Don Kowalewski
Writer. Ad Sales and Marketing. Social Media Content Creator. Aeropress Coffee. Makes the best salsa in the world.
Things I’m Doing: 44 Days of Ties (Day 8)
I’m 39. There! I said it. So when “skinny ties” made a comeback, I bought one and ya know what? I felt silly. I felt like an old guy trying to dress like a young guy. It wasn’t working so it was the first and last “skinny tie” I owned. But I’ve broken it out for ’44 Days of Ties’. You won’t be surprised that today’s shirt and tie, again, are from Express.
This tie has pastel tones of pink, aqua, blue, and green and I call it my “Easter Tie” because it looks like colors you might paint Easter Eggs.
Since it’s a “skinny tie” which makes me an “aging hipster” for even wearing it, I went full-on hipster today dressing in clothing 1-size too small for me. That’s a total hipster move. If I was 15 pounds lighter, my J. Crew pinstripe grey chinos and my Express 1MX Fitted dress shirt would look great. But, like any good hipster knows, dressing in clothes just slightly too small for your body and weight is a good look.
It’s grey and rainy on Woodward, today, so not many classic cars are out like they usually are on a nice, sunny morning the week of the Woodward Dream Cruise. I waited and waited to try and snap a tie picture with a classic car cruising by, but no luck. So instead you get to see Fred’s Barber Shop which looks like it’s been there forever. I give Fred credit for staying in business …Woodward, just south of Birmingham, is a high rent district, so a cash business selling haircuts for $15 (I’m guessing) must be hanging onto the business by its fingernails (I’m also guessing on that, I have no idea how good or bad his haircut business does). I’ve never been in there. As I’ve mentioned, I frequent The Barber Pole in downtown Birmingham and this months haircut is scheduled for Thursday.
What tie should I wear for the occasion of a fresh haircut? So much to think about.
See you tomorrow.
Things I’m Doing: 44 Days of Ties (Day 7)
You’ve heard of “mental floss” …well, consider this (and my “44 Days of Ties” project) “writing floss.” Or, call it the “writer plunger” or “blog Draino” or whatever term you’d use to describe a task that’s just a warm-up for other stuff you have to do. I write about my ties usually moments before writing about new-home construction, pop-culture, or sales and motivation.
Today’s tie is not from Express. Rather, it’s Kenneth Cole and I’m pretty sure it was bought for me from Nordstrom. Back when I had a pink dress shirt, this tie went with pink, but it also went with a coffee-brown shirt I had in my repertoire, and with this other salmon colored shirt. Today I’ve paired it with a casual dress shirt from Express (always something from Express, I guess).
In the background is Woodward Avenue and I’ll be taking as many tie pictures as I can on Woodward this week because it’s Dream Cruise week. I love Dream Cruise week. I think it’s such a celebration of the industry that built this city we call Motown and I can’t understand why some people hate it so much. I’ll admit, if I lived along Woodward, it might be annoying not being able to take my normal routes home and hearing big engines revving all night, and smelling gas and burning rubber. But it’s only once a year, and it’s a celebration of our Detroit heritage. Without all those cars and the world’s love affair with cars (a “love affair” our ad agencies and marketing firms convinced them they all should have), Detroit wouldn’t be Detroit.
I shouldn’t care why people hate it, but it bothers me how people (Americans) so easily discard or minimize important parts of our history. Maybe it’s our “independent spirit” that makes it difficult for some to just “go with it.” I was struck last night watching the closing ceremonies of the Olympics how Great Britain seems to just “go with it” and if something is British, well it must be awesome and worth celebrating because, well, it’s British. Mind you, I’ve never been to Great Britain and maybe there’s a huge portion of the population that hates One Direction and can’t stand the Royals, or are disgusted by The Spice Girls and it sickened them to see the girls of spice get the big closing number. But I don’t get that feeling …I get the feeling they love it because it’s British, and that’s good enough.
In contrast, we have the Super Bowl and when we put Britney Spears up there, music purists and non-fans, 80% of the population, squawk and bitch and moan and hate. Hey …she sucks, but she’s our dysfunctional, untalented, white-trash mega-star …so step off. She represents the American dream.
Which brings me back to the Woodward Dream Cruise. Yes, it’s loud, and smelly …it guzzles gas …at times it’s a representation of greed sacrificing style for the happiness of Wall Street investors …it’s demise can lead to a conversation on how Union labor ruined our manufacturing base. Yes, it’s all those things. But those are our things and when everyone outside of the Great Lakes region turned their back on Detroit, we needed to stick together and we’re united by these Big 3. I love that, and hence, I love the Dream Cruise.
