This entire Brackish bow tie adventure began when I saw a picture of Blake Lively wearing one.
And I thought, damnit she always gets it right!! To me she is the ultimate style icon for my generation. She wears a lot of menswear and makes it incredibly stylish and sexy. The MOST important part, is she makes it seem effortless.
Her style breaks the boundaries on what social media, pop culture, and everyone else is branding as “sexy”. I admire the hell out of that. I think she truly gives little girls a fashion icon to look up to where the parents are still proud of who their child is looking up to.
xoxo - Gossip Girl
Blake was promoting her new movie, “A Simple Favor” when she graced the red carpet in the Brackish bow tie suit ensemble.
When I saw it, I thought, I’m going to replicate this look for a blog post and then I’m going to come up with other avenues of how I made this look my own and maybe you can do the same.
I’m really not even close to finished talking about Blake though. I screen shot some of my favorite lewks from her Instagram feed. When a Blake picture shuffles through my feed my reaction is nothing short of a small seizure and full on gay man gasp. You know what I’m talking about! The bottom picture where she is in the tennis ball green Versace suit I was laying in bed with Chris. I’m pretty sure he was asleep and I just punched him dead in the chest and yelled, “LOOK AT WHAT BLAKE IS WEARING!!!! WHO CAN WEAR THAT COLOR?!?!!!”
Some of you are thinking, holy crap, wasn’t he pissed, NO! He was not, because then when I told him to guess who the suit was by, he immediately knew it was Versace, and I have a very Versace specific addiction and problem and all physical violence was forgiven because DAMNIT IT’S TENNIS BALL GREEN AND VERSACE!!!! WHO CAN PULL THIS OFF?!??! ONLY A GODDESS NAMED BLAKE LIVELY.
Pretty sure I got my ass out of bed ran around the house looking for two tennis balls to make earrings out of with my hot glue gun so I could walk around Target the next day being like SAME BLAKE SAME. No one understands us.
Anytime I show Chris a picture and I’m like, guess who it’s by…the answer is always Versace. And when he guesses, “Versace” I make him high five me and usually say something like, “You bet your ass it’s Versace.” Look I don’t know why I’m weird, but it just comes natural and none of what I just described is exaggerated.
So here I am doing my best Blake Lively.
And I tagged in Otis because if you’re going up against Blake Lively I need all the extra points a cute dog can bring.
But my Brackish bow tie fascination has been going on since 2012.
The bow tie I am wearing here is called The Original.
This is the bow tie that started it all, which is hand crafted out of turkey feathers. I purchased Chris this bow tie for New Years of 2013.
The Brackish bow tie story began in 2007 when Ben Ross crafted this very bow tie as gifts for his groomsmen.
Read more about their story below and how Brackish bow ties have come to thrive locally in Charleston, SC.
When Chris and I styled the bow tie for New Years we were a little stumped on how to approach it without competing with the beauty of the feathers. Ultimately, we chose a light gray gingham check button down and gray pocket square.
My dress was black with silver and black beaded trim side cut-outs which I found at Ross for $9.99. My jacket was a Juicy Couture jacket I found at the consignment store, Uptown Cheapskate in Mount Pleasant.
In Blake’s version of this look she used a double breasted blazer dress.
In an attempt to not do a COMPLETE carbon copy I wanted to use a jacket and shorts. I know y’all are probably tired of me using Forever21 in my posts BUT I shop their online items because the quality is far better than items in the store. I do not shop in the store because it is a hot mess. It will always be a hot mess, its like your drunk relative at any holiday. You want to see how they’re doing but you’re afraid to go near them so we just gonna pray for all of them.
I have this same suiting in a mustard yellow for spring too that I plan on recreating the same ensemble with the other bow tie Otis is wearing.
I am spot on a small in this jacket and a medium in the shorts.
*Also, the sizing looks to be limited but I have watched them restock these items several times, so if you can’t find what you’re looking for just click to be notified when the appropriate size comes back.
Blake broke the bow tie boundaries and tomorrow we are going to make our own boundaries.
Stay tuned as I dive into more Brackish bow tie looks that may get your wheels turning for this Holiday Season.
Until then, push your shoulders back and remember being you rocks.
-Lyv
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