J.Press Slide-On Tie Bar

THE ASKMEN TAKE

Shopping at J.Press makes you feel like you’ve been accepted into the Waspy, white ivory tower of mid-century Yale. The New Haven-based clothier has been making traditional prim and proper New England country club clothing since 1902. It’s an exclusive gated community of crested navy blazers, repp ties and schoolboy scarves. Trendsetters need not apply. But the company that unrelentingly ignores the runway and sticks with the basics is actually a sleeper success. After Gossip Girl’s flamboyant fashionite Chuck Bass sported a J.Press scarf on air, the stuffy style sold out. Despite having a decidedly conservative point-of-view, J.Press doesn’t have political persuasions; both Bill Clintonand George W. Bush have been customers. J.Press’s annoying attachment to extreme preppiness, in a strange way, makes you want in on some of their clothing as if it would make you become part of an Ivy League secret society. This J.Press Slide-On Tie Bar may be your ticket to induction.

UNIQUENESS

Anyone wearing a tie bar post-1950 (who isn’t a cheesy used car salesman or style-challenged English teacher) deserves instant recognition. But as with any newly discovered accessory, men need to be trained. There are important rules that must be heeded in order to do the tie bar justice. First, it should be simple, not a gaudy, bedazzled piece of jewelry for your tie; the J.Press Slide-On Tie Bar is just a slick piece of silver as was originally intended. Second, tie bars are meant for slimmer ties and should always be shorter than the width of the tie. Even one that is the same width will look too big and needlessly break-up the natural line that the tie creates on the body. Finally, wear a tie bar not as an unnecessary accessory, but as a furnishing with a purpose: It should gently affix to your shirt to prevent it from flapping around -- a helpful feature as we begrudgingly roll into a windy fall.

DURABILITY

The tie bar may have taken a sleeping pill that lasted about 30 years, but you can rest assure that it never left J.Press’s anachronistic collection. In reality, men’s accessories with a vintage aesthetic never really lose their luster, because success with something like tie bar experimentation rests solely on how you wear it. A baggy banker suit and a bulky tie will not only make a tie bar appear uber-dated, it will also end up seeming completely out of place. In the end, the right accessory is only as good as the person who styles it -- and J.Press is ready to school you.