Fox & Brie
If you’ve already scoured through your grandfather’s closet and depleted his supply of vintage bow ties, neckties and pocket squares, we have a new source for you. Austin-based menswear company Fox & Brie, is hand-crafting and custom-making accessories made out of all-natural fabric for those with an appreciation for goods made back-in-the-day.
Founder Jess Decelle recently started her business after her husband couldn’t find the styles he was looking for. Now she makes about 200 menswear items each month – finding the fabrics (cotton, linen and wool vintage pieces and occasionally newer materials), creating designs and sewing each item.
While some companies outsource the sewing to others, Jess hand-makes her own because “it’s the only way to own the quality,” she says. Quality is of utmost importance: “My grandmother taught me to sew. And she also taught me, if you mess up, you can always rip up the seams and start again.”
Jess believes that quality products don’t always have to come with an equally high price – her products range in price from $12 to $50. Customers can purchase her ties and pocket squares at foxandbrie.com and order custom-made products for no additional charge (unless the fabric costs more than usual). Her custom orders are often accessories for wedding parties – monogrammed initials or a special message on a pocket square.
As a Louisiana native, Jess says all of her creations have a distinctly Southern style – which she defines as a longing for simpler times. Her own work is “a little rustic and a little modern. It’s keeping the nostalgic feeling, but taking it out of the 1940s. It’s a modern take on it.”
The material she makes her goods out of, and the products themselves, embody that old-fashioned feeling. “I’m drawn to vintage fabric because it’s from when people used to make everything by hand. There weren’t factories everywhere. Somebody actually sat down and loomed this,” she says. “The quality and the feeling of growing up in the South – it’s there. I don’t consciously choose it, it just comes through. The ties feel Southern, but not over the top. They’re not made of burlap. It’s my version of the South.”
For tips on how to tie a bow tie, click here.
To learn how to fold a pocket square, click here.
