Countess Mara, founded in 1935 by Lucilla Mara de Vescovi, was an Italian menswear fashion label specialising in high-end pictorial

necktie A necktie, or simply a tie, is a piece of cloth worn for decorative purposes around the neck, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat, and often draped down the chest. Variants include the ascot, bow, bolo, zipper tie, cra ...

s. The brand has been owned by

Randa Accessories Randa Apparel & Accessories is a manufacturer, distributor, and marketer of men's, women's, and children's clothing and apparel, belts, wallets, neckwear, neckties, jewelry, slippers, hats, gloves, and leather goods. The founder's family had be ...

since 1998.

History

Lucilla Mara de Vescovi was born in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, in 1893. Daughter of a very wealthy medicine professor of the University of Rome, descendant of an ancient noble family from the Veneto, and, from her mother’s side, from baroness De Gleria from Trieste, descendant of baroness Maria Hatvany from Hungary. Her brother Silvio, medical doctor and mining engineer, survived the sinking of the Lusitania and took care of the family’s business interests in mining in Chile. She married

Malcolm Whitman Malcolm "Mal" Douglass Whitman (March 15, 1877 – December 28, 1932) was an American tennis player who won three singles titles at the U.S. National Championships. Biography He graduated from The Roxbury Latin School, where he is celebrated a ...

, an American singles tennis champion, in 1926. In 1930, following an argument about her husband's dull ties, his wife made him one from silk dress material. Following Whitman's suicide in 1932, she travelled through Europe, purchasing fabrics that she brought back to

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

with the intention of launching a career making men's ties. Vescovi Whitman founded Countess Mara, her men's neckwear company, in 1935. While Mara was her second name, the company name might have been inspired by an 18th-century Kneller portrait of the Countess de Mar wearing a loosely tied Steinkirk cravat. LucilladeVescovi1923

Countess Mara ties featured several novel marketing decisions. Vescovi Whitman had the C.M. initials featured on the outside blade of each tie, ensuring that they were instantly recognizable. The ties were made in very limited quantities, typically only fifteen dozen per design, and they were comparatively expensive. This led to their becoming collector's items, sought after by celebrities and fashion-conscious businessmen. As a designer, Vescovi Whitman aimed to make her ties colourful, interesting and artistic, while avoiding spectacular and showy designs. She described her ties as "jungles" populated with trees, flowers and animals. However, her ties also featured a wide range of other subjects, including

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Egyptian hieroglyphs Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...

, the

Devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...

Lady Godiva Lady Godiva (; died between 1066 and 1086), in Old English , was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries. Today, she is mainly reme ...

, torn love-letters and

safety pins The safety pin is a variation of the regular pin which includes a simple spring mechanism and a clasp. The clasp forms a closed loop to properly fasten the pin to whatever it is applied to and covers the end of the pin to protect the user from th ...

. Other tie manufacturers, noticing her success, copied her business model and hired artists to imitate her tie designs. Vescovi Whitman did not mind this, saying in 1949 that being imitated had "expanded the acceptablity of the pictorial tie". In 1944 Countess Mara was awarded the

Neiman Marcus Fashion Award The Neiman Marcus Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Fashion was a yearly award created in 1938 by Carrie Marcus Neiman and Stanley Marcus. Unlike the Coty Award, it was not limited to American-based fashion designers. Recipients of t ...

in recognition of the influence its ties had had upon fashion. Among their most high-profile wearers were

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...

and

J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation � ...

Countess Mara Today

The Countess Mara brand was purchased in March 1998 by

, a major manufacturer and distributor of men's neckwear.NY Times, March 1998 Countess Mara belts, leather goods, neckwear, shirts,

sportswear Sportswear or activewear is clothing, including footwear, worn for sport or physical exercise. Sport-specific clothing is worn for most sports and physical exercise, for practical, comfort or safety reasons. Typical sport-specific garments ...

, and other products and accessories are retailed worldwide.

References

Clothing brands Fashion designers from Rome American women fashion designers Fashion accessory brands Clothing companies established in 1935 1935 establishments in New York City Menswear designers Neckties