My Necktie Collection (Sven Raphael Schneider’s Ties)

Accessories, including ties, easily boost an outfit with a pop of color or a dash of personal style and help tie together stylish looks. As such, I’ve collected a number over the years (from classic, elegant ones to crazy novelty pieces!), which I’ll show you, and I’ll also share how I sort and organize them for easy access when finishing off an ensemble!

Video Transcript [Lighty Edited for Clarity]:

Sven Raphael Schneider: Welcome back to the Gentleman’s Gazette. Today, I give you an in-depth look into my tie collection. And yes, these days, not a lot of men wear neckties anymore, but if you do, you easily stand out from the crowd because of your personal style.

As you probably know, I’m a clotheshorse and so, over the years I’ve amassed a lot of ties. So, when I’m like, “Hey, I want a pink tie,” I have a range to choose from. But more often than not, the problem is: where is the tie I know I have, and how can I find it?

Now, so far, I’ve typically collected my ties on pants hangers, clothes hangers, but the number of ties has just overgrown the space. So, at the moment, I’m working with a local craftsman to create a nice rack that shows me all the ties I have, so I can easily choose what I need when I put together an outfit.

Because there’s so many ties in my collection, I typically choose a tie last because I will always have the option to find something. I have a lot more ties than jackets, shirts, suits, and blazers combined. So, it’s easy to add at the very end. Actually, sometimes the pocket square may be the last piece, but the tie is pretty much towards the end.

Because I’m working on this massive tie rack, I thought about ‘how do I sort these ties?’ And there are many ways to do it. You can do it by color, by pattern, by fabric, by weave, and so forth.

How I Organize My Ties

SRS: So for the first category, I would have summer ties. Those, then, could be subdivided into different patterns, and within the pattern, I could sort them by color. Of course, it would look prettiest if you just sort all the ties by color, but I don’t find it very useful, because in the summer, I definitely don’t want to wear a wool tie under any circumstance, even though the color and the pattern might be great with my outfit.

So, apart from summer ties, what are my categories? Well, there are winter ties, and subdivide them into wool or cashmere winter ties that are thicker, as well as silk winter ties.

Size-wise, the ‘all season’ category is by far the largest and so I subdivided it into stripes, micro patterns, checks, dots and so forth. Other categories I personally find super useful are formal ties, which I wear to a funeral or formal business meeting or whatever a very formal style is called for.

And then there are knit ties, which just have a very different texture. It’s much stronger than a grenadine and I often like it. It can really make your outfit somewhat casual but still formal because of the necktie aspect. So, I distinguish between summer knit ties and winter knit ties. 

Last but not least, I have some crazy ties because sometimes, people send us their old tie collections. And even though I wouldn’t necessarily wear them, it’s really great to have things on hand when to tell people what not to wear or if we talk about specific 90s styles and I want to highlight a tie, I can do that very easily.

*Note: Be sure to watch today’s video to fully understand Raphael’s “tie-by-tie” commentary!

1. Summer Ties

SRS: So, without further ado, let’s jump right in. First here, let’s look at my summer ties.

Checked Ties

I started out with checked ties and typically, for summer ties, I look at the material, the weave, and the weight. I don’t want anything heavy, because if it’s heavy, I sweat a lot. So, I have these checked ties here. They’re madras-inspired ties, which are very bold and colorful yet in a classic way. I mean, just look at this one, right? Pretty cool with a summery blazer. As you can see, they come in different widths. I’m indiscriminate when it comes to collecting. I just like to have a selection.

Striped Ties

Next up are summer stripes. So, you can see here this is kind of this more shiny silk shantung in a fine stripe, then more like of a thinner tie with a blend of silk and linen, and these other ones in unusual colors here, the rust orange, this really bold stripe, something with an all silk but it has this changeant pattern with the white makes it very light and airy.

These are silk blends that are more matte. Sometimes, you can see they’re from the same pattern, just in different colorways which is quite nice.

A yellow is always great for summer, I think. You can see very different type of yellows, right? They’re both silk but just very different; different stripes, different widths, and highly unusual colors are something that I personally like quite a bit.

I think this one is pretty cool, right? There’s sometimes no name ties; they’re old ties. I’m very indiscriminate when it comes to that. I don’t look at just the names; I look at the pattern, the fabric, the texture and just go with what I like. This one here is from Fort Belvedere; is that, like, shantung silk and I like it because it’s unique.

