You will have read recently that I manage to secure a VERY rare tie - the Christian Lacroix swirly tie, known as Tie Four in my
Tie Index. Although I have found a differing colour way, the weave is 100% as screen used.
I also own both version of the Swirly Tie made by
Magnoli Clothiers, so I’m in a very good position to review both of them alongside the original I now own.
But before I do so, I need to remind you of a very specific piece of background info which will explain what the ties are trying to replicate, and thus manage your expectation of how the tie should look.
When Louise Page came across the Christian Lacroix tie it was a one-off – literally the last in the shop. Whereas she would usually buy three or four identical ties for stunt-doubles and allow for damages, she fell in love with it, ignoring her own golden rules and bought it anyway.
She only featured it once in an episode from beginning to end,
The Girl In The Fireplace. This was because stunt-work was at a minimum during the story, so the tie could be kept ‘safe’.
Its other appearances were deliberately brief or in self-contained scenes, such as in
Love And Monsters (
see left) and
Blink (
see below).
These appearances were specifically selected to limit its exposure to potential continuity issues, damage or loss in the more high octane scenes.
So when it can to David’s swan song and his final scenes, she choose a tie she had extra special affection for: the Christian Lacroix. Knowing she would be handing over to a new costume department, she checked that it was okay to use the tie, bearing in mind there were no back-ups or spares.
No questions were raised, so filming went ahead as planned.
However, once the script came in for Matt’s debut adventure, it became apparent the tie would form part of the plot and need to be distressed, following the TARDIS crashing into Amelia Pond’s back garden, as well as being trapped in a car door!
Reluctant to allow the precious, unique tie to be damaged, Ray Holman and his team had to make a replia of the tie so they were free to do what was required in the script.
This was done by tracing the design onto brown silk and embroidering the blue swirls to match. A couple of reddish areas were replicated by using scraps of coloured silk appliquéd on, but these didn’t quite match the original, hence the visible difference between the two versions.
Thus, there are TWO distinctively different versions of this one tie.
- The original Christian Lacroix woven-fabric tie as worn exclusively by David Tennant
- The hand-made replica, with appliquéd design as worn exclusively by Matt Smith
So it now comes down to which of these ‘screen-accurate’ ties is being copied.
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