You can never have enough ties. Taking the burden off of grandma, your girlfriend and your wallet, FreshNeck ($15+) offers a huge library of neckpieces (along with bowties, cufflinks, pocket squares and other assorted style items) for your perusal and rental. The service works because of some inherent laws of manhood. 1) As previously stated, a man can never have enough cool ties; 2) an ever-expanding lexicon of style means you can always mix and match new combinations; 3) few men have the required funds to build an archive of ties to satisfy their cravat-lust (similar to “the lure of the animal”, a la Seinfeld).
Freshneck’s library is monstrous, with a huge range of top-name brands and styles (a sampling: Hermes, Kiton, Brioni, Versace, Prada, Stefano Ricci, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Alexander Olch, so on and so forth). But now, on to brass (tie) tacks. How does it work, exactly?
The subscription service operates on three levels. The lowest gets you one free shipment of three items a month (from a narrowed library) for $15. The next step is $35 a month, and doubles your shipments per month quota (it also opens up a bunch more brands for the choosing). I got a free month of the “Jeeves, make me breakfast in bed” platinum service, which tops out at $55 a month, opens up the entire library and means infinite three-item sets per month. So how was it? It was luxurious. It was fun. I got an Armstrong & Wilson burgundy wool tie that I’d like to be buried in. Of course, I wasn’t shelling out the half-a-benjamin-plus for my subscription, so the enjoyment was that much greater.
When you bore of your selection, simply send your ties back in Freshneck’s prepaid packages. Our final diagnosis? The service’s $15/month lowest tier seems worth a try for most fashion-minded men. It’s low risk, moderate reward (again, we have to stress that the lowest level selection is definitely more limited than what we got to sample); if you don’t like it, you’ve only sunk a measly fifteen bucks, which is way less than buying even one tie yourself. If money’s no problem, then by all means, hit up platinum and make it rain ties up in hurr.