I have many ties, but I’ve never seen another tie like that. There are shantung like this one here for example. But, just compare the look. It’s quite different.

These kind of very subtle stripes are kind of cool in this very kind of pale colors. It’s not something you see a lot. Then, here, another stripe – blue and white. Definitely makes it easy to combine in the summer.

This one is this kind of cool aqua-tone turquoise. Very unusual color. Whenever I find a tie in an unusual color, I try to go for it. Here, this is more formal color palette. So, for like, you know, maybe a summer wedding. I could see wearing this one. Red tones work very well. A lot of people like red ties. Blue and red are very popular. But, as a clotheshorse, I like to branch out and try different things.

You can see I like yellow ties in all variations. This one is very bold. I mean, look at that green and orange. This one is cool, right? Very like lightweight. Not like light “weight,” but light in color. It feels very light and it’s nice. So, yeah, these are my summer stripes.

Macropatterned Ties

Now, let’s talk more about patterns. Here is this kind of a micro pattern and they’re more floral-inspired. I put in some paisleys, [red bull], summer paisleys in cotton. This one here is kind of an art-nouveau-inspired, I think. Liberty of London – quite nice – in silk.

This one is a rougher kind of silk-ish material – flowery-inspired, unusual colors. So, is this one with a kind of turquoise pattern. This tie, I had for quite a while. I used to wear it in the winter as well. But, it is very shiny and definitely more of a summer tie.

This one here, I think, looks really cool. It has this kind of off-white base, which is not something you see a lot in ties. Why? Well, a lot of times, men favor ties that are darker than the shirt, not lighter. And, like, I like to transition to that more boldly, flowered stuff.

Micropatterned Ties

Here are some more micro pattern ties that can be a little more fun like this one here, right?

Little fish symbols on there or little flowers in bolder colors. Pretty nice. Yellow, again, in all silk. This is nice; kind of a very classic, micro pattern Macclesfield neat, but on a bolder red, on this kind of textured, linen fabric. It has a very different feel than when it’s printed on silk for example.

This one is silk, but the color definitely makes it summer for me. This one’s a really cool micro pattern, but these kind of bold shapes.

And the tie I’m wearing here right now today, too, it’s like this brown cotton. It’s like a no-name tie, so I don’t know where it came from. But, again, I appreciate it, I like it, and I don’t care about the label.

Again, bold yellow tie – definitely a statement piece. This one here has a nice gum to it, which is typically something you find more in wintery ties, but I like it in that bolder scheme.

This one is pretty cool. I think it’s an old, like, Venanzi tie. Gene Venanzi was a guy in New York at this really nice, neoclassical, Swedish store. Sadly out of business. I think they went out of business in the ’09 Crisis. Another turquoise, paisley and yellow.

So, this one is really nice. It’s this Polo tie, beautiful green. Polo Ralph Lauren. They have nice stuff sometimes, especially vintage things. It’s cool to see.

This is an interesting color. I think it was an old Fort Belvedere. We no longer have this but you can see the colors are like a pink with a green; kind of a bold color choice.

This one I like. Greens, dots in linen. This one here. I mean, look at that. Very bold. But, with a navy blazer and a blue shirt, you know you can definitely pull it off during the summer.

Solid Ties

And then, of course, there are these summer solids or somewhat solids. Here you see that kind of fine, Prince of Wales check pattern. Here is kind of a herringbone with the green and white. This is a linen tie – solid light pink, green, orange.

These were like Fort Belvedere ties that are now discontinued. I think we’ll just have to make more of that kind of fabric. And then, bring those back because I like them a lot.

This is kind of an interesting tussah silk style. This is like a linen as well and another linen.

Last but not least, I have this really bold pattern tie here, which is kind of cool. It’s from Jimmy Appleseeds from Beverly, Massachusetts. Very preppy.

2. Winter Ties

Silk Ties

SRS: Category number two: winter ties. Let’s start with the silk ties. They’re typically printed and in shades just so dark that I would only wear them during the fall-winter season. You see paisley is a popular pattern, larger medallion patterns. And yeah, that’s about it.

