Ties: Evolution of the Duke

Today is a great day at Duke & Winston as we have taken a step closer to building the type of brand we envisioned in those early & rough basement living days circa 2009. 

Back then, I was putting out the very first line of ultra graphic tees. But, what I really wanted was the line to be focused on...ties, button downs, jackets and so on. I was living on a couch in a buddy's dank, disgusting basement with The Duke taking up most of the couch (very true story). After spending the few thousand dollars I had left to my name with only 4 t-shirt designs, I had no idea how I was going to get from there to what I imagined the line to be.

After 3 straight years of the most intense one man–and dog–hustling ever, I moved out of the basement, built up a decent collection around the graphics, opened a small store, put together a small, but awesomely dedicated, team and have now added the next piece in realizing that dream of turning this into a solid cut & sew brand; introducing our super amazing, 100% made in New York City, line of Signature Ties:




We wanted to start out with something unique and in a fairly crowded market of ties, what could be more unique than our awesome logo on high quality, handmade ties? We even went the extra mile and ordered purple fabric from a factory in England to line the ties–thus, continuing the trend of adding purple detailing to our products. 

On a side note, we ran into a little issue because our manufacturer only works with black or white lining. We literally stopped production for 3 weeks so that we could found the right purple fabric. We did this move on our own because it had to be done. The manufacturer wasn't too happy about it but there was no way we were going to launch these ties without our signature purple touch. This attention to detail and the lengths we've gone to get things done is what, we hope, sets us apart  from other brands.

Hope you're all as excited about the ties and growth of the brand as we are and as always, we'd love to hear your thoughts on everything.


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