I decided to repost this because it is one of my favs and I wanted to share it with my new readers. Enjoy.

Four months ago I passed a young man on the street wearing this tie.  Hmm, thats a nice looking tie. Different, with that gold knot. Is that a new Tom Ford or something?, I thought to myself.

Three days later I see that tie again.  The same black tie with a gold knot.  This is something, we have a menswear trend unfolding right in front of our eyes.  I have to figure out who makes this tie.  The guy had already slipped past me before I could ask him.

A few more weeks go by and no tie.  Well, I missed my chance at finding out about The Tie, there is no way I will see it again.  Then all the sudden I see a young handsome fellow walking towards me with is girlfriend.  No way! I have to stop them — “Excuse, me.  I hate to bother you but what is this tie you are wearing?”

“Oh, well we work and the Church of Scientology.”

Its a uniform, not a new Hugo Boss or Sean John or any other popular menswear designer but, a uniform for the Church of Scientology.  Who would of thought? Not me.  Well, now I really had to tell the story of The Tie; all I needed was a decent picture of it.

This shouldn’t be too hard, I pass the street that the Church of Scientology is on everyday.  So I will just hang out there and eventually a guy will walk by and I will ask to take his picture, right?  Wrong.  I did exactly that, and for days, no guy, and no tie.

I finally caught a break, two months ago, and stopped a man headed to work and asked him if I could take a picture of his tie, he curtly said “No.”

Alright then, they wanted to play hard ball.  I’m just going to have to catch this picture on the sly.  Days turned into weeks and then to months of hanging outside the Church of Scientology and I could not get a good shot of the darn tie. I was either going to have to write a fan letter to Tom Cruise,  join the Church of Scientology myself, or give up on The Tie story.  Ugh!

In the meantime, I decided to Google The Tie on the off chance that I would find something online about it and dontchaknow I did.  A snarky story from Gawker (www.gawker.com):

Scientology’s Creepy New Uniforms

Want to work in one of Scientology’s fresh new “Ideal Org” churches? Then get ready to put on your 20-piece uniform, mandatory for all cult staff. Planetary humanity is not going to be perfected by slobs, after all.

These uniforms are manufactured by some sort of magical logistics pipeline called a “conveyor belt” for the “Ideal Org,” a purportedly superior new type of church, according to International Scientology News. The uniform is intended to unite staff on “six continents” and help them look the part of “emissaries of a new civilization.”

The outfits were done by Richard Tyler, the Los Angeles-based designer to the stars and sometime Project Runway judge who fell on hard timesin December 2005 after falling off a ladder at his South Pasadena home. They’d look at home in an Ian Shrager hotel, save perhaps for the capes. A tipster tells us all “Ideal Org” staff members must wear them; presumably this means the cult’s comical goons must finally give up their cheesy action-movie attire.

Gawker is famous for its sarcastic satire, so I hope no one is offended by it.  The important things is thatThe Tie’s  design was not taken lightly and fashion designer Richard Tyler was commissioned to create the entire uniform line for the Church of Scientology.  This is something I never pondered as a fashion lover, the design that goes into uniforms of all kinds. Very interesting indeed.

Then last week, out of the blue and taken completely off guard, The Tie came to me.

So, after nearly being hit by a car taking this shot and probably being put on the Church of Scientology’s security watch-list, I am proud to bring you this unusual fashion story.  I now have a whole new respect and perspective of investigative reporting and uniform design.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you.

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