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The Dark Knot official affiliate thread - Affordable Luxury neckties

Dark Knot

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Brand Overview
The Dark Knot (http://www.thedarkknot.com) carries 100% handmade silk ties that encapsulate the finest quality along with the full customer experience. Our collection of ties spans over 100 unique designs, each hand made from high quality silk and interlined with a double layer of wool and cotton to ensure that perfect, dimple infused knot everytime.

Our ties span across a range of designs, over both woven and printed silk, including: Solids, Stripes, Neats, Abstracts, Plaid, Dots, Squares and Animal Prints.

At The Dark Knot, we pride ourselves on delivering an extremely high value product at an affordable price. As cliché as that sounds, we have combed through every detail with intricate attention, and are truly excited at the prospect of bringing you The Standard Line, Luxury Line (Haute Collection) and Premium Line (The Edition Collection) at $45, $59 and $75 respectively, with free shipping included.

So what is it that makes our ties unique?
  1. We have over 100 designs across both woven and printed silk, spanning patterns including: Solids, Stripes, Neats, Abstracts, Plaid, Dots, Squares and Animal Prints
  2. All of our neckties are 100% silk handmade, with silk tipping, and interlined with a double layer of wool and cotton, resulting in high quality feel
  3. With customer focus at the forefront of your philosophy, we have a card that comes with each purchase with matching recommendations for suits and shirts
  4. All of our ties come with two tie clips that slide through the reverse side of your tie and fasten to two shirt buttons, thereby helping to keep your tie firmly in place
  5. Our neckties come in elegant, rich packaging, that makes for the perfect gift item.




















Concept backdrop: I remember navigating around both online and offline establishments in the search for that value proposition: a high quality necktie at an affordable price. Sure, there were plenty of high quality neckties out there, at absurd prices! And while there has been a proliferation of low cost sellers in the e-commerce space, I couldn’t find a concept that bridged the two. In the rare instance that there is a higher quality product out there, at a reasonable price, how extensive is their range. How well packaged are they? To put it simply, there wasn’t a brand out there selling really luxurious ties, in a wide assortment of colors and styles, that was affordable. And to top it off, the transaction ended where it ended. Once I bought a tie, what would I wear it with? Layering clothing for men is probably one of the things that leaves us most befuddled. We’ve been used to treating fashion as function for so long, that the concept of trying to maximize our combinations of colors and textures across vast spectrums often leaves us utterly confused. I wanted to blend everything together.

In 2012, I started extensively researching the makings of a finely constructed tie. From the interlining, to the stitching, the tipping, the quality of the silks used and the ingredients necessary to give you the perfect knot, I conceptualized the idea for our brand name. The Dark Knot. Having extensively researched the market place to figure out what designs sold, what price points worked and what generally seems like the best value for money, without sacrificing quality, I can now confidently say that I am bringing you a fantastic product at a great price.

To the end that we have wanted to create a product that helps men dress more stylistically, we have created a beautifully packaged necktie experience that will satisfy even the most demanding neckwear connoisseur. Each of our ties comes elegantly packaged in a gift-like black box, with one essential element – each tie comes with a card with recommendations for matching suits and shirts. Hence, helping our customers dress more stylistically.

  • All of our ties are hand made from 100% high yarn count silk
  • All of our ties are interlined with a double layer of wool and cotton, resulting in an elegant, rich thick knot that is sure to make an impression
  • All of our ties are tipped with silk
  • All of our labels have been sewn in through the seams, resulting in reinforced labels and keepers (for the skinny end of the tie to slide through), that will remain in place for years to come
  • All of our ties come with a reinforced bar tac stitch, further enhancing the construction quality of our ties
  • All of our ties come in two lengths, 58 inches (for men up to 6’1) and 63 inches (recommended for men 6’1 and over).



Quality Control
Our desire to create a product that would not only be suitable to people’s tastes, but stand the test of time, required 12 months of prototyping and working through three different factories until we landed on one who we believe is an ideal partner, on the fourth.

Given that we are based out of Hong Kong and that our production partners are in China, we now make frequent visits for design incorporation, assessment of new technological methods for pattern cutting and weaving that are in conjunction with the hand stitching of the actual neckties, fabric weaving inspections and product quality inspections. As such, we can confidently say that we are bringing you product that has gone through the most stringent of quality controls from both our regular supply-side visits in addition to stringent production manager controls at the factory floor level.

Below are images of myself conducting rigorous quality control on the actual factory floor. Believe me when I say I had plenty of Chinese women giving me odd looks as I have sat there, meticulously working my way through a massive production run, ensuring that defects were as minimal as possible!







I thank you for having read this far. I know this is a long winded introduction to our brand, but we have put alot of research and effort into developing our line, and wanted to share our story with you. I would love to hear your feedback and any questions / suggestions that you may have!

Given that the user base at Style Forum consists of gentlemen that aspire to dress better, I really do believe that our brand will resonate with all of you. Thank you for having read through this once again.

I would like to end this current post by posting a video review of our brand by men's wear fashion blogger Antonio Centeno with Real Men Real Style:




Regards,



Rishi Chullani

The Dark Knot
 
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Dark Knot

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Here are pictures of our various collections:

Abstracts



Animal Prints



Solids


Stripes


Luxury Line 'The Haute Collection'


Premium Line 'The Edition Collection'
 

Murlsquirl

The Moral Squirrel
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Welcome to the forum. Best of luck!
 

