As he was a master of geometric design so pleasing to the eye, it's hardly a wonder that Frank Lloyd Wright ties are one of the many popular items people can buy that bear his mark. A tie is considerably less expensive than a house, and a lot more available.
The Wright Influence
Considered one of the greatest American architects, Frank Lloyd Wright was an innovator whose career spanned seventy years beginning in the late 19th century. He believed that architecture and design should be organic and work with nature, rather than against it. His designs had a bold, exciting quality that embraced light and space.
Ties based on Wright's designs draw their influence directly from some of his work. They are 100% silk and come in an array of beautiful colors and patterns. Even for those who are unfamiliar with Wright's work, they are desirable, simply for being a striking tie that any fashionable man would be proud to wear. While they are distinctive, and even arresting, they echo the Wright philosophy of not being overwhelming. A Frank Lloyd Wright tie can be worn anywhere from a smart casual event to the most conservative professional environment and fit right in.
Shopping for Frank Lloyd Wright Ties
There are a number of sources available to buy officially licensed ties featuring Frank Lloyd Wright designs. The best is the Frank Lloyd Wright Official Site, which carries all thirty-one ties. Each one ships in a gift box. Some of the designs you can choose from include:
- Confetti Tie, based on the Coonley art glass "Confetti and Balloon" window. It has a blue background with an art deco pattern of squares and balloons in purple, yellow, red and dark blue.
- Eclipse Circle tie, adapted from a carpet design for the Max Hoffman house in 1955. It comes in either navy blue or red.
- Frieze tie is based on Wright's custom cast concrete blocks and comes in three different color patterns.
- The Guggenheim Gate tie will be instantly familiar to anyone who has been to the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Its pattern of circles and squares is adapted from Wright's design of the museum's exterior gates. The tie comes in four color patterns.
- House Beautiful, in five different colors, is adapted from the design created for the F.C. Schumacher & Co. 1955 "Taliesin Line" of fabrics.
- Johnson Wax Work Station comes in four colors and is based on the desk and chair designed for SC Johnson and Son Administration Building circa 1936-39.
- Prairie Sumac comes in three colors and is adapted from a window design from the Susan Lawrence Dana House in Springfield, IL, circa 1902-1904.
- Saguaro tie's distinctive box design is adapted from Wright's unpublished Liberty Magazine cover design "Saguaro Forms and Cactus Flowers" in 1926. It comes in four colors.
- Tree of Life, in three colors, is based on an art glass window in the Darwin D. Martin house in Buffalo, NY, circa 1903-1905.
- Woven Sconce tie is derived from a light fixture seen in three of Wright's most famous Prairie homes: the Robie, Coonley and May houses, all built between 1906 and 1910.
Other Tie Sources
You can also buy any of these ties at a number of museum shops or shops specializing in architecture and design history. The shop of the Art Institute of Chicago sells them, as does the Guggenheim. They are all the same reasonable price; the only difference might be in shipping cost.
The ties are a great gift for anyone with a passing interest in architecture and design - or just a stylish man who likes a really cool tie!
