Superlative Construction and Taste from Kenji Kaga 

Tie Your Tie is the rare success story of a small local shop that became an internationally recognized brand. It began as barely more than a whim. Franco Minucci spent the first part of his career selling American films in to movie theaters in Tuscany. But the movie business slowed, and an opportunity arose when his father-in-law passed away, leaving retail space to Signor Minucci and his wife. In 1984 they opened Tie Your Tie, a tiny chapel of celestial menswear basking in the aura of Brunelleschi's Dome in the historical center of Florence.

The shop succeeded because of Signor Minucci's distinctive taste and ability to convey his enthusiasm to his customers. He carried softly tailored jackets from Neapolitan houses like Kiton and Attolini before they were the desiderata of clothes hounds worldwide, luxurious sweaters from the since-uprooted knitwear brand Drumohr, and, of course, ties. Alan Flusser called Minucci's Tie Your Tie "one of the most elegant shops in the world." Signor Minucci himself became something of a fashionplate, featured in glossy magazines, basking in his own relaxed and rumpled confidence, smirking over his eye-glasses at the lock-jawed Gordon Gekkos on neighboring pages. The store sold so many ties that the Minuccis decided to open up their own tie workshop, which specialized in the airy, many-folded ties for which the Tie Your Tie brand became famous.

The tie brand has outlived the store itself; the retail location in Florence has since changed hands and names. Signor Minucci sold the tie brand to Japanese investors, although even in retirement he remains an advisor and representative of the firm. The only Tie Your Tie stores are now in Japan, but the ties are still made in Italy, with the same construction and unique aesthetic that turned Signor Minucci has been wearing rakishly for decades.