This Fits

Courtesy Of: Lands’ End Silk Wool Tie and Silk Sunburst Neat Pocket Square

“Courtesy Of” is a series on This Fits in which I write about products that have been gifted to me. While I strive to be objective, I think it’s fairer to you, the readers, if I disclose when I’ve received merchandise for free.

The folks at Lands’ End recently sent me a generous collection of their Fall/Winter menswear offerings, select items that they feel proud about. Today I’m featuring two of those samples: the Silk Wool Necktie in Peat Maroon and the Silk Sunburst Neat Pocket Square.

In his book Gentleman: A Timeless Guide to Fashion, Bernhard Roetzel writes that how a tie feels when you first handle it is a good indication of the quality. He concedes that it’s a somewhat ambiguous standard, but counsels “if you like what you feel, you are probably right to go ahead and buy the necktie.”

I happen to like the feel of this tie, a 55/45 silk/wool blend, and the quality seems comparable to other Lands’ End ties (typically on par with Brooks Brothers or Polo).

The fabric has a good weight and nice fuzzy fall/winter hand. The interlining is stiffer than the Drake’s London ties I own, but still supple enough to easily knot up with a dimple. It’s a bit thick–a good thing for a wool tie, I’d say–so the first time I tied it, I had trouble with my usual double four-in-hand knot, opting for a standard four-in-hand instead. Even with just one loop, it makes for a thick knot that fills the triangle of a collar nicely.

Lands’ End touts that the tie is “hand sewn.” I won’t pretend to recognize hand sewing on a tie–I don’t know where to look, and even if I did, Roetzel shows a machine in his book that can mimic the supposedly telltale irregularities of hand sewing. So I pressed Lands’ End on what exactly “hand sewn” means. They shared a response from their tie maker, based in Long Island City, New York with over 40 years’ experience in neckwear (the tie is made in China):

The key aspect of the handmade tie is that the shell fabric is carefully wrapped around the interlining, and then stitched from the outside by a skilled hand-sewer, who can adjust the pattern for straightness, relax the fabric when needed for perfect drape, and sew the lining to the fabric with a very delicate attachment.
This is the opposite of a machine-made tie, which is laid on a template (which precludes any individual adjustment), and then is sewn inside out, with the needle slamming through both fabric and interlining on every pass, before the tie needs to be turned inside out and repressed. It’s often said in the industry that a true English Repp should never be made by machine, as the turning process breaks up the finish of the fabric.“

It’s much easier to pick out the machine-stitching on the pocket square’s edges. Hand-rolled edges would have been nice, but perhaps not practical–Lands’ End opted to make this a double-sided pocket square, made up of two pieces of silk stitched together. It’s a unique construction not seen in any of the other squares I own (including another from Lands’ End), and I like how it gives the square more body to really fill out the pocket.

I’m not sure if Lands’ End intended for me to pair the tie and pocket square, but I find they go well together. Most obviously, the red sunbursts of the square complement the burgundy of the tie without getting too matchy-matchy. There’s a nice interplay of materials, too. In a post last month that’s oddly disappeared from his site, Will Boehlke advocated for inverting the typical sheen-matte relationship of silk tie and linen pocket square, saying that matte-sheen–say a wool tie and a silk square–has the same effect in a combination that’s a bit fresher and different. I agree.

Will noted that it was a good combo for worsted jackets, but here I wear it with a doeskin flannel blazer.