IU law alumnus opens Billingsley Ties

Former IU law student Birk Billingsley said he developed an interest in nice ties while in law school, so after being both an Air Force officer and attorney with Krieg DeVault LLP, Billingsley became a tie designer.

Having no clothing manufacturing skills, Billingsley contacted a custom clothier he saw in Bloom magazine, who in turn forwarded his e-mail to Wallaya Diemer.

Diemer, who was the personal seamstress to former IU president Herman B Wells and now works in IU’s theater department, agreed to meet with Billingsley.

“The second we met, it was like we had known each other for 30 years,” Billingsley said.

And Billingsley Ties was born.

The first step for Billingsley and Diemer was not to design their product. They contacted Jonathan Barnbrook, a world famous graphic designer and typographer from London.

“I just approached him,” Billingsley said. “I sent him an e-mail and said, ‘We’re a tiny company. We have no money. We need a logo.’ He did the logo for us much less than what he would charge normal clients.”

Billingsley said they then searched for a silk mill and finally found one in the U.K. that met their quality standards.

“We then gathered what we considered to be the top ties in the world, and we gutted all of them,” Billingsley said. “We measured every possible dimension on all those ties.”

From these measurements, Billingsley and Diemer said they designed their own tie to be better than anything they saw. Billingsley said the quality of their silk and interfacing was much higher, the measurements were improved and it was completely hand-sewn.

“The best tie, if you look anywhere, is hand-sewn, but you’re never going to find a real hand-sewn tie,” Diemer said. “Usually there is some machine involved, though, so one thing that makes ours unique is that it is all hand-sewn. Everything.”

Under this system, each tie is individually numbered.

Paul Gosnell, an intellectual property attorney who works with Billingsley, bought the first tie.

“It became evident that it was going to be a high-quality product, so I thought I’d like to get one,” Gosnell said. “I actually bought two.”

Gosnell said the design and method of construction of Billingsley ties solves problems posed by ties he has owned in the past, such as wrinkling and proper length.

“They put a lot of effort into it,” Gosnell said. “Everything is hand-stitched. How often do you get a piece of hand-stitched clothing for $130? That’s a steal.”

With each pattern, Billingsley and Diemer’s intention is “to do a very limited run and never repeat it again.” The first pattern, “Attitude Indicator,” is still available on the Web site. “Stars and Stripes” recently debuted.

Billingsley said they have received significant attention from women in the past few weeks and are now designing ties for female attorneys.

Although they are not yet able to contribute large sums of money, all proceeds from the scraps are donated to charitable organizations.

On Oct. 19, Billingsley and Diemer donated head scarves and pillows made from silk scraps to the Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at St. Vincent.

“They were received with great excitement,” said Molly Giles, St. Vincent’s annual giving coordinator. “The kids are always in need of something that helps them feel like they’re at home and not in a hospital, and when you get a pillow, it’s a sense of being at home.”

Billingsley Ties also donated a tie to the Tom Crean and Andrew Davis Menswear Charity Auction. Another tie will be auctioned at the Shanti Charity Auction on Nov. 10 in San Francisco.

Billingsley said the company has a very small margin, but the goal was not to “get rich quick.”

“This is a risk,” Diemer said. “It’s the challenge.”