Tie Breaker

By Catlin Dorset

April 28, 2014 10:25 AM PT

By Natalie Holtz

With the help of staffers at nine San Diego-area Jo-Ann Fabric stores, La Jolla-based menswear purveyor ZB Savoy Bowtie Co. created the world’s largest bow tie, unveiling it March 30 at the CicloSDias Festival in Pacific Beach.

Made with 250 yards of black and white polka-dot fabric, the seven-by-15-foot accessory earned a Guinness World Record.

“The bow tie is a wonderful way to be stylish and classy without taking yourself too seriously,” says Zach “ZB” Barnhorst, who runs the bow tie company by day and plays with his band, ZB Savoy and the Chivalry, by night. The 37-year-old from Point Loma started wearing bow ties to gigs to stand out from other musicians.

Using fresh patterns and atypical (non-silk) fabrics like cotton and burlap, Barnhorst is proving bow ties aren’t just for special occasions, Southern professors and children’s TV personalities (Mr. Rogers, we miss you) anymore.

Thanks to having its ties given as gifts to stars who attended this year’s Grammy Awards, the brand with the record-breaker has also been getting noticed by record makers. “Steven Tyler picked up our pink and white polka-dot Blondie bow tie and said, ‘I love this bow tie,” Barnhorst says. “Macklemore and Rob Dyrdek have product, too.”
zbsavoybowtieco.com