TIE BY RUE ST DENIS, CIRCA 1980S

Polyester
Approx 2.25" at widest point

These ties are a prime example of Rue St Denis' ability to find remarkably unique textiles and prints produced within a given period. The narrow 1980s silhouette is a trademark of how ties slimmed down from the wide silhouette of the 1970s, yet the refinement of the zigzag pattern is that of an actual op-art painting, and the dot pattern exists out of time entirely, harkening back to classic 1950s and 60s motifs.

Legendary dead stock clothier Rue St. Denis was opened in 1990 by Jean-Paul Buthier and Riccardo Bonechi on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, later relocating to the East Village where it operated until closing in 2018. Rue St. Denis became highly influential for reinventing widely held conceptions of vintage as simply period costume. They pioneered new forms of style through conflating seemingly disparate and often overlooked designers, aesthetics, and moments in postwar industrially produced fashion. Buthier’s visionary, idiosyncratic approach as a garment buyer filtered through the experience created by Bonechi as the art director and public-facing proprietor of the brick and mortar store yielded a retail institution which remains unprecedented.