Wow. And here I was only going to talk briefly about my tie.
Things I’m Doing: 44 Days of Ties (Day 6)
It was a busy day, but not too busy to stop in front of The Barber Pole in Birmingham, MI, where I get my hair cut, and snap a picture of my tie and a landmark. Yet another Express brand tie and Express brand shirt (don’t worry …I have a Nautica tie in the queue for Monday). This Express tie is a bit special …it was from their Express Design Studio, which I can’t seem to find anymore, so it must’ve been some “new phase” launched by some young fashion designer and my guess is, that fashion designer and marketing person (team) is/are loooooong gone. I imagine everyone sitting around a board room thinking up ways to tap into the “executive” segment of tie buyers and someone suggested “high-end suits and ties …and dress shirts” and everyone applauded and they put big resources behind the “Design Studio” concept and then …it fizzled.
When next they had a board meeting they had to look at the horrible performance of their “Design Studio” initiative and how it pretty much hemoraged money and some senior marketing guy had to admit Express had no business trying to capture the Men 35+ and they were going back to focusing on their core consumer …the young man in his 20s who wears ties as a shtick, but not for business. He also quite likely said good things about “Farnsworth and his team” and said, “they’ve agreed to move on and we wish them the best.”
I hope, somewhere, Farnsworth and his team are a little happier right now seeing one of their “Express Design Studio” ties being talked about and worn by a man of 39.
The tie is grey/silver with blue and grey spots and I paired it with a light blue dress shirt and dark grey slacks. This tie is wonderful …definitely one of my favorites. It really goes well with two of my suits, and sadly I don’t get much opportunity to wear those anymore, either.
Oh, and I have my first disciple in the “44 Days of Ties” movement …my cousin Kyle, who’s helping me class up American by also wearing a tie-a-day. Who’s with us?
We’re standing by! We wear a tie! Get used to it! Have a great weekend.
Things I’m Doing: 44 Days of Ties (Day 5)
“44 Days of Ties” rolls on with another shirt-tie combo from Express. I’m thinking I should reach out to them and see if they’ll sponsor my “44 Days of Ties” project. Today’s tie is burgundy with diagonal stripes which, if you look closely, are a bunch of rectangles, each a different shade of blue and blue-gray. It makes this tie VERY versatile and it can be worn with blue shirts, white shirts, dark colored suits, or a light-grey suit. And like all my Express ties, it forms a Windsor knot and dimple very easily.
In the background, you’ll notice a “C” which is outside one of my favorite locally owned coffee shops and eateries …Commonwealth. Located in Birmingham, they roast their beans on-site, daily, and brew each cup of coffee at 201* using a pour-through method. It’s pretty cool …I should post a picture for people not familiar with this method …the coffee drips into a beaker, like in a science lab, and then they pour it into a cup for your consumption (it’s in the video below). It’s very showy and a single cup of coffee can cost from $3 up to $8 (for the AMAZING Columbian they have), but it’s cool …and tastes fantastic. And it’s a really cool place to eat breakfast …I always order their Breakfast Burrito or Common Breakfast. They even serve water in such a way you would swear the water is also better at Commonwealth.
And I once sat at a table right next to Steve Yzerman and his family.
Looks like I have about a dozen people really into my ties, and my cousin Kyle is joining the movement.
And people say blogging is a waste of time. Puh! That’s all I got for today …see you tomorrow where I go “silver.”
Things I’m Doing: 44 Days of Ties (Day 4)
Today brings us yet another tie offering from Express. Some will say, “only high-school kids and 20-something, bar-going hipsters get ties from Express,” but I say phooey on that. I buy most of my dress shirts from Express. First, I like their color palette, but more than that, I like their no-pocket dress shirts. As a short guy, having a breast pocket on a dress shirt doesn’t always work. On a normal size guy who stands, say, 5’10”, the breast pocket is on the breast. But on me, a guy checking in at a towering 5’5″, the breast pocket usually falls at about the bottom of the rib cage and makes me look shorter than I already am …like I’m wearing my big brothers hand-me-downs. Funny story …I once had a shirt with a breast pocket so low it was nearly tucked into the waist-band of my slacks.
I also like Express shirts because they have different cuts (1MX, Modern Fit, Slim Cut, etc) to match all body types. And they sell ’em 2 for $20 sometimes.
Anyway, this particular shirt-tie combo was bought as a set. The shirt is light blue with thin brown stripes. The tie has brown dots (two shades) on a brown tie. And each dot is outlined in a subtle Royal Blue which, I think, really makes the blue in the shirt (and the blue in my eyes) pop.
