NEW YORK — The Tie Bar has entered the men’s wear fray on Madison Avenue — at least for the next six months.
The Chicago-based men’s furnishings brand has taken a temporary space at 400 Madison Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets for a pop-up shop to showcase its new dress shirt collection in addition to its assortment of neckwear, socks, pocket squares, tie bars and other accessories.
Allyson Lewis, chief executive officer, was in town to put the finishing touches on the shop, which will have its official opening on Thursday.
“This is a very different location for us,” she said. “It’s more of a work destination, but we are a workwear brand at heart.”
This marks the third pop-up the Tie Bar has had in New York. Its other two were in SoHo and Greenwich Village. It has also had pop-ups in Boston and Washington, D.C.
Related Galleries
The brand launched dress shirts last October and released its second collection in early April. “In October, we focused on core wardrobe staples but now we have more seasonal fashion — light spring colors and fabrics,” she said. “And they’re performing very well.”
She said there are no plans to offer sport shirts or jump onto the ubiquitous ath-leisure trend. “There’s still a real market for dress attire and we’re staying true to our wear-to-work [roots],” she said.
The assortment at the Madison Avenue pop-up is a selected offering of The Tie Bar’s 10,000 stockkeeping units and offers around 30 style and size combinations in shirts as well as several hundred ties. The brand designed its own fixtures to house the tie inventory rather than opting for the open tables used by most other brands. Anything not available in the store can be ordered and shipped for free, she said.
The Tie Bar is essentially an e-commerce business, but has one permanent location in Chicago, a shop that was converted from a pop-up.
This summer the store will enter the made-to-measure suit business for the first time. Jackets will be offered at $575 and up while full suits will start at $650. Customers will be able to order fabrics from top European mills and delivery is guaranteed within six weeks. Lewis said the introduction of clothing “is the perfect counterpart” to the dress shirt launch last fall and will allow the company to offer “a full look for our customers.”
Lewis added that the brand “has a great customer base in New York” and definitely wants to have a full-time presence here, “whether that’s a permanent shop or a series of pop-ups. The beauty of a pop-up is that it allows us to test different neighborhoods.”