It's 2007. I watch my mother drive her rental car around the circular driveway and out through the stone walls of Cardigan Mountain School in Canaan, NH to catch her flight home to North Carolina. I was 12 years old and starting my first year of boarding school when I found my love of bow ties.
One of my house parents, a faculty member in charge of keeping the dorm well behaved, was Jake Spearman. Mr. Spearman had 4 sons who attended the school and he always wore bow ties. Another faculty member, Scott Haire, also wore bow ties, and both of these gentlemen helped me learn how to tie a bow tie. Now this may seem a bit silly, but when you are so far from home, you want to find a group or community activity that you can look forward to in order to stay busy. Sure, I played sports all three seasons and joined the chorus, but it was Thursdays that I really looked forward to. On Thursdays we wore bowties, and thus started The Bow Tie Club. I remember my mother started sending me bow ties in the mail, and in a way it became part of my identity.
When I graduated from Cardigan Mountain School, I attended The Asheville School in Asheville, North Carolina. There I was lucky enough to be assigned to John Smith’s advisee list. John Smith was the admissions director at The Asheville School and could make any parent feel like leaving their child at the institution was the best decision they could possibly make. Suffice it to say, he was very good at his job and lucky for me, liked wearing bow ties. We started our own Bow Tie Club in a way. We even did a group purchase from a company called High Cotton Ties based out of North Carolina. I really liked these ties. because the fabric was thick and did not require constant tightening to stay on well.
I only spent a year at The Asheville School, but did transfer the Bow Tie Club to Avon Old Farms where I would finish out my high school years. Now wearing a bow tie isn't a straight way ticket to popularity. In fact, in some cases, like my Varsity basketball team, I was known as the BTB, The Bow Tie B*$@h, but that never bothered me.
The Bow Tie Club took off at Avon where we were able to create custom bow ties and sell them to raise a few thousand dollars for Toys for Tots. Over the years I have lost count, but I have taught somewhere over 300 young men how to tie a bow tie. Almost every wedding I attend, someone always needs assistance.
I have always loved a specific style of clothing. Brands like Peter Millar, Barbour, Vineyard Vines, Filson, Orvis, and Brooks Brothers. I have always loved stores like Grady Ervin and M. Dumas & Sons, which are two of the best men's clothiers in Charleston, SC. Most recently the store I am enjoying is The Sporting Gent in Charlotte, NC. However, as I grew up, I always wanted to open my own store or design my own clothes.
I began drawing and writing letters to different companies. What I found was that there was a sweet spot from 2006-2012 of some of the more successful companies that I would want to compete with. Brands like Southern Tide, Southern Proper, Collard Greens, and High Cotton all started in that time period and for the most part are still around today. Being a full time student, it just never seemed to be the correct time for me to do my own thing, but I so badly wanted to join one of these brands. One of those companies was Peter Millar, where I was able to intern for a summer during my time at Wofford College.
So why is this article titled High Cotton? Well after reaching out many times I was able to get in touch with the owners of High Cotton and create a relationship. High Cotton Ties was founded in 2010, but really began a few years prior. The company grew like many young companies do. The founder started making an item by hand and through friends and family demand begins to grow. What I have loved about High Cotton Ties is their commitment to using local yarns and creating jobs for North Carolinians. Even better, one of their distribution centers was in the small town of Cherryville which was very close to my hometown of Lincolnton, NC.
When the company began making T-Shirts, they again stuck with the made In North Carolina mentality. One of my favorite shirts they made said “Made in the South, A True Southern Accent”. As the product line grew, they dabbled in button downs that were made at the Brooks Brothers manufacturing plant here in North Carolina as well. Overall the company is something I wanted to get behind and support. I purchased my prom cummerbund from High Cotton Ties each year and made sure to share with my friends what a great company they were.
While attending Wofford College I saw on Social Media that High Cotton was in search of a new model for some of the new additions to their line. I reached out and was hired for a photoshoot at RainBow Row in Charleston, SC. It was a blast getting to meet the owners in person, and I have enjoyed occasionally seeing myself in their ads. High Cotton Ties are well made and will last you a lifetime. I personally do not wear coat and tie as often as I used to, but when I do I make an effort to dig deep in my closet to find a bow tie, and it's likely to be a High Cotton Tie. ~
