In part one we spoke about the history of cravats, how they originated and morphed into custom ties. in part 2, I  discussed more of the history and some of  the psychology behind custom ties or cravats as they were called in those days.

In part 3, I discussed the way in which cravats were made in the 1700’s compared to how custom ties are made or manufactured by tie makers or tie manufacturers these days.

In part 4, I will expand on the make up of custom ties in comparison to the original construction of cravats by the Croat soldiers.

The process has become polished and is far more refined than ever before and no doubt it will continue to progress until eventually I do believe that custom ties will be made by tie makers or tie manufacturers without the use of human intervention which would truly be a shame because there are some amazing people in the tie maker industry who have done the same thing every day for most of their lives and so fully understand what is involved for tie makers to make custom ties. These people no doubt will eventually fall away and probably not be replaced by the younger generation as it probably isn’t seen as too cool to become tie makers after leaving school education.

So when it comes to the construction  of such ties as corporate ties, club ties, promotional ties, school ties, matric ties etc which by the way all qualify as custom ties, it is important to note that the fabric and trims used to manufacture these items need to be of top quality in order to make up good quality custom ties or for that matter, custom scarves.

There are 2 types of fabric used to make ties in South Africa and these are both constructed from polyester yarn.

The first type of fabric used is woven to make woven ties either with or without a logo. This woven fabric is achieved from using yarns that are pre dyed in order to make up the body of the tie. It is important to note that custom scarves are generally not made form woven fabrics.

The second type of fabric used is also woven fabric but is woven in a plain white which then needs to be printed using the sublimation format of print which essentially is by transferring the design onto the white fabric using papers which had previously been printed- a bit like the stickers we used to get with bubble gum and other sweets where we licked a part of our body- normally the forearm and placed the printed paper on top. After leaving it for a minute or two, we would then lift the piece of paper off out arm leaving a transferred pic on the forearm.

The process is pretty similar with sublimation of custom ties and custom scarves except that there is a large concentration of hear required to make the transfer possible.