Striped Ties

Then, we have the wool ties, mohair ties, cashmere ties that are striped. You can see these are not printed, but they’re woven. Kind of – this khaki with the Fort Belvedere ones – very kind of bold stripes.

This one is cool. They’re unusual colors – cashmere, bolder colors, wool blends, tweeds. This is a nice blue tie. Unusual, I think, acetate ties.

Kind of – almost like a chalk stripe suit here. Tweed and more tweed.

Micropatterned Ties

All right, let’s talk about micro patterns or Macclesfield neats. Personally, I’m a big fan of them. They’re all printed ties usually on wool challis. Some of them, you know, say like hand block printed, which is very unusual. It actually meant that someone took a wooden block for each color. They manually put it down and line it up with things on the side.

Lots of kind of, you know, reds, greens, bronze colors, blue, sometimes small paisleys – everything in there. Pretty nice. Dark reds and more blues. This one here could have probably been all-season as well, but it’s quite thick.

This one is a Fort Belvedere. Beautiful turquoise. Unusual color. This one’s very fuzzy; almost flannel-like. I like that.

This one’s cool – large pattern, Fort Belvedere, traditional. You can even see I have the same tie; a few ties in a few sizes. Browns. You can see all kinds of pattern. Brown and blue are obviously very popular. Red and green, red and blue.

This one is cool, unusual like a lighter color tone and buff. Red. This green one’s nice. Here’s another Fort Belvedere polka dot and another printed paisley one.

Solid Ties

Typically, I’m not a huge fan of solid colors, but for the winter ties they’re really nice because, oftentimes, they come with a texture, right?

This is kind of this small kind of basketweave, herringbone, kind of pinpoint – very tweedy with a mottled yarn. Very nice. Very kind of cool color depth or in something like this bolder houndstooth. Interesting like angora material – super tweedy. I like that.

This is like a cashmere. It’s very soft, very thick, very warm in the winter. Kind of light blue. Kind of orange-red. Mottled yarns, always nice.

Checked Ties

Last but not least, there are these checked ties. I quite like them in the winter, you know? It’s very kind of Christmas-y – Christmas-y, wintry, fall-like look.

This tie’s cool. You can see the ends were taken out. It’s finished in a very casual way. Tie Spot from Chestnut, Pennsylvania. Not stuff you see a lot anymore.

These are kind of Irish, you know? Very kind of thick tweeds. All finer wools. Greens, blues, oranges, red, even pink. It’s kind of cool.

Checks. This is kind of bold – bold checks. Vintage, 70s-inspired. You see that same kind of finish again. Kind of unusual. Tartans. Multi-checks.

Oh, see this tie has a little moth hole, so you can only wear it with a vest. Sometimes, what you get when you have vintage ties, right? They’re not in the best shape, but a lot of them are like Scotland, British because, yeah, a tie like this in a warmer climate is just horrible.

3. Knit Ties

SRS: Alright, next up are my knit ties. I’m a big fan of knit ties because of the wonderful texture. They’re just very different from woven ties and, basically, they’re two types of knit ties.

There are the ones that are knitted round in a tubular way like a sock and then there are the ones which are knitted flat, then put on a wooden form and sewn together in the back. And I have the rest there.

Wool & Cashmere Knit Ties

Now, most knit ties in my collection are silk, but I also have wool ones. Let’s start with the wool ones here.

I have these kind of herringbone patterns. These are Fort Belvedere ones – cashmere knit ties.

As you can see, knit ties are typically the same width throughout and then they kind of taper down. There are knit ties… Most knit ties have this very kind of straight bottom because that’s how it comes out when you knit it. If you see a knit tie that is actually pointed, it means it was knitted exactly like any other tie and then stuff is taken out manually to get that shape that you want. Or sometimes, they fold it oddly in the back.

I like this tie here. It’s really thick. You can see the difference between a silk knit tie, which is already quite thick. But having this one, much thicker. There’s also lots of openings and different knit patterns that are sometimes hard to see; kind of internal self-stripe, herringbones, or just solids. Nice for the winter.

Silk Knit Ties

Next up, let’s talk about silk-knit ties. I have lots of solids like this pink one or two-tone solids. You can see in the light how the look changes. It’s just really nice. It makes them very easy to combine. You can pick up colors from your pocket square, your shirt, your socks, or anything in between.