Dark Knot

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Matching Ties to a Checkered Shirt

Here at The Dark Knot, a strong component of our brand philosophy is geared towards helping gentlemen dress better. Given the increased popularity of checkered shirts in recent years, I thought it would be relevant to create a post regarding mixing and matching of ties to a checkered shirt.

As is generally the case in general with matching ties to suits and shirts, matching ties to a checkered shirt involves seeking out two specific elements:

(1) A color scheme that suits your preferences for matching your tie to your shirt. As a general guide, a color wheel is extremely useful in discerning which color scheme you would like to adopt to accentuate your preferred look.


























Complimentary colors are directly across from each other on the color wheel and provide the strongest contrast i.e orange and blue, red and green, and yellow and purple. Triadic color schemes involve choosing colors that are equally spaced apart on the color wheel and that form a triangle. Triadic color schemes provide less direct contrast than a complimentary color scheme, but still provide balance. For best effect, allow one color to dominate the other two (e.g blue, red and yellow, with blue being the dominant color)

As is generally the case with matching ties to a shirt, having the predominant color of your tie match a secondary color of your shirt, or vice versa, will create a color coordinated, harmonious aesthetic.

(2) Pattern Selection When selecting a matching tie to go against a checkered shirt, ideally you want to choose a pattern that is contrasting both in style and proportion for greatest aesthetic enhancement. So for a smaller (graph or gingham checkered shirt), you could choose a widely spaced striped tie.

Personally, I prefer dotted designs or wider spaced abstracts / floral patterns to go against smaller, checkered shirts, as they break up the lines of the checkered pattern, and provide a strong visual contrast with the difference in both spacing and style of pattern. Conversely, I prefer narrower spaced dotted and abstract designs against a window pane or larger spaced checkered shirt, as they provide a striking visual aesthetic.


A wider striped tie sits well against a small graph checkered shirt





A wider spaced dotted design sits perfectly against a graph checkered shirt!



A smaller dotted navy with yellow design contrasts beautifully with a yellow windowpane checkered shirt!

Please let me know if you have any comments, questions or suggestions regarding the mixing and matching of ties to your suits and shirts!
 

Dark Knot

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Ties for Spring Season

Here are some of our favorite ties at The Dark Knot for the upcoming Spring Season!

Dartmouth Abstract Blue

Brookfield Abstract Lilac

Brookline Plaid Blue
 

Gauss17

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Welcome to the forum Dark Knot. After perusing you website, I noticed all your ties are offered at 3.25" at varying lengths, which is appreciated by us taller gentlemen. Would it be possible to custom order ties at a different widths? Say 3.5" or is that not possible?
 

Dark Knot

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Thank you for having perused through our site Gauss17. We currently do not offer custom made ties as a service, but can look into providing 3.5 inch width ties to the market in the future.
Are there any specific type of designs and colors that you would be interested in for this specific width?
 

Gauss17

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Thank you for having perused through our site Gauss17.  We currently do not offer custom made ties as a service, but can look into providing 3.5 inch width ties to the market in the future.  
Are there any specific type of designs and colors that you would be interested in for this specific width?


I suspect most many members of this board and general public would be happy with 3.25 width, but I must admit as a bigger guy, I tend to favor somewhat wider ties.

I'm always happy to entertain a good dark red/burgundy and deep navy with pattern. On your site, the two that caught my eye were the Foxborough Red - Wine and the Berkshire Abstract - Navy/Turquoise.

It is difficult for me to determine a few aspects of your tie construction. First, it appears to use both a cotton and wool interlining for the ties, which is nice as I am always happy to see a tie with a solid 100% wool interlining. Second, would I be correct in assuming most of your ties are 3-fold construction with interlining? I cannot find the language on your website.
 
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Dark Knot

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Matching ties to your suits and shirts

While matching ties to your suits and shirts can be exhilarating for many, for others, it can be a cumbersome process. A large part of why I founded The Dark Knot was to help men dress better by largely helping them avoid the confusion regarding mixing and matching of clothes. Please view our online store, where a filter on the left hand side allows one to choose ties based on matching suits and shirts!! (bottom of the filter).

http://www.thedarkknot.com/collections/all
 

Dark Knot

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I suspect most many members of this board and general public would be happy with 3.25 width, but I must admit as a bigger guy, I tend to favor somewhat wider ties.

I'm always happy to entertain a good dark red/burgundy and deep navy with pattern. On your site, the two that caught my eye were the Foxborough Red - Wine and the Berkshire Abstract - Navy/Turquoise.

It is difficult for me to determine a few aspects of your tie construction. First, it appears to use both a cotton and wool interlining for the ties, which is nice as I am always happy to see a tie with a solid 100% wool interlining. Second, would I be correct in assuming most of your ties are 3-fold construction with interlining? I cannot find the language on your website.
Dear Gauss17,

Yes, our ties are constructed with a double interlining layer of 100% wool plus cotton, resulting in a solid interlining that gives you a rich, thick knot.

Our ties are all handmade and are made from a 3 fold construction, with interlining. Furthermore, our ties are even tipped with silk, and are label and keeper and sewn into the seams, giving them a reinforced finish that will ensure that your tie remains intact for a long time!

Thanks again for your questions. Really appreciate it.
 
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Dark Knot

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