There is a phrase that gets thrown around in boardrooms and brand strategy sessions that I find genuinely fascinating: *corporate jewellery*. I would say most people hear it and nod along without really unpacking what it means, but when you sit with it for a moment, it opens up a remarkable conversation about identity, craftsmanship, and what we choose to wear to signal who we are. And for those of us who have spent years working with fabric, thread, and the careful construction of custom ties, that phrase lands with particular weight. 

Back in the day, custom ties were purely functional — or as functional as a strip of fabric around your neck can be. The Croatian soldiers who popularised the cravat in 17th century Europe were not thinking about brand identity. They were wearing a practical piece of kit that somehow caught the eye of King Louis XIII and eventually worked its way into the wardrobes of the European elite. From there, the neckcloth evolved through the formality of British public schools, into the regimental custom ties of military tradition, and eventually into custom ties within the corporate uniform of the 20th century. By the time South African businesses were developing their institutional identities in the 1960s and 70s, custom ties had already become something more than clothing — it was a statement. One could say it was the original piece of corporate jewellery, long before that term existed. 

These days, when organisations come to us at Vinuchi asking about custom ties, the conversation is rarely just about fabric and colour. It is about what custom tie communicate. A well-designed, beautifully woven or printed custom ties are not merely part of a uniform — they are a portable piece of your brand. They travel into meetings, onto platforms, into first handshakes. Think about the care that goes into selecting jewellery for a significant occasion — the weight of it, the quality of the finish, what it says about the wearer. That is precisely the thought that should go into commissioning custom ties for a corporate environment. The parallel is not a stretch; it is, I would say, quite exact. 

Don't get me wrong — not all custom ties achieve this. There is a significant difference between a printed ties and  woven ties, and that difference matters enormously when we are talking about custom ties that are meant to carry genuine brand value. A printed tie, produced quickly and cheaply, can reproduce a logo or a pattern, but the quality seldom holds up under scrutiny. A woven tie — where the design is built into the very structure of the fabric — has a depth, a texture, and a longevity that elevates it into something worth noticing. When people at Vinuchi talk about quality, this is the distinction we come back to constantly. Woven custom ties are, without question, closer to corporate jewellery in the truest sense of that idea. 

There is also the question of design intelligence. The synergy between branding and craft is where the real magic happens, and it is something that separates tie manufacturers who truly understand their role from those who are simply tie makers turning out a commodity product. When a company's colour palette, its values, and its visual identity are translated carefully into a woven pattern, the result is something that employees wear with genuine pride. I have seen it time and again — when the tie is right, when it feels considered and crafted, people notice. They ask about it. It becomes a talking point, which is exactly what good corporate jewellery does.

South African organisations have a rich tradition of school ties which are also custom ties and institutional neckwear that understood this intuitively, even if the language of corporate jewellery was not yet part of the conversation. Those early school tie traditions — the stripes, the crests, the colours that instantly identified where you belonged — were an early and enduring version of the same idea. The custom ties as emblem. The custom ties as identity. The tie as something you wore not just because you had to, but because it connected you to something larger than yourself. 

I believe the future of custom ties lies precisely in reclaiming this understanding. As workwear becomes more casual and the traditional suit loses ground in many industries, custom ties that remain will need to earn their place — and the ones that do will be the ones designed and crafted with the intention of corporate jewellery behind them. At Vinuchi, that is the standard we hold ourselves to, and I would say the conversation about whether a tie can really be corporate jewellery is one very much worth having.