So, this is something with it. This was the tubular, knitted one with a much softer silk. This is a much crunchier silk. Personally, I think I like the crunchier silk more and it’s much rarer. Most knit ties are soft silk knit ties made in a tubular way.

So, when you get knit ties, know that there are differences. Here, it’s done with a mottled yarn. Pretty cool. You can have different widths. These days most knit ties are quite slim. I think we’ll try to add a wider line just because it’s more classic. It’s like the 9-centimeter width or 3.5-inch width that I want to go for.

Oh, yeah. Here you can see, this tie has a point and, when you touch it, you can feel it’s thicker in there. So, they just took the flat tie and folded it in so you get this, and you can see this was… There is a seam here, too. So, yeah, different look but, ultimately, same thing.

Kind of chartreuse options, olive green, more chartreuse. This one is interesting. I think it’s like a linen blend. It was 100% linen. More unusual.

Otherwise… Silk, solid colors, tobacco brown, mottled yarn, gray, kind of a striped version, a wider version here, too, in the blue, another linen with dots, two-tone, two-tone. You can see there are different types of two-tones.

Here’s like a mottled yarn two-tone and here’s just two different colored yarns. Stripes, spots, regular ones, interesting colors in yellow. 

Here’s another like mottled yarn in orange and green. I like it quite a bit just because it’s so easy to combine, and you get that very kind of summery or fall look no matter what you want. More stripe ties. And then, whenever you add a white color you get this more summery feel. If you use the same green with the blue, it’s much more year-round.

4. All-Season Ties

SRS: Next up, let’s talk about all-season ties. Basically, ties you can wear whenever you want – very versatile.

Solid Ties

Solids are probably one of the most popular kinds. You can see, considering the size of my tie collection, I don’t have that many solids.

If I go with solids, I typically want an interesting, more textured weave. So, you have like grenadine weaves over here, jacquard weave. Grenadine, this is like a twill weave. Grenadine, twill, twill, grenadine.

This is like a tussah silk. You can see the knobs. This is like a jacquard woven silk – kind of a basket weave. These are like a faux grenadine.

I think… What is this one? Yeah, this is like an old Hermes. Hermes are known for their printed ties, but they also have woven ties. This is a cool color. It’s like a Hawes & Curtis faux grenadine. This is a real grenadine.

Another – what is this – Charvet, kind of, faux grenadine. This is cool. It’s like a cotton. That looks like a denim. It’s finished with silicone, so it’s extremely soft.

Then there’s some twill weaves with a bit more shine, another twill weave, another very kind of dark tussah silk from an estate sale, local store here, grenadine, Fort Belvedere, and then this was like a mohair. Interesting. Very kind of crispy feel. Not very shiny, but you can travel with this and it just springs back. Pretty kinda… cool. We’re, sadly… We no longer have this fabric. So, we’ll have to kind of remake it with a different weaver to get that back.

Patterned Ties

Next up, let’s look at some all-season ties that have more patterns. So, starting over here, these are kind of very subtle kind of herringbone patterns. I think some are like old Hermes.

Yeah and then we go into the checked patterns. Interesting color combinations. This kind of blue, old Hermes, Venanzi, Robert Talbott, checked ones.

These are interesting ones – silk bourette. These are Fort Belvedere. And bourette silk used to be more of an inferior silk, but now with more casual textures, it’s actually more expensive than regular, jacquard woven or printed silk. Houndstooth – very classic patterns. Kind of slight variations if you look at it. Dogtooth, pepita, houndstooth. Then, very classic business ties – Prince of Wales check without any overplay, also known as glen check. These are all Fort Belvedere.

As you can see, you know, very subtle differences between the black and the navy. Sometimes, if I have more ties, too, I have a section that is more like formal, right, that are separate next to my solids. So, I can have this same pattern here and there, so if I look in different spots I always find it.

Same here with a navy grenadine – for example, black grenadine. I’m not a big fan of black but, you know, when you go to funeral stuff, it’s just good to have these ties. The grays. Some micro patterns. 

This tie actually I wore on my wedding day it’s a Robert Talbott Best of Class tie. That was before we made our own ties. So, now, we have all these beautiful… what are called “wedding ties,” which are like silver and black patterns. Really, really cool.

Paisley Ties

Okay, next up, let’s look at paisley ties. Paisley is this kind of traditional, Indian-inspired pattern. It looks almost like a teardrop with a little tail. You can see there’s a bunch of different ones.

