  In retakes that I will (or wont) take over the next few days I may show some options but due to the tight schedule I will probably have I doubt it.

Paired here with a Brown trouser.

Olive base, Black checks and fine Orange/Rust Checks make the rust tie appropriate as wall as the black pants shown below.  A dark black/green tie would also work here.(And that I might just force myself to fine the time and retake as it was what my minds eye first visualized.)

With the Black Pants:

Finally, a Medium Grey Suit with a feint blue pin stripe which I thought classy to pair with the shirt and tie below.

Have a great week all!

PS:  AE, I expect this post to rate a link :).