Idiot’s Lantern tie - now in MONOCHROME!

A couple of days ago I teased about a tie that had arrived in the post.

Subsequently I had some comments that picked up on the word idiot I used, and yes, I was alluding to the Thomas Nash tie as seen in The Idiot’s Lantern.

BUT I wasn’t referring to the version currently being worked by Magnoli (you lost your bet, whoever you were, sorry).

One of my readers sent me a link to a tie on Amazon.com from a pretty nondescript menswear seller who has a silk tie for sale that is the exact image of the Thomas Nash tie - except it is in grey and black!

My jaw dropped when I saw it (as I imagine a few of my readers are right this minute seeing the pictures!)

The pattern looks ABSOLUTELY identical to screen-worn tie - just lacking any colour.

I HAD to order myself one, and this week it arrived.



I’m lucky to own an original Thomas Nash tie (the only one I ever saw on eBay during many years of searching) so the first thing I did was put it side-by-side to compare.

As you can see, not only is the weave perfect, the scale is too. It is precise.

This is way too much of a coincidence, that I am left wondering if they have bought in a pre-woven design and just coloured it in their own colour scheme, oblivious to its previous use by Thomas Nash.

I don’t know - but what other explanation can there be?

Well, if you want to get one of these ties yourself, before they sell out, the link is below.

Please be aware through Amazon.com they only ship to the US.

Silver Geometric Tie (Swirls) by Scott Allan

Alternatively, you can order from the Scott Allan Collection website.
They will ship internationally, and shipping to the UK is $8.99.

Scott Allan Ties
Silver Grey Geometric Necktie

Home-made Idiot’s Lantern tie

Tennant cosplayers are a canny bunch.
The Tenth Doctor’s costume can be blocked in very easily with a brown suit and a pair of readily available Converses.

But the one thing they crave are the ties - screen accurate if possible - if not then a good replica.

Not all the ties have been rewoven, and even fewer originals come up on eBay, so if there’s a third way the Ten cosplayer will find it!

Well one of my readers, Simon Richards, has done just that by making his own copy of his favourite tie - the Thomas Nash tie worn in The Idiot’s Lantern.

Here’s how he went about making it.

Making my Idiot’s Lantern tie
by Simon Richards

The Idiot’s Lantern... great episode, great scooter, great clothes, great tie and great shades of Elvis. With lots of humour, anger and emotion this Tenth Doctor episode is easily one my favourites. I have been a Tenth Doctor cosplayer for a good few years and whilst my collection of costume pieces increases, The Idiot’s Lantern tie has always intrigued me. The main problem was always not knowing what the tie actually looked like. During the episode it is very tricky to identify the whole pattern.

Thanks to Steve’s Tie Index this tie, for me, became a little more obtainable. I had tried to look for the original screen accurate tie by Thomas Nash but soon realised this was going to be a very long, expensive route to go down. I decided, therefore, to make my own version.

Using reference images from the Tie Index blog, screen captures and of course every cosplayer’s favourite tool... Google, I took the time to collect as many high quality photos I could.
I chose to use one which showed the pattern up close in detail. I measured one of my other ties for size and adjusted the image to the correct scale. This meant that when I printed the image at 100% it would hopefully map out exactly the correct size of the tie. The hard part here was continuing the pattern in full because all reference images do not show the full length.

I decided to trace from the print out onto some paper using my window for a light box. I taped the pages together and then traced around my existing tie to get a rough outline.

From this point I needed to create a template so I could transfer the pattern onto the tie itself. Using my pattern on paper I scanned the images onto my laptop and bought some plain card. Printed the images again at 100% and then attached the card together like before.

Using a board and a scalpel I carefully cut out the design allowing me to see the pattern in full.

From this point I pretty much had my tie all planned out so I went ahead and bought a plain brown satin tie, metallic gold and metallic blue ink pens.

Once my tie arrived I set to work attaching the template over the tie to hold it steady as I began tracing out the pattern markings. The outcome looked rather amusing and a little Gallifreyan.











My next step was a little frustrating as it involved filling in the lines between the design to fill out the S shapes. Once this had been completed the tie became very Idiot’s Lantern.

Using the gold metallic ink pen I bought I then began to fill in the S shapes to bring the pattern to life.

I was quite worried that it looked slightly messy but as I continued and eventually put in a blue line through each S shape the tie took shape rather nicely.

It may not be 100% accurate or very tidy but this was a fantastic little project to work on and I’m very happy with the outcome!

Have you made yourself a tie in the same way - using a blank tie and fabric pens?
If so I’d love to hear from you.

Email me at tennantcoat@me.com 
and we can look at getting you in my blog!

Louise page - The Tie Five story

We now come to Tie Five in our ongoing Louise Page interview.

The Thomas Nash tie isn’t the most popular amongst fans, but as you may have read in my blog, they seem to be the most common to come up on eBay.




Worn only in The Idiot’s Lantern, she reveals the thinking behind this tie and the reason for its solo appearance, as well as giving us a background to her methodology when shopping for ties.

Thanks to Kevin Coppa for giving the interview clips the polished look, and enormous thanks to Louise Page for sharing her memories of dressing the Tenth Doctor with us all

Thomas Nash tie -target acquired!

Confession time.

When I wrote about the latest couple of ties to appear on eBay, I knew who had bought one of them – me!

I decided that although the Thomas Nash tie,was only seen in one episode (The Idiot’s Lantern, see left), it is a distinctive design I wanted to add to my collection.

I only stumbled across the listing while looking around for other things, and how anyone else found it with the title dr who prop tie, I don’t know!
But find it they did and it had risen to over £200 not long after it started.

I held back, and didn’t bid until the dying seconds of the last minute of the auction, and put in a killer bid. Luckily for me it only pushed the price up £5 from where it was, and the tie was mine!

My PayPal account was notably lighter though!

Idiot's Lantern tie on eBay!

Only last week, a friend of mine secured a pair of GAP Trousers from the French version of eBay.

Prior to that we saw the sale of a Giorgio Armani and a St George by Duffer tie on eBay.
The Armani tie achieved US$144.50 and the St George GB£112.

St George by Duffer - Tie Ten in Tie Index

Well, if you missed that chance, maybe you were more lucky when another St George tie popped up last week.

From the same seller as before, it had a similar £3.50 opening price, but only scraped £92 when it closed on 21st April following a frantic three-day auction.

Most of the bidding was on the last day, when it saw the sale price nearly quadruple!

Tenth Doctor Tie Index

I’ve noticed that there’s been a lot of buzz lately on the Doctor Who costume forums about the ties David Tennant wore throughout the stories he was in.

Following on from the Third Doctor Costume Indexes I did late in 2009, I thought I’d put my two-pennace in and do a tie index!

I’m limiting myself to the ties worn with the pinstripe suits, ignoring the bow ties worn with tuxedos (as in Voyage Of the Damned) or tweed suits (as in Human Nature).

A couple of surprises have come up by doing this detailed study: the tie commonly known as the “Time Lord” tie (tie Two in my index) is no where near worn as often as I thought; nor is the burgundy/mauve flora tie (tie Eight) is worn even less; the swirly tie (tie Four) which bridged the regeneration to Matt Smith popped up a few more times than I thought, partly because it features in both the Doctor-lite episodes of series two and three.