Shauna Alterio is Stephen Loidolt’s work wife and real wife. And one of the most fascinating parts of creative coupledom (in our minds, anyway) is how two disparate visions can come together in one cohesive line—in this case, Forage’s assemblage of thoughtfully crafted bow ties, made from subdued florals, speckled wools, and in-your-face checks. Shauna talks us through a sort of Venn diagram of their influences. Stephen’s Set: “Something that we always joke about is that I’m quintessentially a girl, and Stephen’s quintessentially a guy. He drives a pick-up truck and loves to make things in his workshop. He loves things like these crazy old knives. The small wooden one was given to us by our friends who run Three Potato Four—it’s carved to look like a knife. Stephen also loves nautical stuff—and has a lot of nautical tattoos—and he collects a lot of books of old handwriting and type” Shauna’s Set: “I love a lot of color. Whenever I buy thread, pencils, or anything, I like to buy it in every single color. You can see a little box—it’s filled with paint samples from all the walls in our house that I can take with me to match colors. There’s a letterpress block of a bow—it’s one of the things that inspired us to first start doing lady bow ties. There’s also a cake topper—I have an enormous collection of them that I used for décor at our wedding. We both collect things that we love, and everything ends ups turning into inspiration for something else.” The Intersection (a.k.a. Forage!): “When it comes time for us to collaborate, we always do the same thing: We trust our gut. Whenever we try to predetermine something—say, a color—it never works, so we are very organic and work with the things that are around us. We love a masculine, traditional design for our packaging—there’s definitely an elegance to turn-of-the-century design that we really like. Then we can play a little bit more with fun patterns. We’re always collecting fabrics. I love to mix some floral in, and sometimes, if it’s too much, Stephen says, ‘I will not wear that.’ But sometimes he likes prints that are so traditional, and I say, ‘Stephen, that’s probably already a bow tie somewhere.’” Our Forage bow ties were so popular the first time around that we brought the duo back for edition #2 (in honor of our first birthday!). Go and get ‘em!

Stephen Loidolt and Shauna Alterio have had quite the history: They met some 13 years ago as undergrads at Kansas City Art Institute before ending up together at grad school at Cranbrook Academy in Michigan, later bopping around a bit, and eventually landing in Philadelphia. The two artists—Stephen’s background is in sculpture, and Shauna’s is in printmaking—have been major influences on each other’s work through the years, and Forage, a bow tie line they launched in the summer of 2010, is a full-blown collaborative effort. Every aspect of each tie—from the fabric-sourcing and hardware-attaching, to the tag-making and boxing—is hand-executed by the duo out of a rehabbed tire factory. Lest you think the ridiculously thoughtful approach might feel like a burden: “When we were first making the bow ties, it almost seemed like Shauna was most excited to be able to package something in these boxes that she had found,” Stephen says. The name for the line comes from the joy the two take in digging up vintage material, which helps keep the creation process feeling fresh. “For the first collection, we went to New York, and we told ourselves, ‘We better find fabric that we love, or we’re in trouble,’” Shauna explains. “At this antique mall, Stephen found this insane stash of plaids from the forties, and he was like, ‘You mean like this?!’” In honor of our birthday month, we’re bringing back some hits, like these guys. Check our the striped bow tie they made for us right now—just 35!

There is nothing cut-and-dry about a bow tie, at least in Shauna Alterio and Stephen Loidolt’s world. The two, who’ve masterminded a line of fresh, high-functioning neckwear out of an industrial Philadelphia studio, are constantly adjusting and reworking their Forage tie shapes, fattening up one style for a thicker knot and tweaking the ends of another to impart some asymmetry. Oh, and: This summer, they introduced a style for the ladies and are considering a miniaturized version for the little ones. Shauna gives us a look at their process. The bow tie the twosome made for us in April was such a hit that we brought them back to create a fall-friendly style. Check it out, in all its striped glory. “There are four shapes that we’re doing somewhat consistently. We have a traditional curved thistle shape—which is what we’re doing for the Of a Kind bow ties. It’s classic, but there’s a lot of play between exactly where that curve is and how large your bow is. We like that. Another shape we do is called a cricket. It’s straight, so whenever you’re tying it, the bow can be as narrow or wide as you like. It has a fat knot, and it’s more rumpled. Then there’s an arrowhead, which has tips on the end. A lot of people are weirded out by it because it’s not symmetrical—the tip sticks out a little bit more on one end than the other. The last is our girl shape, which is modified from a very fifties, super-thin bow tie. We make it longer.” “It’s a lot of trial and error. This is Stephen’s area—perfecting the pattern and coming up with the equation for how it will be sewn every single time. He loves that. We’ll talk about the kind of shape we want, and he’ll cut out different versions and sew them really quickly so we can look at them and compare them. People are always asking us for kids’ bow ties, but Stephen is very much a stickler that it has to be the kind that you tie yourself. I keep saying that a four-year-old is just going to rip that off. We’re always joking that, when we’re with friends who have a kid, we’re going to put a bow tie on him, and if he’ll keep it on for the day, maybe then we’ll go for it.”