Wantist

Tieland

Ties have long been an accessory for self-expression. The suited-man’s best opportunity for a little color, a show of style or a profession of love for bass fishing, is often the necktie. And while fashion trends occasionally shake things up in tieland nothing quite compares to a tie that’s one-of-a-kind.

Lady TieLab

Bethany Shorb makes individually hand-printed ties from her one-woman operation in Detroit, the Cyberoptix TieLab Studio. The ties are silkscreened onto microfiber or silk with a water-based ink that is better for the shop, the planet and the life of the tie (even though it’s slower to work with).

We found Bethany’s ties through her Etsy shop, named for her DJing alter-ego, Toybreaker.

It’s in the details

At first find we loved her creativity and wanted to get a TieLab tie in our hands to see it for ourselves.

We were initially impressed when the tie arrived by the attention to detail with the packaging. Wrapped in tissue, tied up with string and a nicely printed tag attached, it could be given as a gift straight out of the mail (though the very cool wooden box pictured is also available).

You can tell the tie is printed with precision with the design going right to the edge. The feel of the ink, is smooth, flexible and doesn’t crease or crack like a plastic-based screenprint would.

No two groomsmen

In addition to the imagination Bethany brings to the graphics on the ties, she also has opened up a whole new world of options for wedding accessories, and we love this idea. TieLab offers custom groomsmen ties of coordinating colors and matching designs, or whatever other creative idea you and Bethany can come up with. So clever.