Today I tied a Double-Windsor, hence the bigger knot. I like the perfect triangle a Double-Windsor makes and it looks good on days like this when I opt to button the shirt all the way up to the top button.
40 more ties still to come, and I’m going to start paying more attention to the backgrounds for my pictures …so you’ll get ties, a story, and hopefully a landmark or something equally as interesting as my daily tie story. Today’s background is the view out the window of our “team room.” Given that I sit a windowless cube with no sight lines of a window or daylight, I don’t mind meetings.
Things I’m Doing: 44 Days of Ties (Day 3)
You’ll notice there’s been a bit of a hiccup in my Tie-a-Day experiment. Well …that’s because I was on vacation …for a week. And you know who didn’t know I was on vacation? Home invaders and cat burglars, that’s who! Woo hoo! I outsmarted them by NOT taking to my blog and social media and shamelessly telling everyone about my vacation and taking pictures of the sunsets, sunrises, and all other exotic things I was doing while enjoying some R&R in Northern Michigan. Remember, there was that one story about that one person who’s home was robbed while he or she was on vacation, and it was because of their Facebook status messages that thieves knew of his or her absence? Yes, well since then everyone who knows me implores me to tone down the live updates on my Facebook, Twitter, and blog …and Tumblr …and LinkedIn. So, that’s what I did and instead, even though I was away, I’d post random stuff like, “is vacuuming his living room” or “just bumped his elbow on his kitchen chair” or “is sure bored of the same day to day routine of work and stuff” …see? So clever. Burglars were probably, like, “ain’t no way I’m breaking into that dude’s house …he’s sooooo home.”
My secret, however, is that I thoroughly screen all my Facebook friends and Twitter followers via background checks. Sorry, Aunt Margo.
Back to the ties. Yesterday, Tuesday, I was back in my little office cubicle sporting a tie …another solid one-color tie on a pattern shirt. It’s so trendy but know this …it’s the last solid-color tie in my wardrobe. From here on out, you’ll be seeing patterned ties and solid colored shirts.
This solid-light-blue tie is one of my favorites. It’s a hearty stock and ties so easily every single time. Being light blue and a little shiny, it’s only drawback is how quickly it shows a stain or a greasy finger print. I mean, ties were pretty much invented to hide small drips of food and the ugly buttons on a shirt, so a tie that doesn’t hide anything sort of defeats the purpose. But I’m the type of guy who gladly sacrifices fashion over function and I think my first day back to work was a little better because of that fashion sense. Everyone kept saying, “welcome back” and I’m pretty sure they meant, “welcome back, Don’s Tie Project.”
It’s good to be back.
Things I’m Doing: 44 Days of Ties (Day 2)
Day 2 comes at a good time because this particular tie was bought to coordinate with a pink shirt. That pink shirt fell victim to a red wine accident and this pink tie hasnt been worn in over a year. I haven’t replaced the pink shirt because I think the pink shirt trend is nearly over.
This tie has a really cool, old-school paisley pattern that reminds me of all the ties my Polish family members used to wear back in the day to weddings, Christmas and Easter Masses, and any “fancy” occasion. Paisley patterns just seem old Europe to me.
The tie is from Express and is a pretty good quality silk, but it’s dimple resistant. It’s bizarre. For those who don’t know, when you tie a good tie, right in the middle of the tie, just below the knot, there should be a concave wrinkle, called the “dimple.” See Day 1. Or look at the picture at the right I stole from Jim Skeen’s blog. My tie from yesterday makes a dimple super easy.
I think I could’ve fixed it and gotten a dimple if I had tied a Double-Windsor, but a Double-Windsor knot is way too bulky for an open-collar and a casual Friday.
I’m wearing this tie on “casual Friday” and paired it with a white shirt (sleeves rolled up) and beaten-up Levis 559s. I call it the “1980s Stand-Up Comic” look, or the “Presidential Candidate Visits a Factory on the Campaign Trail” look.
2 down, and 42 ties to go. Who’s having fun?
Things I Love: My New Merrells and My Friend Kurt
I hope nobody reads this entry or watches the videos. So there I was, bouncing around Facebook as I’m apt to do, and my sister gets to talking about needing a new pair of running shoes like people sometimes talk about on Facebook. I’m sure I commented something witty under her post when, all of a sudden, my friend Kurt says, “if only you knew someone who worked for Merrell and could get you shoes at cost.”
I knew Kurt was awesome in many ways, but wasn’t aware of his awesomeness in regards to foot apparel. So I comment back, “well, if you could get me a pair of their barefoot running shoes, I’d scream like a teenage girl.” And with that …a deal was made. 10 days later, well …the videos should speak for themselves.
