News: Say, what was the product again? Bunad tie?

Whilst whiling away a working day, I occasionally come across something that can be so remarkable that I sit up and wonder what the hell were they thinking. Today I’d like to share one of these findings with you. But first, we need to back up just a little…

May the 17th is coming up, and this is the Norwegian national day. A lot of parades, flag-waving and people dressed in regional variants of the national costume, or the “bunad” as it is called. These come in both female and male versions, and will usually look something like this:

So, enough background, you know what I’m on about now. The piece I wanted to share with you is made by a Norwegian company called SPTZBRGN (hipster abbreviation of Spitsbergen, the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway, don’t say blogs don’t teach you anything!). What they have come up with is promoted by the following photos. I’ll not let on what it actually is now, but rather let you, my dear eagle-eyed reader, observe, consider, perhaps pontificate, and possibly reveal. All will be revealed further down, so don’t go into a blue funk right yet.

“Look into my eyes, woman, can you feel my presence?”

“I will exert world-dominance from my secret lair deep inside this mountain”

“I may be evil, but I can do deep and thoughtful as well”

“Hey, even evil overlords can experience a sartorial failure, accept my ill-considered socks or die!”

“I can do all styles, even rustic”

Ok, did you see it? What they have come up with is a bunad-tie. That is, a tie, but with a pattern inspired by a bunad. Ok, so that’s nothing too remarkable, ties come in an unending variation of colours and designs, but what made me sit up and notice is the photography used to sell the tie. Or, to be more direct, the guy modelling the tie. Am I alone in thinking that you need to be a really intense, Bond-villanesque, bodice-ripper style baddie to wear one of these? It would appear so. It certainly doesn’t work for me. To be honest, I didn’t even notice the ties at all. And WellDressedGirlfriend agrees, so there. What do you think?

(Photos used without permission, borrowed from www.sptzbrgn.com)