Are They Bow Ties, or Are They Flags? They Are REALLY COOL Bow Ties!

Flags or Bow Ties? BOTH!

For years I have been asked over and over again to make a freestyle bow tie that, once tied, looks like the Texas State Flag. Customers told me that they could find clip on bow ties and pre-tied bow ties, but they wanted a Texas Flag silk bow tie that they could tie for themselves. No kidding! It's my single most requested bow tie! It turns out, Texans love their Lone Star State flag. Until I mastered some design skills, there was very little I could do to produce a bow tie that looked like the Texas flag. But that has all changed. Introducing the TEXAS FLAG Bow Tie! It's silk, and once tied, it looks like the Lone Star Flag.

Texas Lone Star State Flag Bow Tie

Once I had figured out how to make the Texas Flag bow tie, I got really interested in making freestyle bow ties designed for other flags. Now included in the Flag Bow Tie Collection on Bowtie.com are the American Stars and Stripes, British Union Jack, Canadian Maple Leaf, Dutch Vlag van Nederland which is a Horizontal Tricolor, French Le Tricolore, Irish Tricolour, and Italian Tricolore flags. Below are a couple of examples:

Irish Tricolour Bow Tie

Union Jack British Flag Bow Tie

What a great way to display your heritage! Have you discovered more about your family history since having your DNA tested? I have friends who have done it and have been surprised by what they learned about their ancestry. 

Currently, I'm working on a design for the Maine State flag. I'm not a big fan of the current flag of Maine. 

Current State of Maine Flag

When flags have a center medallion, they are not very interesting. Not only do different state flags using this design (Maine, New York, Utah, to name just three) look very similar to one another, the design tries to fit a lot of message into the small medallion. As you can imagine, it's hard to read the state logo, DIRIGO, when this flag is flying atop a flag pole. It's even difficult to try to decipher what is in the center graphics. In Maine, there is a movement to replace the current state flag with the original Maine state flag, which I find simple and pure, from the early 1900s.

1901 Maine State Flag. So simple. So pure.

 Here is that bow tie design in the digital phase.

Historic Maine Flag Bow Tie in digital stage of design

I also have a friend who has asked for the Saltire flag, the flag of Scotland, so that's the next one on my drawing board. The Saltire even looks like a bow tie!

The Saltire Flag of Scotland

Is there a flag whose design you'd like me to make into a bow tie? Please post in the comments! All of my completed designs started as customer requests.

For more than 25 years Lisa Eaton has been designing and making men's bow ties, suspenders and neckties from silk and cotton. She is the owner of the Maine based company Bowtie.com.