Tie of the Dublin's Trinity College
Ha! You thought you’ve got rid of me! Not this time. I had unusually busy two weeks. Went through the process of changing the workplace and training program. But here it is. The next Tie Authority post. More late than ever. But I’ll do my best to publish regularly again.
About two years ago I was doing an Irish road trip with my friends. And we obviously visited Dublin and its university. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to visit the university’s library, which, as far as I know, is magnificent, but I had just enough time to run through the gift shop and grab one of the ties.
But first, some history; Trinity College is the only college of Dublin University and was founded 1592. The College and the Dublin’s University are basically synonymous Its full name is The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin. Among the alumni of the university are, among others: Douglas Hyde – the first President of Ireland, an activist for Irish language and culture, Samuel Beckett – Nobel Prize laureate in Literature, author of "Waiting for Godot," Ernest Walton – Nobel Prize laureate in Physics for conducting the first artificial nuclear reaction. And currently the university is in the 301-400 bracket of Shanghai Ranking.
Today’s necktie is black silk grenadine with stripes in blue (spindle blue, perhaps), red and green. In general, it’s a typical regimental tie, but I was surprised to see how dark and monochrome it looks, especially from a distance. I was also curious how universal will it feel, considering the black color. And to be honest I wear it very, very rarely. The color combination, at least to me, is difficult to wear. I consider regimentals to be on the casual side of the spectrum unless they are really a part of some uniform. Not necessarily military, but club uniform, for example. And the main body color here - black - makes it look more formal than it should be as a regimental.
And I have to admit - I did cheap out a little. When I was visiting Dublin I was on a tight budget and out of multiple tie designs I decided to purchase the cheapest one. And now I can see why it was discounted.
But leaving the wearability aside, the Trinity College’s tie is really a decent quality. The fabric is, obviously, 100% silk. I wouldn’t buy it otherwise. It’s on a thicker side, but not so thick, that it makes it difficult to make a nice and tidy looking knot. It also tapers nicely, unlike the tie of Jagiellonian University (which has it’s own post already), so it looks nice, has good proportions and I can’t really say a bad word about the fabric, lining and cut of the piece.
So what would be the conclusion here? I think I need to visit Dublin once again to see the College’s library and to buy another tie, but this time in more adequate colors. Dublin is nice, Trinity College is beautiful, tie’s quality is all right. Really the colors are problematic. I’ll be more careful and less cheap nest time.
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Jacob, the Tie Authority