You can wear a bow tie to a dive bar.
The type of bow you wear should tell your personality.
A ready-tied bow tie can be a quick way to add something to an outfit (but, you should eventually learn to tie one too).
All bow tie etiquette I learned from Freedom From Doubt creator Jared Zachary. I didn’t realize how functional bow ties were until he pointed it out. “Doctors and scientists can’t wear long ties—they’re kind of a hazard—leaning over things—but they can wear bow ties.”
Fascinating.
Freedom from Doubt began while Jared Zachary studied architecture in college. “I got really interested in the atmosphere of a place—what you see, smell, hear—how that affected spaces…. I felt I learned a lot and had my niche, but I didn’t feel like that could be something by itself in the architecture field.”
Following his thought process of how school shaped and led him, gave me the insight to see how he ended up where he was today. He also minored in art, with an interest in animation. “Between architecture classes and animation, those were a lot of long nights… one, two, three times a week. All the while I was doing this, I had wished I’d gone to school for fashion, but the last year—I’m just going to finish. I was going to get out of there because I was putting so much time into it.”
For a while, he didn’t want to deal with the thought that he picked the wrong path. He knew fashion had piqued his interests, so he thought he’d pick up sewing. “I could just make stuff for myself. I made that a mini goal, over my last holiday break at school: I’m going to learn to sew. And [my girlfriend at the time] taught me how to thread the machine, this is how the machine works, how to stitch and different kinds of stitches… and it felt so good.”
Those first few months were spent making bow ties and men’s ties. Graduation from university came, but his focus was still on his newly found passion. His friends liked what he was doing and he started making ties for them as well.
“Well I guess if I’m making some for friends, and I’m making several of the same kind, with different styles… I guess that’s technically a line.” And that’s how it was born in Fall 2009. Freedom from Doubt because that’s what confidence is. And ties? “I couldn’t find a leather bow tie… so that’s kind of how it all started.”
It brings us back to the sensibility of the bow tie. Jared explained to me the function of the bow tie—“just like a biker rolls his pant cuff, or a person wears keys on their hip, I wanted to bring that functionality to the bow tie—you can wear one with a denim shirt, on the street, and it’s there to serve a purpose—to add style. You can have fun wearing something that seems the opposite of fun. I wanted to do my part in that.”
Now, he works with clients to get to those needs. “Ready-tied or self-tied? Is it going to be small, medium, or a large size? Do they want something elegant? Fun? Fabric? Color?” He meets with them and then goes into the prototype and works from there. He even partners with a tailor in Minneapolis to create complementing pocket squares, and neck ties are now being made out of New York. Keeping the brand based here (on a small scale in the U.S.), and the integrity of the brand, high.
“What’s wrong with a little attention? I’m making a statement. And if nothing else, a bow tie is a great conversation starter.”
All of this from someone who has made bow ties of burlap, detailed in satin. Pretty damn awesome if you ask this writer.
—B
The fall line is coming. Custom orders welcome. Stay “tied” to updates with Freedom From Doubt on the site and Facebook page.