You have like two paisleys on top of each other. Just individual ones, bold, big ones and small ones, kind of big ones, small ones intertwined.

This is an exception here. This is more flowery, but overall very similar in pattern. Greens, big and small, all small.

This is like a buff with a red Fort Belvedere. These here have these little paisleys. They could be micro patterns, so they could be in either category. Just put it in paisley here because we have a lot of micro patterns already.

Interesting kind of colors. This could be a wintery color, too, but I feel like I might even wear it in the summer. This is definitely more of a summery with a brown color.

Here, this is this kind of buff tone. It’s very an English tone. You find it on a waistcoat sometimes. I think it’s great for neckties. But, overall, you see blues, reds, and buffs; that’s a typical color palette of paisley ties.

Micropatterned Ties

So, now, it’s time to look at the largest single section of my tie collection, which are all-season micro patterns. So, micro patterns are a favorite of mine because they’re extremely versatile. I can wear them with a striped suit, with a tweed jacket, with a solid blazer, with a textured something.

They typically work well with striped shirts, solid shirts, or patterned shirts. They’re not overly bold – like maybe a really strong paisley – and they’re more interesting and have more colors than a plain solid. Because they have more colors, again, they’re much easier to combine, so they make for really great travel ties.

We just try to spread things out a little bit here to give you a good idea. There’s like all sorts of blues, polka dots, interesting ties. This was a Drake’s tie.

Again, I have all sorts of high-end brands, no-name ties, in the middle. This is like Brooks Brothers. Yeah, these are like Petronius, Fort Belvedere, all sorts of stuff. There’s Polo Ralph Lauren.

You can see little dots, then you have patterns that are rotating from one another. This is a bit more of a textured, small pattern like nice brown with an old pink-blue tones that would have worked my outfit today. Kind of these like light-ish brown.

This is a bow tie-necktie. Very unusual. Brown and blue. Kind of reddish and blue. All kinds of blue. Interesting here, you can see this is a Fort Belvedere. You know Macclesfield neats tie. It’s very classic. And you can see this one is an old one. It’s slightly darker, but you can see the pattern is exactly the same.

Dragged woven. You see most of them are printed, some of them are woven like this one here – the polka dot. This one is cool – larger medallion, smaller rotating diamonds from Fort Belvedere. Interesting shades of blue.

Another Fort Belvedere tie. Fort Belvedere madder silk. Fort Belvedere. Vintage ones with green, green and reds, kind of olive green, woven with a lighthouse, and another really cool shade of green. I think it’s a Robert Talbott. I like it with a bronze, red, and blue. Really nice.

Color-wise, from blue, we can move on to purple. Now, if you look over here, we have a green one. We forgot that one earlier. Here’s like purple and blue. Then, here, it’s interesting you can see this is the same pattern and, when it comes to printing, different batches will never 100% look the same.

Here are these kind of dirty pinks, which are really nice. Kind of… Not very bold, but still very interesting in my mind. Kind of a pinkish…

This one is kind of cool. It’s kind of this blue and red, but it’s actually purple. If you look at it, it’s very special here. It has a little coral and it’s a little like secret compartment in the back. Then, here, kind of this printhead on a woven back.

This is a Polo Ralph Lauren. Other purples. Kind of mix of purple and red. You know, English, Italian jacquard silk. Blue and red going over into red. We saw this before and, again, you can, you know, put it with a paisley; put it with a micro pattern.

You can see there’s more kind of shades of red. All sorts of red and blue. Right there’s a lot of red and blue.

This is a Fort Belvedere here. You can see here, too, this was a batch that was off-color. But, this was super orange. This was much more red. Red and blue, red and blue.

Then, up here, we’ll have – I just didn’t have enough space – this is what I like quite a lot. What is that? Vintage something? No name. Really beautiful reds. This is a Fort Belvedere orange-red. This is kind of this dusty orangey.

This is more modern, a little more bright. This one is a vintage tie. This one, I think, is really cool. It’s kind of this unusual matte with the green.

What is it? The Venanzi tie, Polo Ralph Lauren, brownish tones, kind of cream beige, off-white, almost buff with the red, browns, and blues. Kind of yellowish, medallion pattern. Very classic – like English-inspired. Softer silk.

