Old School Ties On Fifth Av.

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31987, 14 May 1969, Page 6

Old School Ties On Fifth Av.

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LONDON.

More English school ties probably can be seen on New York’s Fifth Avenue than on any street in London, according to Alan Comfort, chairman of Britain’s Tie Manufacturers’ Association.

Even Afghanistan has joined the world-wide demand, which has boosted exports by 16 per cent over the last three years, Mr Comfort said.

But while foreigners, can wear these symbols of the British upper class with impunity, it remains “very

bad form” for an, Enjlishman to don a school or regimental tie to which he Is not entitled. Mr Frank Rendell, the governing director of one of London's oldest high-class tie and shirt makers, noted that an Englishman can run into danger when he Wears the stripes of a school be wishes.he had gone to. “Men who really went to the school are likely to stop him and ask him which house he was in,” said Mr Rendell. He added: “We can usually tell immediately whether a man is, say, an old Etonian. If he isn’t, we refuse to sell him the tie—except to Americans and people like that, who promise not to wear It in this country.” Mr Rendell said he had known genuine old Etonians who, when replacing a wornout school tie, had asked him to destroy the old one, “in .' case some newspaper sales' man down the road finds it and starts wearing it.” People who go into Rendell’s and say they “like the look of that black tie with the blue stripes in the window” are gently steered towards the trays of nonschool ties. And when a customer asks for the crested Marylebone Cricket Club (M.C.C.) tie, Rendell's cheeks with Lord’s before it is sold to him. But not all the "school” and “regimental" ties sold overseas are what they seem* Mr Rendell revealed. “Many of them are stripes woven on repp in the style of an old school tie, but not any particular school,” he said.