Friday 19 April 2013

So - let the bun fight commence!

Now the new Tenth Doctor tie is positively identified, the rush is on the grab the available stock before they sell out.

This is very much a phnonom of the past few years, and was something that never seemed to happen while David Tennant was in the role.
No-one paid much attention to The Doctors ties - it was all Rose Tyler jackets and jeans. It wasn’t really until the Bonhams auction that any of the labels were really widely known, and that was well after Matt Smith took over the role.

Around that time we had the ID on the Eleventh Doctor's Paul Smith shirt; TopMan jeans; and All Saints Layer Boots, the later of which were highly prised at the time.

So to now see the mad rush over a Tennant tie seems out of place!

But who can resist? If you’re a big Ten fan, and there’s a tie sitting in your local branch of Debenhams - you’re gonna want it, especially if its only £14!

So yes, I’ve got sucked into this frenzy of tie hunting, and yesterday spent a fair part of my time traveling around the stores within striking distance of where I live.

I happened to be near Hemel Hempstead first thing in the morning, so was waiting outside their doors at 9am like some sad bargain hunter in the sales!

I didn’t have too much time, so I quickly found the menswear department and their substantial tie display.

Scanning through all the ties is like reading my Tie Index, with Thomas Nash, Rocha John Rocha and finally St George by Duffer.

And sure enough, there it was.
It’s funny to see the tie on the rack just waiting to be picked up.

Of all the ties on sale, this is the only one that conforms to Louise Page’s criteria for a tie to go with the brown suit. To be appropriate it must be mainly dark brown, with a pattern or accent in light or sky blue.

Moving on I took a train into London and first went to the Westfield shopping centre at Shepherds Bush.

Their tie display was hidden out of sight behind a wall, so took me a moment or two to find!

Again it came up trumps, but this time only one of the screen accurate ties was on the rack.

If you look in the photo (above) you might be able to see it on the bottom rack, about centre.

I nabbed the tie and moved on to Debenhams flagship store on London’s Oxford Street.

The store is going though some MAJOR renovations with only one of the three escalators working, so finding my way down the the menswear in the basement was a challenge! It proved a bit fruitless as there were none of the screen accurate ties on the shelves at all. I guess some Ten cosplayers has been here before me. Good lads!

From here I headed north to Harrow, which has a shopping centre I used to visit a lot in my youth when I lived in the borough.

This was to be my last store visit today and proved to be rewarding, with three of the screen accurate ties just waiting for me to buy them.

As you may work out, I have a tie for myself and a few spares. If you are having difficultly obtaining a tie, let me know as I might be able to help out.
Please mail me at
tennantcoat@me.com 

3 comments:

  1. I was in Debenhams (Oxford Street) yesterday lunchtime buying some new shirts and I'm pretty sure I saw a rack of these ties on the shelf (just beyond the shoes on the right). I know there's some debate about which ties are which (as there are a couple on the Debenhams website). What are the main differences between the 'St George' ties that are available?

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  2. thin with tie loop 7cm at the widest point, tie lining is plain blue
    thick with blue loop 8cm at the widest, tie lining is flowery blue

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    1. You can see a full side-by-side comparison between the two version of the tie here: http://tennantsuit.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/st-george-by-duffer-tie-definitive.html

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