This one is really nice – Fort Belvedere. I like the buff with the blue and the red and the orange. Very easy to combine.

This one is that kind of madder’s touch. And this one was like red and blue. We just forgot previously. But, yeah, so you can see lots of micro-patterned ties for me.

Striped Ties

Now, let’s talk about striped, all-season ties. When it comes to stripe ties, there are two things to consider. Typically, a European tie has these stripes go towards the heart, which means up on the left. On the other hand, an American tie typically goes up to the right, to your right shoulder.

So, this is probably gonna be, yes, a Robert Talbott tie – American tie. This is a blue ties – Como. Como’s in Italy. Here, this one is Hermes. European goes to the heart.

Now, these ties here are Fort Belvedere. We’re an American brand, but we like the European heritage so we stripe it towards the heart like the European ties. But, generally, it’s very, very accurate to look at it that way. So, here, we have a blue ties, navy ties, stripes with symbols, woven in.

Stripes are typically woven and not printed. You’ll see that they’re almost exclusively woven. Here’s an interesting one – kind of a little more shiny, brighter colors.

Block stripes. This is the Fort Belvedere shantung – here with blue and red. How it comes through – kind of really cool. This is the Fort Belvedere like wool mohair grenadine.

I mean, all these colors… just a typical like stripe silk. So, you can see… all American, right? They’re all going to be American. Yeah, Brooks Brothers and stuff. It’s all going to be American based on the directions of the stripe. And here, this is interesting.

This is a tie from my school, my alma mater. Interestingly, yeah, it’s it’s a rather low-quality tie. I should probably reach out to them and say, “Hey, what would you think if an alumni of your law school made the tie? It would make for a good story.” Oh, I guess so. We’ll see.

Otherwise, bold stripe, jacquard stripes, matte, more shiny. I think this is an old Hermes stripe here with a kind of dotted stripe.

Yep. Old Hermes, Robert Stock, Robert Stock. It’s this one – old Robert Talbott. Yeah, old kind of American ties. This is cool – kind of this brownish with a gold stripe.

This was an old Fort Belvedere stripe. This is a Fort Belvedere shantung stripe with those knobs; makes it more casual looking, adds more texture. But, we finish it with a silicon – very soft hands. It’s very comfortable to wear – very classic like green, navy ones.

Yeah. This one was a stripe, I think, I once designed. I have quite a few stripe ties. I don’t love them. I don’t think they’re as versatile. They work with solid colors but, when you have a striped garment, it’s too much typically. Not saying you can’t do it, but it’s a personal preference, I guess.

5. Crazy Ties

SRS: Last but not least, there is some crazy ties and ties I don’t wear.

But, also, sometimes, men who are maybe about to retire send us their tie collections. And so, I keep ties that are, you know, different, unique, but it’s not necessarily something I would wear.

For example, look at this bold pattern here with brown and orange. Not really to my taste.

This flowery tie is really bold. This is more like of a 90s-inspired tie. Here is mainly for like railroad collectors. I don’t… but I don’t like the steam trains on my tie.

Here, just like sea horses, old-world motifs. Very shiny silk satin tie – maybe something for “What Not to Wear”. These bold prints, pheasants.

Look at this. I mean, this is technically a stripe, but it’s really overloaded. Maybe for a 70s party. Here is like a very kind of, you know, Hyannis, Salem, Rockport, Nantucket, and so forth. Very kind of preppy, waspy tie.

Then, this one is just like super bold and loud. Just too much for my taste. This one is a cotton tie from England – probably 70s.

So, yeah, if you have ties that you don’t need anymore, that you don’t want anymore, send them over. We keep it. Maybe one day, we can have a museum exhibition with ties from different decades, and it would be really cool – especially vintage ties, you know, before the 1900s or early-20th century or even like loud, bold stuff. Please contact us and let’s see we can figure something out.

Another big question: how many ties are in the collection?

Of course, it’s always growing. Whether I find new ones, we’ll get new ones for Fort Belvedere so they come and are added to the collection. But, frankly, I haven’t counted it and maybe I’ll have to do it. Just guess in the comments and tell me how many ties you think I have. One, two, three, four, five…

What’s your favorite tie from my collection? Do you have the same items in your wardrobe? Share your answers in the comments section!