THANK …YOU …KURT!
p.s. My wife thinks this should be a Merrell promotion or ad campaign called something like, “give someone some shoes” and all that person would have to do is scream and show how excited they are. Anyone working for a shoe company who wants me to head up that effort and make it all viral, and social, and stuff …I’m in.
Again …THANK …YOU …KURT! And if you’re wondering, they’re the Merrell Road Glove J38395 …the Merrell barefoot running shoe, and they’re glorious!
The Shoes Arrive
The Shoes Make Me Celebrate
Things I’m Doing: 44 Days of Ties (Day 1)
I’m about to commit to something greater than anything I’ve ever done. Actually, it’s not that great, but you might be entertained. I’m “bringing stuffy back.” Yes …the return of the tie. In 2012 …nobody except lawyers and TV anchors seem to be wearing ties anymore. There was a time when everyone wore ties …always. And if you dared show up to work (at least my work) without a tie, oh… the looks you’d get.
Now I’ve got 44 ties hanging in my closet collecting dust and I feel sorry for those ties. My wife picked many of them and really worked hard to coordinate ties and shirts. Some date back to when my Mom was alive and she really loved buying me shirts and ties. Some are skinny. Some are cheap. Some are, um, 15 years old.
Today, I’m sporting a modified version of the new pattern-shirt-solid-color-tie trend. It’s definitely a pattern-shirt, and nearly a solid-color tie. I figured I could get away with it because if you glance quick or walk by me in the hall, it just looks like a dark green tie. The shirt really isn’t meant to be worn with a tie …but screw it. See, the collar doesn’t have any collar stays, and it’s not a button-down, so it sorta does this crazy flying wing thing.
The tie is a Versa (no, you haven’t heard of it) and it’s a very, very cheap tie. Shirt is from Macy’s. They were not bought together but pair up as part of one of those happy accidents where a tie goes with some shirts you never expected it to. The shirt it came with was light green and I got rid of that shirt two years ago when I lost weight and started to look silly in 16 inch neck shirts.
I know what you’re saying …holy crap, Don will blog about anything. How obnoxious. But I bet you can’t wait until tomorrow. Here’s a teaser …jeans, white shirt, tie …I call it the “80s Stand-Up Comic” look. See you then.
Things I Think: Maybe I’ll Do Something Different Every Day?
Sometimes I think my rambling blog needs at least a little organization, so I was thinking of naming the days …like “Social Media Sunday” and “Motivational Mondays”. That way you can check into my blog when you know I’m hitting on a topic you like. “Me, Me, Me Mondays?” That has a ring.
Try some of these on for size…
“Selfish Sundays”
“Me, Me, Me Mondays”
“Talk About Don Tuesdays”
“Writing Wednesdays”
“Thinking Thursdays”
“Family Fridays”
“Silly Saturdays”
See where I’m going? Like, this past weekend my 9 1/2 year-old swam in her first swim finals and she amazes me, even though at times she frustrates me. She’s combative so while she’s arguing every point and constantly acting like she’s failing and can’t find the strength to do anything or succeed, she actually never really talks herself out of anything. In fact, it’s quite the opposite …to hear her talk, she’s not good at anything, doesn’t really love what she’s doing, and she’s so impatient and hyper, there’s no way she could be achieving great things. But, behind that outward persona, she never misses a dance class, a soccer practice or game, rarely misses school, never skips her homework, and this summer, she was in the pool every day working and swimming. Her two events all season were backstroke and freestyle. Backstroke …eh. I mean, she did improve, but it was more exciting to watch her swim freestyle.
So, she’s been working and working. Her first meet she swam her 50 meter freestyle in 1:04. In the next few meets she burst into the :59-second range, jumped down to the :58-second range, and back up. So before Saturday’s “B Finals”, as they’re called, and coming off four days of flu/fever, we implored her to eat right the night before, go to bed early like coach said, and then wake up and eat right all day. We told her to remember what coach said about a “good start” and technique, and not breathing down the home stretch.
What I’m saying is …my daughter inspires me. She inspires me because she’s honest to a fault, kind (including 80% of the time to her siblings), and she works hard even though there are tears and arguments all along the way. But she never stops.
So, here, is why I’m so proud of her and why she inspires me …her final swim of the 2012 season …:57-seconds. That’s my girl in the swim lane closest to the camera. And I’m sorry …I don’t know why I shot it in portrait mode. Oh, and I don’t know who that crazy lady screaming my daughter’s name was, but let’s just say, when my daughter made the turn at 28-seconds, the crazy screaming lady and I both knew she could turn in her best time of the year and give herself a nice reward for all her hard work.
We’ll call today “Triumphant Tuesdays”. I like that.
Don Kowalewski 