A Rage for Ties That Bind

The stylish executive now wears a company cravat

A time-honored British tradition--the old school tie--is now taking root in American business. In Britain, graduates of Oxbridge colleges, officers of army regiments and members of London clubs have long worn institutional ties as a way of recognizing other "old boys" without asking. Now Americans can pick out a colleague or a competitor at a sales convention according to the cravat around his neck. Corporate neckties have recently become a bullish $12 million industry. Says A. Harvey Schreter, whose Baltimore-based company has made about 600 different company ties: "Last year our business grew by 30%, and it has trebled in the past five years."

Far from being crass advertisements for the wearer's employer, company chokers tend to be stylish, subtle, discreet. Manufacturers Hanover Trust in New York celebrates its success in international banking with cravats, designed by Pierre Cardin, that bear tiny symbols of various European, Asian and Middle Eastern currencies. Ties for Republic National Bank of New York, one of the nation's leading gold merchants, have a design showing little ingots. Brokers at E.F. Hutton can suit up with ties bearing the initials EFH. The letters are almost indecipherable at a distance of more than six inches.

Some companies now bring out a new corporate tie as regularly as they break out cigars after the announcement of a successful earnings report. Says John C. Moran, president of Manhattan's Hampton Hall Ltd., one of the leading corporate tie makers: "They are used to introduce a new installation or a new product or sometimes a new logo, for company anniversaries or as part of a sales campaign." Philip Morris ordered up a tie with a percentage sign on it, as the symbol of a sales convention that had the theme "It's all a percentage game." Nestle last spring commissioned a tie in honor of the 50th birthday of the chocolate-chip cookie. Anheuser-Busch has no fewer than a dozen ties celebrating the firm's various brands of beer.

The design of a company tie can be a topic important enough to require top-management decision. At Cleveland Trust Co., key executives spent months debating the company tie's pattern and testing various samples on associates. They finally settled on a stylized CT motif.

Collecting corporate ties has even become a new executive-suite game. "They are like baseball cards for big kids," says William Clayton, a senior vice president of E.F. Hutton. Clayton had the 128 ties he owns hung like a tapestry on a wall in his office. The more subtle the tie and limited its distribution, the more prized it becomes. One of the most highly sought-after ties is the one by Pepsi-Cola with the company logo in Cyrillic script, distributed to a select group of Soviet officials as a memento of the company's trade knot with the U.S.S.R. Another collector's gem because of its scarcity in the U.S. is the navy blue Toyota tie with the automaker's name in Japanese.

Corporate ties are usually reserved for company directors, important clients and a few corporate friends. They are rarely sold to outsiders, since that might detract from their cachet. Most firms order only a limited number of the ties in silk because of the expense, about $10.50 each. More pedestrian polyester versions costing about $7.25 each are usually offered to middle-level employees at cost. And for their new women executives, many companies now have scarves that bear the corporate tie design. sb

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