There is a moment in every organisation's history when someone decides that the people representing the brand should look the part — really look the part — and that is almost always the moment when a tie maker enters the picture. It happened in the corporate boardrooms of Johannesburg during the 1960s and 70s, when South African companies were developing their visual identities with genuine seriousness. It happened in the great British public schools long before that, and it has been happening in one form or another ever since Croatian mercenaries first tied strips of cloth around their necks in the 17th century and inadvertently gave the world the cravat. The point is, wherever there has been a desire to express identity, loyalty, or belonging through neckwear, tie makers have been the craftspeople making that desire a reality. These days, that relationship is more important than ever, and I would say most people dramatically underestimate just how central a skilled tie maker is to producing truly excellent custom ties.

Let me explain what I mean by that, because I think the distinction gets lost in a world where you can upload a logo to a website and receive a box of neckties three weeks later. There is a significant difference between a tie maker and what I would loosely call a tie printer — someone who applies a design onto fabric and calls the job done.  Genuine tie makers understand construction, interlining, shell fabric, hand-finishing, and the way a particular weave will behave when it is rolled and pressed into a keeper loop. At Vinuchi, we have always believed that custom ties deserve the same consideration as any other quality garment, and that belief starts with the craft knowledge that only experienced tie makers carry. It is not something you can shortcut, and back in the day, before offshore manufacturing flooded the market with cheap alternatives, this was simply understood as common sense within the industry.

The conversation around printed ties versus woven ties is one that all serious tie makers will have strong opinions about, and I am certainly no different. Don't get me wrong — printed ties have their place, and modern printing technology has improved enormously. But when a school, a sports club, or a corporate entity commissions custom ties that are meant to endure as a symbol of their identity over many years, woven ties offer a longevity and a depth of colour that printing simply cannot replicate in the same way. The design is part of the fabric rather than sitting on top of it, which means it ages with dignity rather than fading into something vaguely reminiscent of its original self. This is why tie makers who genuinely understand the woven construction process are worth seeking out, because the difference shows up not on the day of delivery but five years down the line.

South Africa has a proud but often overlooked textile manufacturing heritage, and the tie makers who operate here have had to be adaptable in ways that their counterparts in Italy or the United Kingdom perhaps have not. We source quality materials with an international eye while producing locally, and one could say that this position has forced a certain resourcefulness that actually benefits our clients. When organisations come to us at Vinuchi looking for custom ties that represent their brand accurately and hold up to daily wear, they are getting the product of that resourcefulness. Every decision about fabric weight, lining, tip finish, and colour accuracy comes from years of practical experience navigating both the possibilities and the limitations of our market.

What I find genuinely exciting about where the industry is heading is that more clients are beginning to ask better questions. They want to know how their custom ties are made, what materials are being used, and whether the tie makers they are working with truly understand the brief or are simply processing an order. That shift in expectation is good for everyone, because it elevates the entire conversation around quality. Tie makers who have invested in their craft, who can speak with authority about construction methods and material choices, are the ones who will thrive as that expectation grows. For those of us who have always operated that way, it feels less like a trend and more like a long overdue recognition that what tie makers do is skilled, considered work — and that custom ties, done properly, are worth every bit of that skill.