Insider tip
Emmie Howard of Southern Proper suggests avoiding the “matchy-matchy” look of neckwear made from the same pattern as a pocket square. Instead, choose a design for the neckwear and a solid pocket square or one with a contrasting border.
At a recent trunk show in Oxford, Miss., a group of fraternity pledges hovered around the Southern Proper display of bow ties. “It was fun to watch them as they picked out bow ties in school colors and some of our most popular patterns,” says Emmie Howard, founder of the lifestyle clothing firm located in Gainesville. “To me, the quintessential Southern look is a man in a seersucker suit with a bow tie.”
This story originally appeared in the May/June 2016 edition of Living Intown Magazine.
Howard grew up on a cotton farm in west Tennessee and wears her Southern roots proudly. She founded Southern Proper in 2005 to fill an underserved niche. "At the time, there wasn't really a regional men's clothing company that reflected the Southern lifestyle," she says. "We started with bow ties, neck ties and pocket squares, and now we've expanded to a full line of menswear, plus this spring we've introduced a women's line."
Southern icons, including magnolia blossoms and dogwood blooms, covered those early silk accessories. “They’re still among our most popular designs, but we’ve branched out considerably since then,” she says. “When we first started out, neckties — which we call ‘gents’ — were selling better than bow ties. But in the past several years, ‘beaus’ — bow ties — have outpaced neckties.”
While Southern Proper doesn’t sell SEC- or ACC-licensed items, it offers neckties, bow ties and pocket squares in all the popular collegiate colors. Other motifs include anchors, oysters, fishing lures, ducks, CJ-7 cars and the company’s trademark black Labrador retriever wearing a bow tie. Designs even include puns, such as croquet ties featuring a crow and a capital K, and the badminton design with a baseball bat and a mitten.
Stripes and plaids in traditional colors fill the bill for more conservative tastes. “Our neckwear is designed to reflect the wearer’s personality, and we have a lot of fun with it,” Howard says.
Most of Southern Proper’s neckwear is made from King Twill silk, but for 2016, the company has broadened its line to include a linen-cotton blend. Both are lined with 100 percent wool. “The linen-cotton blend won’t wrinkle as much as 100 percent linen, and it’s a much lighter feel for summer,” Howard says.
Southern Proper ties depict southern sensibility with a sense of humor. CREDIT: Amy Free photography/ Southern Proper.
Howard admits that many men shy away from bow ties because they don't know how to tie them. "Tying a bow tie is an art, and we even sell a fun T-shirt with step-by-step instruction," Howard says. "We call it 'Beau Basics.'" The Southern Proper website offers YouTube video instructions.
As Father’s Day gifts for the Southern gentleman in your life, the company’s accessories are sold across the United States, with local retailers including London Trading Company, Onward Reserve in Buckhead and Belk. Suggested retail prices for socks, pocket squares, gents and beaus range from $24 to $75.
Some people think that bow ties are blasé, but that’s not the case. “Preppy is still classic and never goes out of style,” Howard says. “And the great thing about buying men’s neckwear and other accessories is that you don’t have to worry about the size.”
Protect the neckwear
Howard offers suggestions for maximizing ties’ lives:
• Store untied ties by using tie racks, one per spindle.
• Ties can be gently folded and placed in drawers unstacked.
• Give ties a chance to rest between wearings.
• Do not dry-clean ties; spot clean only.
• If a tie becomes wrinkled, hang it in the bathroom while taking a steaming shower; do not iron ties.
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